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DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL is set to spend €1.6 million on the removal of discarded chewing gum in public areas.
The local authority is seeking tenders for a contract to remove gum from footpaths and pedestrianised zones throughout litter blackspots in its administrative area over the next three years.
It expects to spend €1.6 million plus Vat on these services, according to tender documents.
The huge cost of removing chewing gum from public areas comes despite recurring awareness campaigns run by Dublin City Council in recent years, which were intended to encourage responsible disposal of gum.
The campaigns have involved waste-management personnel handing out free gum wraps to pedestrians in the city centre. According to the local authority’s website, “The public’s behaviour in disposing of gum litter responsibly has improved dramatically.”
However, the National Littering Pollution Monitoring System for Dublin City Council showed earlier this year that chewing gum remained the main food-related litter issue in the capital.
“Dublin City Council proposes to establish a framework agreement for three years, with an option to extend for a further year, for the provision of chewing gum removal services from specified areas around Dublin City Council’s administrative area,” stated the tender notice.
“The requirements of the contract are the complete removal of chewing gum deposits from footpaths and pedestrianised areas within the specification of requirements…”
Previous tender documents have identified particular blackspots for chewing-gum litter in Dublin City. These include Henry Street and Mary Street, O’Connell Street, and North Earl Street.
Specialist firms typically use steam and detergent to disintegrate and dislodge chewing gum that has been discarded in public places. Remaining residues are vacuumed by specialised machinery, which can remove up to 700 pieces of gum per hour.
Interested parties have until December 11 to bid for the contract.
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Just ban the gum like Singapore
@Mohamed AlKhalifa: exactly. And let the manufacturers come back when they have something similar that degrades better.
@Mohamed AlKhalifa: it’s not banned. You can chew it, you just can’t buy it there.
@Al Madzer: They probably don’t spit out their gum on the paths of their city, though.
How many fines have ever been handed out ? Who hands them out ? Fine the manufacturers of chewing gum.
@Martin Sinnott: imagine that was your job, to ensure all chewing gum litterbugs were brought to justice. Should there be a Garda taskforce or should they recruit civilian volunteers? No doubt there’d be queues of interested parties anyway
@Martin Sinnott: or just tax the shti out of it like everything else.
@Martin Sinnott: or tax the shti out of it like everything else.
@Joe Phillips: They’d need a theme tune… something along the lines of James Bond Junior, ‘removing gum, around the world!’
@Martin Sinnott: Litter finds are regressive and are nearly impossible to enforce. The time and money could be better spent on educating people out of littering with citizen science. Give someone a nice taste of litter maps their behaviour will change
A tax should be added to the cost of chewing gum to cover these costs
@Diddles Daffy: Leo? Is that you?
I’ve been mapping needles in Dublin for over 3 years and have been told no money for finding and reporting needles which can inform and evaluate policy but over a million for gum
@OpenLitterMap: and save lives *
Just ban the gum just the way Singapore did
Manufacturers should be forced to make their gum bio-degradable.
It would save all of this expense.
You could have ten crews of single man operations doing this for half that price. And bring it in house. These are the costs of privatisation that neo liberal economics loves.
@JustOneScoop: no you wouldn’t when you take into account wages, employers prsi, pension costs, training courses, annual leave, sick leave, ppe equipment, other equipment, allowances, cost of supervision and the lower level of productivity.
@JustOneScoop:
Of you go and tender for it yourself then if you think it can be done cheaper
Cheaper option give all those stay in bed long long term unemployed a 19hour week removing this gum
@Gerard Heery: with a toothbrush
Crazy waste of cash
1.6m would go a long way towards employing litter wardens to be going around fining people. Cameras around the worst spots? A lot can be gotten for 1.6m and recoup some of it through the fines. Cigarette butts are a bane too.
@Oisín O’Connor: become your own litter warden @ openlittermap.com and get paid in Littercoin for doing the work
@Oisín O’Connor: I would love that job. I think it’s my true calling.
Put prisoners on it, save money. Tax payer already spending on prisoners staying in prisons, so we would want something in ‘return ‘
What could possibly go wrong? Wouldn’t they scrape up a few bits, then vanish?
Next question. poll. should chewing gum be banned?
@Sean Conway: lets have a referendum to insert it in the constitution and sure we’ll be grand….
I disagree with the fact the chewing gum manufacturers need to make it bio degradeable …to a degree…how about stop spitting in the first place…disgusting.
And plenty of people on the dole…have them do it….
@Eugene Tyson: We would have to check if they have any health issues & then train them how to work. Would cost millions more
@bings: yes a power washer and a van. Pretty sure councils already have these things. Train them how to work? 1 day max… its operating a power hose. Health and safety 2 days. So in 3 days would be ready to hit the streets. Anyone on the dole could get paid minimum wage to do the work. Which would let them come out with more than theyre on now and give them work experience and a path back to employment. A clean non-gummed path.
@Eugene Tyson: People just have no civic responsibility, they just don’t care, you wouldn’t see that happening in Japan!
This is just a thought, so bare with me…. why don’t the council install an adequate amount of bins around these ‘Blackspots’ with the bins adorned with an updated, clear, colourful, simple advertisement of disposing of your chewing gum safely, not littering, keeping the environment clean etc…… The onus is also on the suppliers of chewing gum to update their ways advertised on their packs of safely disposing of chewing gum. But realistically, it’s down to those that buy the chewing gum and choose to spit it out on the ground, stick it under their seat etc…. it’s down to them to dispose of it. There’s no quick solution, people know what they should and shouldn’t do in society, solutions like banning it etc…. are ridiculous, we don’t live in a dictatorship.
@Niall Binéad: partly because of a lack of data. Laws & policies are based on data. No data = not much room for debate
Never mind potholes and the amount of litter in general!!!
Just keep encouraging the disgusting process until the pavements are completely covered. Then use a machine to melt it and apply sand…hey presto non-slip pavements.
Would it be so hard to invent biodegradable chewing gum, last a couple of days and then wash away with the rain.
Just put a tax on chewing gum why should we all pay for the few who chew. Chewing gum is a disgusting habit anyway.Make company’s pay their share.
1 think I dont have to worry about now. That takes my stress levels down
I thought business owners were paying both DCC and BID to do that?
Have BID finally become the marketing-only vehicle they wanted to be?
At ratepayers expense.
Wow, what good use of money, just what the public has been calling out for…
Massively overspending as usual….
Why not ban chewing gum
Singapore give you a few whacks on the arse for that.
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