‘Unsightly’: Solar bins sought in Longford to stop wildlife ravaging through rubbish

Calls have been made for existing public bins in Drumlish Village to be replaced with solar-powered litter bins in a bid to prevent wildlife from ravaging through waste and leaving it strewn along the roads. 

In proposing the motion at a recent meeting of Granard Municipal District, Cllr David Cassidy said “Local businesses have been contacting me about this.

“It’s been an issue for years, and probably exists in most villages, whereby as soon as the local authority empties the bins, people come up and fill up the bins straight away with their own domestic waste. You’re not going to stop the people from filling the bins so what I’m looking for is some kind of solution to at least stop the wildlife from pulling the waste out of the bins.” 

Cllr Cassidy acknowledged the difficulty in monitoring the abuse of public bins by people using them for their own domestic waste but said he could fully understand the frustrations of the businesses having to deal with the consequences.

Cllr Garry Murtagh seconded the motion, pointing out that rubbish strewn in public areas by wildlife was “unsightly” for a “constantly developing” village with strong tourism ambitions. 

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In her response, Director of Services, Barbara Heslin, began by commending the roads team for their work in “constantly emptying the bins on a regular basis and keeping Drumlish clean and tidy”.   

She added that they had spoken with the team in the environment department of Longford County Council who said the proposal to convert the seven public litter bins in Drumlish Village to solar powered, compactable bins was “considered unsuitable” for a number of reasons. 

Ms Heslin said the existing bins were “already in-situ and fit for purpose” and that to replace them with solar powered compacting bins would result in an additional  cost in excess of €2,000 + vat per bin unit. For all seven public bins in Drumlish Village to be converted would result in a cost of over €14K. 

Another added that there would be an increased service, operational and maintenance costs associated with the proposed new bins that they wouldn’t have with the traditional bins they would usually use. “This means we would have to enter into a third-party contract for the monitoring and the upkeep of those bins” she told the meeting.  

Ms Heslin went on to explain that the issue of health and safety was another factor to take into consideration. She said, “there is a risk to individuals lifting them because of their compact weight”. 

Senior Executive Engineer Richard Smith also stated in the official response to the motion that an “internal health and safety assessment has recommended avoiding future installations of compactable bins due to the risks associated with manual handling of excessive collection weights.” 

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Ms Heslin told the meeting, “there’s a routine for emptying the bins in Drumlish and the inappropriate use of bins for domestic waste has been observed but converting to the compact bins will not address that issue. We will continue in Longford County Council to look at unauthorised dumping throughout the county and address unauthorised dumping across the county through ongoing public education and awareness campaigns, together with enforcement measures where appropriate.”

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme