New data laws and spot checks will allow councils to really “clamp down” on illegal dumping in their area, the Irish Waste Management Association has predicted. 

Dublin City Council have announced they will be carrying out spot checks in the inner city in an attempt of crackdown on illegal dumping in the area. 

People leaving their waste on the street for other people to clear up has been a regular complaint among residents and visitors for years. 

On The Hard Shoulder, Irish Waste Management Association Secretary General Conor Walsh said as many as one-in-20 people in Ireland are incorrectly disposing of their household waste. 

“80% of people have a wheelie bin service,” he said. 

“But 96% of people can account for their waste either by sharing bins with a neighbour, by use of prepaid bans, by use of a civic immunity site and they’d generally be the legal ways to manage your waste. 

“But there is a proportion of people who will illegally dump and a portion of people who will backyard burn.

“From the CSO data, that looks to be between 2 and 5%.” 

Bins on a path in Dublin. Picture by: NCBI. 

Until recently, it was very hard for councils to work out who was signed up for waste disposal services. 

Changes to legislation on data have changed that. 

“Under the new laws that came in, our members are legally obliged to provide data to the councils when the councils want data,” Mr Walsh said. 

“So, they take all the customer lists from an area and they look at those who are not on the list. 

“They find the eircodes where people don’t have a service [and] now they can call to those houses.” 

Recycling bins. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

The council will send staff door to door, demanding proof that the household waste is being disposed of legally.

“I think there are still people leaving bags on the streets and saying, ‘Let someone else clean it up,’” Mr Walsh said. 

“So, hopefully this initiative will be a really good way to clamp down on that.”

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Main image: Illegally dumped waste in Dublin. Picture by: Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland