1001 Smart Cities
🇮🇪 Dublin

Dublin's Bigbelly Smart Bins: Fill-Level Alerts and a Smaller Bin Count

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 12 sourced claims · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

12 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

Dublin's solar bins report when they are full, and Docklands collections fell by as much as 85%. The plan behind them was fewer bins, on streets councillors said already had too few.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence🏛️ Official
what does this mean?The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byDublin City Council (bins supplied by Kyron Street Ltd, Irish distributor of Bigbelly)
Scale🏙️ City-wide
CostContract worth €2 million excluding VAT (2018 tender award); about €1,000 per bin per year according to the council's smart city lead (2019)
FundingDublin City Council; advertising on the Docklands bins offsets part of the leasing cost

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,176 documented projects · 🏙️ 10 more in Dublin · 🗑️ Waste & recycling guide · 🌱 Environment projects

Dublin City Council awarded the Irish firm Kyron Street a contract worth €2 million, excluding VAT, for solar-powered Bigbelly compactor bins, which crush the waste inside and report in real time when they need emptying; the tender sought up to 800 of them. Separately, the council's Smart Docklands programme installed 110 of the bins in the Docklands under a 30-month pilot, where staff see each bin's fill level on an online map. During the pandemic Bigbelly configured the council's 350 bins to time-stamp each deposit as a measure of street activity, and small radar sensors went onto around 20 of them. The council's public bin register, last updated in May 2026, lists 437 Bigbelly bins.

Live 📅 since 2018

📊 Impact

Smart Docklands reports that the pilot cut bin collection frequencies in the Docklands by as much as 85%, and that advertising revenue on the bins reduced their overall cost. The same page says the 30-month pilot would continue to be evaluated for operational and fiscal viability; it gives no result of that evaluation. In 2019 the council's smart city lead put the cost at about €1,000 per bin per year, declining to break it down for reasons of commercial sensitivity.

🎓 Lesson

The tender aimed to cut the number of on-street bins by about 20 per cent — a saving that only works if bigger, reporting bins replace ordinary ones. Councillors objected that parts of the city were already short of bins, the council's count having fallen from roughly 5,000 to 3,091 since its 2008–2011 litter plan. A fill-level sensor tells a council when a bin is full; it cannot tell it where a bin is missing.

🌱 EnvironmentWaste & recyclingSensors & IoTSolar & PV

Sources

↗ Irish Times, on the 800-bin contract (media)Published 28 May 2018Report of 28 May 2018: Dublin city centre is to get 800 solar-powered compactor bins that could reduce the number of on-street bins by 20 per cent; Kyron Street was awarded the contract, worth €2 million excluding VAT according to the council's tender award notice; the bins tell waste collectors in real time when they are full. It notes more than 3,500 bins across the council area.
↗ Dublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media)Published 18 September 2019Report of 18 September 2019: the council's smart city lead says every bin communicates in real time, 110 bins are installed in the Docklands in a partnership with Bigbelly and about 300 more were bought under the tender for up to 800, at about €1,000 per bin per year. Councillors question the aim of cutting bin numbers by 20 per cent; the article traces the council's bin count from roughly 5,000 under the 2008–2011 litter plan to 3,091.
↗ Smart Docklands, Smart Bin Innovation Services project page (official)Project page of Smart Docklands, the council's Docklands smart-city programme: 110 Bigbelly bins supplied by Kyron Street installed over a 30-month period, fill levels shown on an online dashboard map, collection frequencies in the Docklands reduced by as much as 85%, advertising revenue offsetting the leasing cost, and a statement that the pilot would continue to be evaluated. The page shows no date of its own.
↗ Cities Today, on the bins' pandemic repurposing (media)Published 26 February 2021Report of 26 February 2021: in a pilot with the council, Bigbelly configured its system to time-stamp each deposit; the smart city programme manager describes 350 bins in parks, the city centre and suburbs; small radar sensors were placed on around 20 bins.
↗ Dublin City Council, public bin locations dataset (official)Published 16 August 2018 · updated 1 May 2026The council's open register of public bin locations (CC BY), updated monthly. The May 2026 file lists 3,434 bins by type, 437 of them recorded as 'Bigbelly Bin'.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2018. 4 of 5 sources carry a publication date, from 28 May 2018 to 26 February 2021.

