Galway City Council to decide on future of Re-turn bin surrounds
The local authority has admitted that the installations are being misused for ‘coffee cups, cans and other forms of rubbish’
Galway City Council will decide later this year whether to expand the use of Re-turn bin surrounds, which it admits are being misused for coffee cups and other forms of rubbish.
The surrounds were installed on 12 bins between Eyre Square and the Claddagh last year as part of a pilot scheme co-funded by Re-turn, the operator of the Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).
They allow members of the public to place plastic bottles and aluminium cans in the surround rather than inside the bin, so someone else can collect them and claim a deposit of up to 25 cent.
The surrounds were introduced by Re-turn in response to reports of bin scavenging, with people breaking into or rummaging through bins in an effort to find returnable containers.
Dublin City Council has spent €155,000 replacing locks on bins and has claimed that additional clean-ups required as a result of bin scavenging is costing the local authority around €1,000 a day.
A spokesperson for Galway City Council said there was “very little evidence” of bin scavenging or damage to bins in Galway, but admitted that bin surrounds were being used for “coffee cups, cans and other forms of rubbish”.
They said “information conversations” had taken place between the council’s head of litter management and outdoor cleaning crews regarding bin scavenging and related issues.
When the pilot scheme was launched in September 2025, Re-turn said surrounds had been installed on 20 bins in Galway city. However, the spokesperson put the number at 12, stretching from Eyre Square to Shop Street and the Claddagh.
Re-turn is scheduled to carry out a review of the pilot after 12 months, and Galway City Council will decide whether to expand the use of bin surrounds to other parts of the city following that review.