Appendix B Guidance on the Placement of Litter Bins and Dog Fouling Bag Dispensers

The following information is to provide guidance on how the Council decides if a litter bin or a Dog Fouling Dispenser request can be accommodated.

Litter Bins

As described on P.18 of the Litter Management Plan, the Council frequently receive requests for the placement of litter bins.  The placement of these items incurs a life time of resources which must be considered (cost of litter disposal & staff resource to service).

Litter Bin Schematic of How A Litter Bin Request is Considered

Note to consider regarding litter bin requests;

It is a long-standing policy of Kilkenny County Council to avoid placing litter bins in residential estates.  The Council would not have the resources to service a litter bin in each housing estate in the County, therefore it cannot favour one estate over another.  In previous times when litter bins were located in housing estates, the disposal of household rubbish was a frequent issue which is prohibited under the Litter Pollution Act and is further discussed on page 22 of the Litter Management Plan.

“The other issue is that it’s the Councils experience that litter bins often become a target for illegal dumping, that is, householders start filling the bin with household waste which is illegal under the Litter Pollution Act.  This impacts the bins capacity as the bin fills quicker, requiring a more frequent service, disposal costs associated with the bin increases and the household waste, unlike street litter, often can attract rodents as it becomes a source for food, which then becomes a public health issue”. 

As some communities in villages in the county service their own street bins, requests have been made to the MDO to remove street litter bins when dumping of domestic rubbish is problematic and a resolution cannot be found.  The Council works with community groups on an ongoing basis to resolve such issues as they occur.

Dog Fouling Bins and Dog Bag Dispensers

As described on P.22 of the Litter Management Plan, the Council frequently receive requests for the placement of litter bins and dog bag dispensers.  The placement of these items incurs a life time of financial cost which must be considered when determining if the request can be facilitated.  General street litter bins are preferred over specific dog fouling bins as the dog fouling bins can become odorous and unpleasant to service.  Dog walkers should use any bag and any bin, there is no requirement to have a specific bin for bags of dog faeces, these can be placed in a regular street litter bin.  Should the dog walker not pass a bin, it is expected that they bring it home for proper disposal.  While inner core areas of the city and municipal district towns are generally well catered with street bins, their frequency decreases in areas which may experience amenity use such as dog walking routes.  To strike a balance, a pilot project will commence in 2021, to promote “dog walking routes” which will be promoted as potential walks for dog walkers which have a bag dispenser and litter bin en-route.  If successful, this could be potentially be rolled out to more towns and villages in the county.  A dog friendly run/play area is also being proposed at the Dunmore Recreational Park, this will be adequately serviced for dog walkers also. As the issue of litter bins has been discussed above, the issues regarding dog bag dispensers will now be examined looking at the city and wider county separately as there are two different operations currently in place. 

City Area

Kilkenny City has approximately 23 bag dispensers located around the city as previously discussed on P.22 of the Litter Management Plan and approximately €10,000 is spent annually on the purchasing of the biodegradable plastic bags.  Originally, the purpose of the dispensers was to provide a bag for dog walkers who forgot their bag but high usage suggests that many dog walkers depend on these as their sole source of bags.  Like litter bins, the Council cannot provide a bag dispenser automatically when requested, as the cost of the bags and also the time to keep the dispensers stocked must be considered.  It is anticipated, that the “pilot dog walking routes” will be prioritised for 2021 and no more dispensers will be considered in the city until this pilot project is completed and reviewed, this will then assist the development a coherent strategy going forward regarding where additional bag dispensers are placed.

Wider County Area

In the municipal towns and villages, bag dispensers are serviced by the local community, usually, by the local Tidy Towns group.  Should a community group request the installation of a dog bag dispenser unit from the Council, an agreement is usually entered into, with the Council purchasing and installing the dispenser units and the community keeps the units stocked.  They purchase the bags direct from the supplier and they can apply for the Anti-Litter community grant to recoup expenditure.  This agreement has worked well to date.