A PILOT PROJECT in Dublin city to add shelves to the outside of public bins to stop people from rummaging through rubbish in search for unreturned bottles has been launched today.

A total of 80 shelves (40 on the northside and 40 on the southside) will be rolled out around the city in the coming days and the operators of the scheme, Re-Turn, intends to expand it to regional cities in the future.

It has become common in Dublin and other Irish cities to see people, particularly those who are homeless, fishing out plastic bottles and aluminum cans to bring them at a Re-Turn machine to collect the deposit.

In an effort to stop people from rooting through the rubbish, the shelves - or what the Deposit Return Scheme operators call ‘surrounds’ – will act as an area where people can chose to “donate” the bottles to others.

The Journal previously reported that Dublin City Council were considering ways to “mitigate and discourage” people going through bins in search for plastic bottles.

Countries like Denmark and Germany have introduced similar infrastructure.

CEO of the Re-Turn scheme Ciarán Foley told reporters today that he didn’t believe that the behaviour would be “inevitable” but did admit that his team had considered it a possibility, given similar actions were seen in other European cities.

He said: “It varies from country to country. We have seen it in some of the countries I mentioned, and they use this solution. But that’s not done everywhere.

“I guess we wanted to go live and see how things panned out. We also wanted to work with Dublin City Council to make sure that when we did it, we did it right for Ireland.”

The shelves will be rolled out in other parts of the country at a later date. The Journal / Muiris O'Cearbhaill The Journal / Muiris O'Cearbhaill / Muiris O'Cearbhaill

It is also hoped that these shelves will also help to prevent plastic bottles and cans from being thrown away into general waste bins where they are not recycled. Additionally, it will give others a chance to collect the monetary deposit.

The bin surrounds have been manufactured by Hartecast, an Irish firm in Co. Wexford.

Welcoming the scheme, Lord Mayor of Dublin James Geoghegan said the project was to be launched in a “small part of the city” first and believes designs can be adapted in the future to fit more bottles.

“It’s always important to pilot the project first, see what the challenges are, and see can we do them a little bit better,” he said.

The Lord Mayor adding that it wasn’t to know if the behaviour would be encouraged considering the initial negative response with the rollout of the Deposit Return Scheme but defended Dublin City Council’s response.

He said the issue became prevalent during the summer and the Council moved to do away with plastic bin bags as rubbish had spread all around bins once they were ripped apart. He said he hopes that the shelves can be another way to respond to the issue.

Junior climate minster Ossian Smyth said he has taken bottles out of public bins before the collect the deposit and believes that this scheme will make that process easier.

“It’s a very simple innovation, it’s a practical thing, it’s good for people’s dignity, and it’s also going to help to increase the recycling rate,” he said.