Return Rubbish

he takes populist twattism to an order of magnitude beyond Sinn Fein, and that's saying something

Ah for fooks sake…. Well… there's goes my theory

But maybe not!! The funny thing is Dublin has repeatedly shown that people adapt surprisingly quickly once something becomes visible, convenient and socially normal. The same city people said would never adapt to LUAS etiquette or Leap cards was also told Dublin Bikes would all be stolen, people would never stop smoking in pubs, and nobody would ever bother with reusable shopping bags. Yet all of those things became part of everyday life surprisingly quickly.

Just because some people will misuse something (and they always will) doesn’t mean the system has failed. If a bin rail reduces scavenging, keeps more rubbish off the streets and gives people an easy way to separate return bottles and cans without bins being ripped apart, then it’s already an improvement over what we have now.

I can see it working in the future… just like the other initiatives I've mentioned. We just need it to dawn on the the lower IQ people. That takes time.

Where did the picture on the left come from? I've never seen a bin with circular holes like that and it doesn't appear to be a well thought through design. In Dublin city centre the bins like one on the right work well.

It's just another tax in a country that makes a big deal about giving a few quid back at budget time, but then takes far more back through things like this nonsense.

I won't be wasting my time regardless. Far better things to be doing.

You could just say you're lazy.

It is the upstanding law abiding tax paying Roma Gypsies who are raiding peoples recycling bins around my area.

I am sure they would have no problem turning up to pay fines.

They do make a difference, and they'll make an even bigger difference over time, just like the examples I gave. People like yourself said nobody would stop smoking in pubs, nobody would bother bringing reusable bags, and that public bike schemes would never work. Yet all of those became normal once people got used to them.

The same principle applies here. When a system is visible, convenient and socially accepted, most people adapt surprisingly quickly. Of course some people will misuse it, and they always will, but that's true of every public initiative. A small number of people using something incorrectly doesn't mean the system has failed. The real question is whether it improves behaviour overall, and if it does, then it's a success.

Dublin has repeatedly shown that people are capable of changing habits when the right infrastructure is put in place. There's no reason to think these bin rails will be any different. They won't be perfect, but they don't have to be perfect to be worthwhile.

And yes, there were promotional photo shoots for smoking bans, reusable bag campaigns, Dublin Bikes and countless other initiatives when they were launched. That's completely normal. The existence of a press photo or staged publicity image doesn't somehow invalidate the concept. The measure of success is what happens afterwards in the real world, not who posed for a photograph on launch day. If anything, most successful public initiatives started with a press release and a photographer standing nearby. The fact that something was promoted doesn't mean it didn't work.