We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
WHILE THE NUMBER of cans and plastic bottles on streets has fallen since the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme, overall litter levels did not reduce last year.
That’s according to Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), which finds Dublin North Inner City bottom of the pile for littering, with Dublin City Centre just one position above it.
Overall littering at the end of 2024 was on a par with levels 12 months before.
Among the least littered areas, Naas finished atop the rankings for the third time in four years, ahead of Kilkenny and Monaghan town.
An Taisce, who conduct the surveys on behalf of IBAL, praised Naas on an achievement “that didn’t happen overnight” and cited the recently opened Naas Plaza among many sites that were “spotless”.
In all 60% of the towns and cities surveyed were deemed ‘clean’.
Killarney, which outlawed disposable coffee cups in 2023, was one of the most improved towns last year, rising from 14th to 4th in the rankings.
While Galway and Waterford were among the cleanest cities, generally, cities tended to be far more littered than smaller towns, with built-up areas occupying all but one of the bottom 10 places in the IBAL league table.
Limerick and Mahon in Cork saw some improvement on previous years.
Dublin’s North Inner City was the only area to be branded ‘seriously littered’.
According to the inspectors, “vast quantities of loose food and alcohol related litter had been discarded” near Emmet Road in Dublin, while Sherrard Street Upper in the Inner City suffered from “bags of domestic rubbish, the contents of which have been ripped open and scattered about”.
Another blackspot was Crinian Strand, a short stretch of residential housing “with large household items e.g. mattresses / furniture discarded along the pavement, along with at least a dozen black sacks of rubbish – the contents of which were being scavenged by seagulls.”
IBAL says these findings strengthen its case for a ban on “bag bins” in the city.
The ban came into force in south inner city last week, with an extension north of the Liffey planned for the summer.
It should be noted that there was a fall in 2024 in the number of sites within cities and towns that were deemed ‘litter blackspots’, which IBAL says suggests that local authorities were generally more effective in tackling urban dumping and in addressing sites that had previously been highlighted.
The survey also revealed that the prevalence of plastic bottles and cans in the 500+ sites monitored had halved since the Deposit Return Scheme was introduced last year.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
People ripping rubbish bags apart all over the inner city looking for cans and bottles, and leaving the place in a worse mess than it already is.
@Gerard Carey:
Scavenging in bins.is now a daily sight.
We have turned into a dumpster society since these recycling bins went up.
People have no choice but to bring them back to get the large deposit they paid on purchase.
This attraction is what’s causing others to Scavenge..
The people pay dearly for bin collections,yet have to do more work,and more recycling .
Bin charges should be greatly reduced not increased.
@Mary.E.: Waste disposal across the board should be in public ownership and free for everyone. It’s absurd how many barriers we’re putting up through either financial or extra effort just to get rid of ordinary household waste.
Ireland is a very littered country full stop. Forget your IBAL surveys there’s no need for surveys. Look on the streets, on the roadside, the mountains, greenways, blueways, ditches, forests – LITTER EVERYWHERE!
@Thomas Meaney: when the grass verges are cut on the motorways and side roads the true extent of the littering is exposed
@Thomas Meaney: it’s a lack of respect by many in society for others and their country! Disgusting habit!
@Thomas Meaney: you really notice it when you go to Spain France Portugal
@Orban Orban: litter can be atrocious there
@Thomas Meaney: you’re right and from what I can see it’s getting worse.
Particularly amongst young people.
We need another antilitter campaign.
It worked before we just need a reminder.
@Fergus O’Donnell: totally, no campaigns in years. I vaguely remember one back in the 90s maybe. The amount of people throwing things out of car windows on country roads is disgusting. Complete disregard for others and our natural surrounds. Beauty dies where litter lies!
@Orban Orban: or Denmark where I am now.
@Thomas Meaney: Denmark one of the cleanest countries I have worked in. Ireland is fil thy compared to it. Can’t see why anyone would be attracted to visit Ireland.
