COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

South Dublin County Council Crest

MEETING OF ENVIRONMENT, PUBLIC REALM AND CLIMATE CHANGE SPC

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

HEADED ITEM NO. 8

HEADED ITEM: Leo Magee

Solar Bin Trial Update Report

REPLY:

Solar bins -  Additional Report to SPC

A report was presented to the SPC meeting in May following completion of the 6 month trial carried out on the use of solar powered smart litter bins in Rathfarnham between November 2019 and May 2020.  The outcome of the trial in Rathfarnham Village shows that on average the servicing of litter bins can be reduced by as much as 85%.  The Council’s Public Realm Section currently services each bin every day (that is we inspect the bin and empty if it requires it).  The smart bin on the other hand sends an alert to staff indicating when it needs to be serviced, removing the need for the daily inspection.  The compactor feature reduces the frequency at which the bin needs to be serviced, in effect increasing the capacity of the bin through compaction.  The combined effect of the compactor in the bin and the smart technology is that the collection service can be planned to respond to alerts, and the frequency of service required can be reduced through this planning and also through compaction of the litter which has the effect of increasing the capacity of the bin.  The trial currently shows that some litter bins in the trial area continue to be serviced on occasions when they do not require it, that is they have not reached the pre-set full/alarm level.

We currently operate 5 litter bin/sideloader routes, servicing a total of 672 litter bins in on-street locations each day.  The breakdown of bins per route is as follows –

Route

Area

Bins in villages

Village location

Bins in other locations

 

Total bins

 

A

Tallaght to Rathcoole

18

Tallaght Village only

123

 

141

 

B

Tallaght to Firhouse

15

Tallaght Village only

154

 

169

 

C

Rathfarnham, Templeogue & Walkinstown

0

Rathfarnham Village completed under the trial.

144

 

144

 

D

Clondalkin to Palmerstown

30

Clondalkin Village only

72

 

102

 

E

Newcastle, Lucan & Palmerstown

25

Lucan Village only

91

 

116

 

 

 

88

 

584

 

672

 

Option

With Rathfarnham Village already done under the trial the option would be to include Tallaght, Lucan and Clondalkin in the area serviced by smart litter bins. These are the high footfall areas which regularly require bins to be serviced more than once per day, however the current structure of the service does not facilitate the servicing of a bin more than once per day.  This improvement to the service would resolve the problem which arises from time to time of litter overflowing from street bins in village centre locations.  The style of the bin would also bring a substantial improvement to the appearance of the litter bin service.  It is expected that a number of the 88 bins in town/village locations would not need to be replaced, where two or more bins have been provided in close proximity to each other to provide increased capacity (the solar powered bin will resolve this capacity issue through compaction of the litter).  It is expected that 70 solar powered bins would be provided to replace the 88 existing standard litter bins.  See related costs below.

Changes to service and potential savings

This proposal is to replace town and village centre bins in Tallaght, Lucan, Clondalkin and Rathfarnham with smart solar powered litter bins which would be serviced by village maintenance crews and not sideloader operatives.  This would enable the number of sideloader routes to reduce by one from 5 to 4.  The estimated saving from this (staff wages, provision of vehicle, fuel, ppe and materials) is €60,000 per year.

Cost of solar powered smart litter bin used in the Rathfarnham trial.

Potential income

The side panels of the bin can be rented out for advertising, or alternatively can be used for advertising the Council’s own business.  Kyron Street Furniture Ltd (the supplier of the bins in Rathfarnham) would control the advertising contracts, with 80% of the advertising income going to them and 20% going to the Council.  Income can vary and it is not always possible to rent the advertising space on the bin.  Kyron estimate an income of €300 per month from each bin with €60 going to the Council, which would offset the cost to hire or purchase the bin.  The 70 bins proposed for town and village locations would be expected to attract advertising interest due to their location, the estimated income from these calculated on the basis of €60 per bin per month would be in excess of €50,000 per year.  

Summary of option including costs, projected savings and potential income.