Dublin City Council to expand 'smart bins' to stop scavenging and improve collection Dublin City Council are planning to expand the prevalence of smart bins around the city, which cannot be accessed by 'bin scavengers' in search of Re-turn bottles and cans The expansion of smart bins around Dublin city aims to increase efficiency and deter ‘bin scavengers’ in search of Re-turn bottles and cans. Speaking at the Climate Action and Urban Resilience SPC Executive Manager Derek Kelly addressed the prevalence of people accessing bins and ripping open plastic bags to avail unused drink deposits. He admitted that the rims attached to some public bins have not been particularly successful, as “there’s coffee cups, banana skins, you could find half a pizza in it”. He admitted that many of the 3,500 bins Dublin City Council provide are easy to access for scavenging. “You can put your arm through the opening and just pull the lock from the inside and open it,” he said. While some people are “very clean” in their method of searching for bottles and cans, others “leave it in a state” and the council end up spend “€500 or €600” on an operation to clean up a bin that was overturned “in the hope for finding a single bottle for 15 cent”. While Mr Kelly said they don’t have a “silver bullet” for addressing this ongoing issue, he did say that smart Bigbelly Bins could point a way forward. Mr Kelly said they are working on a proposal to replace their standard bins with the Bigbelly option. These smart street bins include an internal compactor that holds more waste and allows the council to plan their collections more efficiently. Although this proposal is not directly about addressing scavenging, Mr Kelly explained the fact that they are locked