@Fergus O’Donnell: I know, how about lots of receptacles everywhere for putting rubbish and litter in to that are easy to find and emptied on a regular basis, Even have them on public streets? we could even have separate ones for recyclable waste. And have enough of them so they aren’t always overflowing with waste, I thinks there are a few billion euros lying around to do so. But somehow the government hasn’t figured out that might actually work. No offence, but an antilitter campaign also needs to have somewhere to actually put the litter.
In fairness it doesnt help that especially in the summer when we do get nice weather or during events etc bins arent being emptied to cope with the extra litter….its not defending the people who litter or anything but it doesnt help the situation. I don’t think we needed this return scheme personally, not when households are being charged cartel style pricing for bin collections including recycling bins. Some people will say the scheme works, others will say its just another attempted cash grab for people from people……
@Patrick Newell: North inner city Dublin is one of the more deprived parts of ireland. The return scheme means you don’t need to pay for as many green bag collections as you have less recycling. Especially after Xmas with all the booze cans and bottles. So it can actually work out cheaper for you, it does for me anyway because of the scheme.
@eoin fitzpatrick: True but sadly we are still being ripped off badly by bin collections. Great the scheme works for you, as I said I have had mix views from people on it. Long as they dont try turn it into another get rich scheme for a mate of a politician like we do everything else in ireland it might work out
@Patrick Newell: refuse collectors will charge more as they say the rubbish is less value with out plastic or aluminium
@eoin fitzpatrick: it’s the opposite for me. I’m paying more now for my bins since this scheme came in. My bin charges increased even though I’m putting less in it as the bin company was making money on the cans that were in the green bin.They have lost that revenue now and upped their fees to compensate. I also now have to pay to bring my cans to the machines to get my money back. So this scheme ended up costing us more
@Ger Whelan: which bin company is that?
@Patrick Newell: no public bins in Tokyo and no rubbish on the streets. It’s a cultural thing. Irish people don’t see an issue with throwing their rubbish on the streets.
@Patrick Newell: It is a get rich scheme, always has been. Do you really think the people who put up plastic election posters everywhere, actually care about reducing plastic waste? Lol. It’s a racket, like everything else they do.
@Ger Whelan: Why do you have to pay to bring your cans\bottles back? Don’t you go to the supermarket, off-licence or wherever anyway?
@eoin fitzpatrick: the one that rhymes fanta
@Wolfgang Bonow: No not that often we get the shopping delivered. So now we have to actually go out of our way and drive the 20 minutes to the nearest return machine. More than a few times the machines have been full when we got there
@Patrick Newell: It already is.. Who owns Re-Turn? Who is his brother?
If the government wanted to clean the place they would have free to use community bins like in Europe but they privatised the bins and just want to make money
@Pork Hunt: Community Bins are not free to use in Europe, everyone pays for rubbish removal, and I mean everyone, also pay for water
@Pork Hunt: If the bins are privatised how do the government make money?
@Peter Byrne: In Germany municipalities often manage waste services directly or through public agencies. In France, local authorities typically oversee waste collection and disposal, often with public entities carrying out the work. In Sweden, municipalities are responsible for waste collection, but private companies often handle treatment and recycling. Spain and Holland have a hybrid model. UK operates hybrid which treats councils as companies but rates are paid from council tax. Ireland has 80+ private business managing waste disposal. We /they ship most of it to the UK, Netherlands, Germany etc…. because as usual.. we’re are not able.
I live on the edge of North inner city Dublin and its depressingly bad. North Strand East Wall area destroyed with dumped rubbish it would make you want to move out of the area. I’m glad the deposit scheme is working for bottles and cans but drastic action is required by the council to sort out the rubbish problem. Bin tags are cheap, there are no excuses for dumping bags of rubbish, there should be serious consequences for it.
@eoin fitzpatrick: It isn’t a “rubbish” problem, it’s a people problem.
