Families are being woken up early in the morning to an “unbelievable smell” because of bin collections. 

In theory, bin lorries are not allowed to collect bins before 6am. 

However, local councillors across the country have been inundated in recent weeks by irate constituents who have been woken up at the crack of dawn. 

“I represent the Cobh municipal district,” Cllr Sheila O'Callaghan told The Hard Shoulder. 

“At a full council meeting last Monday, a motion was put forward calling on the environmental section of Cork County Council to enforce the start time of 6am for domestic waste collections.” 

A waste collection bin lorry and bin men on a residential street.

Cllr O’Callaghan said bin lorries’ safety beepers make “a lot of noise” when they reverse in the dead of night and young families have been especially impacted. 

“Families with babies and young children find this disruption very annoying.” she said. 

“It’s unacceptable to have trucks entering estates at 4 and 5 am - which is the middle of the night to most families.”

In Ballymun, Dublin, the bin lorries also come early in the morning and locals feel equally irate about being woken up so early. 

“They come at twenty to seven in the morning,” one woman told Newstalk reporter Henry McKean.  

“Twenty to seven - that’s actually what time they come at.” 

Weather

The unseasonably hot weather in the capital means the bins emit an unpleasant odour when emptied. 

“I tell you, the smell is unbelievable up where I live,” she said. 

“It’s like sewage.”

Not everyone was so unhappy; another woman who said she had been woken up at 6am by bin lorries said it did not bother her. 

“I’m happy with my bins being collected,” she said. 

“Our bin has flies in it, so it has to go.” 

Bin companies contacted by Newstalk have yet to comment.

Main image: Bin men empty refuse into a bin lorry. Picture by: Alamy.com