Plans to ban the use of bin bags by thousands of households across north Dublin from next month have been scrapped by Dublin City Council following protests against the move.
Residents of streets in Stoneybatter, Phibsborough, Smithfield and Broadstone had been told they would not be able to leave plastic refuse sacks instead of bins on the street for collection from October 17th.
Households that defied the ban were facing fines of €250 if they continued to leave bags for collection. However, the council has now decided to suspend the move and no longer has a date for its implementation.
The council had planned to make streets in the area “bag free” from July, but following backlash from residents whose homes could not easily accommodate wheelie bins, it agreed to postpone until October and initiate a public consultation process on the plans.
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It is understood that more than three-quarters of residents who responded to the consultation opposed the move. Residents in the Dublin 7 area also held a series of protests in recent months objecting to the ban on the use of bags.
Local Labour TD Marie Sherlock welcomed the scrapping of the bag ban. “This reflects the depth of frustration felt across communities. We’ve seen hundreds of people turn up to public meetings and protest during the summer,” she said.
“The reality is we have to have a waste management strategy for communities that have very small houses. There was a reason why people had bin bags, and we have to respect and acknowledge that, and we have to work with those local communities to ensure we have an appropriate waste collection strategy for those areas.”
Green Party councillor Feljin Jose said the removal of the use of bin bags cannot go ahead until there is a change in national legislation to allow the council to seek tenders for a collection service, which would facilitate the use of communal bins in residential areas.
“At the moment it isn’t possible to implement a shared bin system because there are so many operators in the market. Until we move away from that system, imposed by Department of the Environment, to one where there is one collector for an area, overseen by the council, it won’t be possible to end the use of bags.”
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The bag ban has already been implemented in two areas of the city centre. In December 2025, it was introduced in the areas around Temple Bar and Grafton Street and the streets to its east and west. Last May, the ban came into force in the north inner city from Amiens Street to Church Street and the Liffey quays to Dorset Street.
Both areas are primarily commercial, and on-street waste compactors, similar in size to small caravans, were installed to facilitate premises that could not accommodate wheelie bins.
The Dublin 7 area designated for the ban is considerably larger than the two city areas, running from the Phoenix Park to Dorset Street and the north quays to Royal Canal, just north of Mountjoy Prison. The area is predominantly residential, and the council has determined large on-street compactors would not be suitable.
Instead, it said private waste collection companies would offer a range of “approved reusable receptacles” to households. These included standard wheelie bins, smaller 80-litre wheelie bins and 45-litre caddies.
Large on-street or underground communal bins are not planned, the council said, due to “significant challenges” in relation to “location maintenance, ownership, servicing arrangements and local acceptance”.
Legislation requiring the use of bins instead of refuse sacks came into force in 2016, but thousands of Dublin residents and businesses were given a temporary derogation from the rule because their properties were unsuitable for wheelie bins.
The derogation has to be removed to comply with national and European waste management requirements and “improve street cleanliness, reduce litter and vermin, and support better recycling and waste segregation across the city”, the council said.