@FlipBip: When changing behaviour using shame became a no no many self depriving and self impoverishing behaviour got a go ahead from the very people who complain about inequality.
@thomas molloy: very true Thomas
There aren’t enough bins in public places.
@Iano C: that is not an excuse, and in fact there are plenty bins, people are too lazy to use them. Aren’t enough bins is a flippant answer
@Peter Byrne: Bins need to be emptied more regularly, esp durimg tbe summer or events where large amounts of people will be in a place.
@Iano C: people tend to dump bags of household waste around the public bins as they won’t pay for proper disposal. I’m not sure what the solution is but councils need to look to European cities and see how it’s done there, as it’s a complete and utter failure in parts of Dublin currently.
I live in Dublin’s north inner city and the almost complete elimination of bottle and can litter is very noticeable. For that reason alone I’m happy with Return. The bin bags are indeed still an issue and I hope underground public domestic waste bins may be a solution here.
@Name: only reason they are not on the streets is because there are homeless picking them up trying to scrape a few cents together. In the meantime there are families putting them back into the recycling bin because they cannot store them undamaged until next shopping day, and to the ldl0t who proposed keeping the empty one in the food cupboard that is unsanitary and dangerous
It was a pointless scheme in the first place as the majority recycle our bottles and cans. Plus only re-turn were the only ones to benefit and the waste management companies will increase charges for their services. New government will have no greens this time. Dare I say it but thanks be to God!
@Keith Russell: yep no greens but you’re all in for a shock when you realise you’ll still have carbon taxes, this deposit scheme, cycle lanes, etc. etc. all parties have some kind of green agenda.
@eoin fitzpatrick: yeah, let’s see what happens when they realise what happened to the Greens because of their policies could as easily happen to them unless the reverse some of those policies…in particular the DRS stealth tax
@Keith Russell: we actually over 40% of bottles and cans end up on the street. And now have a return scheme for bottles and cans, local authorities should do something about disposable coffee cups, which should be banned completely
@Keith Russell: A scheme by Ossian Smyth of the Greens which made Millionaire Drinks Industry families even wealthier & gave them a Monopoly on the Drinks industry. No answers around salaries & bonuses or what happens to the Millions of Euros unclaimed. Letting the Drinks Industry design the scheme, then allow them to form a Ltd Company with themselves as Directors & Shareholders was a massive stroke that needs a Tribunal to investigate. Let’s not forget Ossian Smyth couldn’t answer questions on the Scheme on four occasions in the Dail, this being the Minister in charge, totally incompetent or totally in cahoots. It is a disaster environmentally as people are spending time driving in cars causing pollution to go to shops to recycle their waste, which they were already recycling in bins.
Remember that if you want to put an annex in your garden you can’t on of the grounds it will put extra strain on services.
Yet many houses and flats are overcrowded some with multiple families living with them. Added with cultural differences when comes to waste.
When bins are full it ends up thrown somewhere illegally.
Sorting out housing would stop a lot of waste on our streets.
Cut dole by 5% for every rank a town slips on the litter scale.
Inner City Dublin would be beautiful!
Dog owners for the most part clean up after their dogs but have to walk for miles in walk areas with a bag in order to dump it
Roma gypsies are the new seagulls
Shock horror. DRS was never about recycling/litter. It was only ever about milking the Irish people for as much as inhumanely possible.
@Ross: Yep. Plastic waste, like cardboard, is a commodity. They have mandated that the people of this country, do free labour for a private, profitable company. That’s what it’s all about. They don’t give a damn about reducing waste or carbon emissions. https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/circularity/sectoral-modules/plastics/average-yearly-price-of-plastic-scrap-eur-tonne
@Ross: If you get the money back, how are you being ‘milked’?
@Me Me: can you say with all honesty that you have returned 100% of every bottle you’ve been forced to pay a deposit on?
