Cork councillor: Wheelie bin system ‘not fit for purpose’

A call has been made to Cork City Council to launch an investigation into alternative waste management systems across city-centre areas.

The Social Democrats councillor for the Cork City South Central ward, Niamh O’Connor, has submitted a motion to the local authority regarding the issue, which she said has been placed on the agenda for September’s environment, water, and amenity strategic policy committee (SPC) meeting.

Ms O’Connor’s motion is calling on Cork City Council to investigate alternatives to the use of wheelie bins in densely populated areas of the city, as the current system is “not fit for purpose”.

In her submission, Ms O’Connor highlighted how, in certain areas of the city, there are footpaths blocked by dozens of bins, ultimately posing “a safety risk to walkers by rendering said footpaths unusable”.

Speaking to The Echo, Ms O’Connor said that the council could follow suit with trials for alternative systems undertaken in Dublin.

“I am looking for an investigation into different options,” said Ms O’Connor. “In the city centre, it’s often not possible for homeowners to store bins anywhere other than on the footpath outside their home. [We need] a solution to free up footpaths in the city, particularly for vulnerable people, [because] this causes lots of footpaths to be completely impassible.

“What they’re doing in Dublin is they are rolling out large compacting waste bins which you have a fob for; so you scan your fob and that’ll give you access. It’s not just a case that it’s an open bin, that wouldn’t fly; these are self-contained bins that are specially made for this,” she added.

“These [compactors] are above ground, so they’re not as pleasant to look at, but are still far superior to hundreds of individual bins [that] we have at the moment.

“Cork [City Council] could look for an update from Dublin [City Council] on how that’s going.”

Ms O’Connor further highlighted how the current system of placing a wheelie bin outside a home contradicts the council’s investment into the improvement of Cork’s public realm.

“The council have [planned] to upgrade a load of footpaths, but it’s going to be a huge waste of money if we can’t use them,” said Ms O’Connor.

“Douglas St, in particular, the planned public realm works look really great, but if nothing is done about it, there will be a load of bins in the middle of it — it’s not going to work. It would have to be looked at in terms of who would pay for the units themselves, but we won’t know until we start thinking about it.

“We could trial [these compactor bins] somewhere and see if it works. I can’t see why people would be against it.”