Eyes in the Sky….Waste Monitoring and Enforcement

Mnister Naughten recently unveiled that Local Authorities and other State Agencies will be employing Drones to monitor waste disposal and bring enforcement proceedings against illegal dumpers. This is indeed welcome news, however a bit like any policing activity, feet on the ground are also required, and unfortunately the Minister has not addressed this issue.  Currently

enforcement of household waste seems to have been landed with the Waste Service Providers, who as we see, are checking bins before and after they are collected. Drone technology is excellent, but will it really work when a householder deliberately puts grey waste e.g nappies into their green or brown bin. The answer is simply no. However what drones may well be excellent for is scanning areas on collection days to discover what householders are not putting out brown bins or indeed grey bins allowing Local Authorities to quickly pin point what households are or are not putting out waste types. This technology will also be excellent for monitoring larger MUD complexes to see what bins are actually present, as many large MUD’s do not have brown bins. The Minister has provided funding to Local Authority for the purcahse of Drones and the idea has gained traction. At last month’s meeting of the Dublin South Central Area committee, Councillor Michael Mullooly of Fianna Fail put forward a motion calling on the council’s area manager to consider using drones “to protect and provide evidence of fly-tipping and dumping of waste”.

And while there were concerns raised re the invasion of privacy with drones potentially hovering over householders back gardens, the motion was passed. So next time you are putting that black bag of grey waste into the green or brown bin, remember someone may be “looking at you”!