For every unreturned bottle/can, some gunt at the top who doesn’t give a sh!t about anyone other than themselves gets paid for it.
Less plastic , more money for return quango company, more rubbish looking for cans and more broken glass. Thanks eamon
@Pork Hunt: well as a member of our local Tidy Towns, the Return Scheme has had a dramatic effect on the number of bottles and cans on the streets for your information, and the scheme should be extended to glass bottles. But of course a lot of people dont see the amount of litter discarded anyway. Government should target disposable coffee cups, which are a scourge, and should be banned, along with all forms of vaps
Council used to take away 2 bulk items a year in the UK (“mattresses and furniture”) Simply luxurious service. oh well Ireland another fail.
@Thesaltyurchin: They still do, what happens now is that the couches, mattresses are thrown out on the green area & they ring the Council & their local TD complaining & a truck is sent out to collect it. I see it happening every week, different cohorts of society, nearly always the ones with all the free time on their hands.
People that litter are the absolute dregs of society
It’s local s c umbags on the scratcher who are littering.
Not decent hard working people
First this is a problem of the people: in North Inner City seem to be no feeling of responsibility for others or the environment – esp. by dog owners. Second there is no enforcement of the law, and people know that.
But then, ie. in Killarney Street were 4 waste bins – now there is only 1. Why?
I see a lot of work by City Council to keep Killarney Street clean – there is even a dog toilet, which is rarely used.
At the end it comes back to a change of attitude by the people. That this is possible, one can see in Ballybough or Dublin 8, where people took this problem in their own hands. Until then there should be more bins on the street and a stricter enforcement of laws.
More Litter warden and increase the fines.
Make household bin charges free for everyone. The only way to make a significant reduction in litter.
We’ll never have an NHS but a politician who brings on free bins will be elected for life.
@Ronan Mc: It was never “free” for everyone. These things cost so the hard working tax payer will end up footing the bill.
It was just another tax
Would have been better if the 15 cents wasnt added on
Then you would have seen a difference
@John Mcmahon: There was 5p on bottles many years ago. System worked fine.
@Me Me: you are right, there was, but it was not charged by an government employed body like Return who only crush them as soon as they are put in the machine, which was something the public was doing anyway with their recycle bins. It was on the glass bottles of the time that the deposit was on and charged by the individual dairies and beverage companies. When the bottle was returned, rinsed, those companies actually sterilised them and most importantly reused them. Break the bottle, you lost the deposit, and it went towards replacing the broken bottle.
@Me Me: a deposit which was put on by the individual dairies and beverage companies of the time, who actually iwned the bottles in the first place, so that they got the bottles back so they could be reused. Not crushed in the Return machines like the current deposit scheme, which was something most people were doing anyway with the more than adequate recycling collection services we have
Great scheme
another one of Ryan’s taxes and great ideas showing its merit..
@William O leary: except for the families who cannot store the empty containers undamaged and are disposing them in the recycling bin…..no merit in that.
@Pat Barry: i mean if you can’t figure out how to store a bag of empty bottles and cans, you’re in for a tough life
Litter levels may be unchanged, but where is Dublin City Council and the others when we need them ?
@RIP: Dublin City Council doesn’t throw litter on the streets, that is down to people who could care less about where they live
Sales down massively jobs on the line there was no need for it I fear we may lose some big companies stock level through the roof
Typical negative spin out against the deposit scheme when actually it’s working really well, it’s just the people that are getting dirtier. North inner city an awful trash can.
Bring problem is cost of bins to get collected i dont buy cans and bottle to much but just put them in recycle out side my home . Lots of products get in supermarkets cant recycle at home so ends up in bin. What i pay for rubbish every month is too expensive and i only put waste bin out once month half full so try buy good.
Yes it is just another tax on people was never going stop some people’s bad habits.
It can be linked to the type of people that live in heavily littered areas. Poorly educated with no respect for their own area. Obviously not everyone but enough to leave the place seriously littered.
have your say