Status: LIVE (concept stage)

Project Stage(s): Concept

Trial Stage: Live 

(What are the Project Stages?)
(Why are trials removed?)

CHALLENGE:

This project has arisen from the current City Challenge on Dumping and Waste.  

There are many areas in Dublin and nationally where the use of wheeled bins for the presentation of waste is not possible due to the physical characteristics of the locality and the availability of waste storage space within premises.

In these areas, plastic bags may be used to store and present waste for kerbside collection by authorised waste collectors, and you can see a map of these locations below. 

The red boundary is the 'Central Commercial District' and the red dots below represent bag collection streets (with about half of them inside the above Central Commercial District).

However the use of plastic bags for the on street storage and presentation of waste causes significant issues in respect of the creation of litter through the failure of such bags through mishandling or interference from vermin and animals. The appearance of waste bags presented for collection also detracts from the streetscape and visual amenity of the city generally.

PROPOSITION:

Dublin City Council sought innovative solutions to better manage the on street storage and presentation of household and commercial waste in Dublin via a pre-commercial procurement tender (PCP Tender).

An entry selected for trialling was 'BagBin' which proposes a container which can be folded flat when not in use, and then unfolded to create a temporary enclosure or 'bin' in which to store the bags. They are a short-term, shared, bag waste storage covering solution that protects waste from the elements and animal interference. When collapsibled and folded flat, they are stored on-street, hanging from an 'BagBin post'. 

You can see some further information on the website that the company created.

The proposal is this:

1. Customers continue to present their waste only at the appropriate day and time.
2. 'BagBins' are stored onstreet, at an onstreet 'BagBin station'. Each BagBin would be marked with the name of the particular waste collectors serving that location. (So if there were 3 waste collectors at a particular location, each provider would have its own BagBin on the post. Each BagBin can hold several waste bags and the aim is that each waste collector would have enough Bagbins per post to meet the customer needs in that location.)
3. Customers remove the relevant BagBin which is marked with the logo of their particular waste collector.
4. They open out the BagBin to form the shape of a circular bin and position it on the footpath nearby.
5. They then place their bag(s) inside the enclosure. Others who also use that same waste collector can then add further bags to that same BagBin until it reaches capacity. If full, they can take another BagBin from the post. 
6. Upon arrival, the waste collector lifts the BagBins marked with their logo, and would place the waste bags into the (unchanged) waste truck.
7. The waste collector then re-folds and re-hangs the empty BagBins onto the nearby post, ready to be reused. 

TRIAL DESCRIPTION:

We are trialling this product/approach at one location in order to learn more about the pros and cons of the approach. 

We wish to learn more about these aspects:

• Locating and impacts (visual, mobility, etc)
• Using the 'BagBin station' and the 'BagBin' itself 
• General treatment 

You can anytime see BagBin trials at the 7 locations below. However if you wish to see them in use, you're best visit at the below times mentioned.

• Commerical users - blue markers on the below map - businesses will be using BagBins every evening from around 5pm. 
  • 1 on South Anne Street, Dublin 2
  • 2 on Drury Street, Dublin 2
  • 1 on Capel Street, Dublin 7
• Residential users - green markers on the below map - residents will generally place out their waste on late Monday evening or early Tuesday morning (as their designated collection day is Tuesday).
  • 3 close together on Reginald Street / Gray Street in Dublin 8

These trials will be removed in late April / early May 2022, and then reviewed.

DECISION:

The full report from this trial can be found here.

NEXT STEPS:

Dublin City Council will revisit this solution in approximately 6 months, during which time it may have further matured and developed solutions to some of the aspects raised in this report.

PROJECT LINKS:

• BagBin website

RELATED PROJECTS:

• City Challenge - Dumping & Waste
• Shared Bins
• Waste Search Tool

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

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