Sir, – Dublin City Council suggests that making rubbish bins or crates mandatory will help solve the litter problem in the north inner city (Dublin City Council official ‘sick of people’ saying capital ‘filthy’, August 2nd).
This rests on a false premise. Properly sealed rubbish bags put out the night before collection are not ripped open by birds: not in Dublin, and not in the many European cities where bags remain the norm in dense urban areas.
The real scourge in our area is illegal dumping, on which the council appears to have all but abandoned enforcement. Dumped bags are reportedly not routinely searched for evidence such as address labels, and residents’ requests for cameras at litter black spots in our area have been refused. With culprits neither tracked nor fined, there is no deterrent.
Mandatory bins would make dumping worse, not better. Most houses here have no backyard or no direct access to one, and many residents will not store bins in their kitchens or bathrooms as the council appears to suggest they should. Some who currently dispose of their rubbish legally in bags may simply join the ranks of the dumpers.
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The council is tackling a problem that does not exist while ignoring the one that blights our streets. – Yours, etc,
TOBIAS THEILER,
Phibsborough,
Dublin 7.
Sir, – I commute from the northside to the southside every day through Dublin city centre, and the neglect is now glaring. Litter whipping across the roads, bins overflowing, pavements filthy – the city looks like somewhere the councils have simply stopped minding. They must do better.
As a Dub, I’m embarrassed. When rubbish becomes a defining feature of a daily cross‑city commute, standards haven’t just slipped – they’ve fallen through the floor. Dublin deserves better. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN CURTIS,
Artane,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – Reading Lewis Kelly’s letter concerning dirty Dublin (Letters, August 4th), I couldn’t help thinking of a line from James Joyce’s poem Gas from a Burner, which he wrote en route to Trieste with Nóra and the children in September 1912.
The line goes: “and writing of Dublin, dirty and dear ...”
Written 114 years ago, one is tempted to say “plus ca change, plus c’est la méme chose” except that, in this case, it really wouldn’t apply, as Joyce found his city to be merely “dirty” whereas, in the 114 years since, it has moved on to the next level and become, in the eyes of many Dubliners and non-Dubliners, “filthy”. - Yours, etc,
SÉAMUS McCLELLAND,
Konstanz,
Germany.