When the sources were published

  1. The Irish Times · pressIrish Times, on the 800-bin contract (media)
  2. Smart Dublin · city governmentDublin City Council, public bin locations dataset (official) · updated 1 May 2026
  3. Dublin Inquirer · pressDublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media)
  4. Cities Today · pressCities Today, on the bins' pandemic repurposing (media)

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 12 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 12 addressable claims, 5 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 12

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-54761dda431c2e04 quantitative
awarded the Irish firm Kyron Street a contract worth €2 million, excluding VAT, for solar-powered Bigbelly compactor bins
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The report: 'Irish firm Kyron Street was awarded the contract to provide the smart bins' and 'The contract is worth €2 million, excluding VAT, according to a tender award notice recently published by the local authority.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Irish Times, on the 800-bin contract (media)
Claim 2 clm-a3fe89b06fd6c5a8 descriptive
crush the waste inside and report in real time when they need emptying
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Irish Times says the bins 'have real-time information to tell waste collectors when the bin is full'; the Dublin Inquirer quotes the council's smart city lead: 'Every one of those bins is communicating back in real time.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Irish Times, on the 800-bin contract (media)
  2. Dublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media)
Claim 3 clm-5e62754b4a57c7ce quantitative
the tender sought up to 800 of them
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Inquirer: 'In its tender last year, the council said it was looking for up to 800 solar-powered compactor litter bins.'
Caveat
The Irish Times reported the contract as '800 solar-powered bins'; by 2019 the council's smart city lead put purchases at about 300.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Dublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media)
Claim 4 clm-d41ff5d355b2a336 quantitative
installed 110 of the bins in the Docklands under a 30-month pilot, where staff see each bin's fill level on an online map
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project page: the council 'partnered with Big Belly Bins (supplied by Irish company Kyron Street) to install 110 smart bins across the Dublin Docklands area over a 30-month period', with the capacity of each bin shown on 'an online dashboard digital map'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Smart Docklands, Smart Bin Innovation Services project page (official)
Claim 5 clm-fc44869769fd2442 quantitative
Bigbelly configured the council's 350 bins to time-stamp each deposit as a measure of street activity, and small radar sensors went onto around 20 of them
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Cities Today: 'Bigbelly configured its system to include time stamps, triggered each time rubbish is deposited'; the programme manager: 'Our 350 bins are in parks, the city centre and the suburbs'; 'Small radar sensors have also been placed on around 20 of the bins'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Cities Today, on the bins' pandemic repurposing (media)
Claim 6 clm-7592d294a5253d19 quantitative
lists 437 Bigbelly bins
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The register's CSV (Bin_Type column) records 437 entries as 'Bigbelly Bin' — a count of rows, so there is no sentence to quote; the dataset page shows 'Last updated 2026-05-01'.
Caveat
The register records where a Bigbelly bin stands, not whether its sensor still reports.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Dublin City Council, public bin locations dataset (official)
Claim 7 clm-52d1a07d9c563835 quantitative
cut bin collection frequencies in the Docklands by as much as 85%
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project page lists among outcomes: 'Reduction of bin collection frequencies in the Docklands by as much as 85%.'
Caveat
The figure is the programme's own; no baseline or measurement method is given.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Smart Docklands, Smart Bin Innovation Services project page (official)
Claim 8 clm-ef9fae405c51ec08 descriptive
advertising revenue on the bins reduced their overall cost
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project page: 'Revenue received from local advertising on the bins reducing the overall cost of the bins'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Smart Docklands, Smart Bin Innovation Services project page (official)
Claim 9 clm-4616d19cc38329fb descriptive
would continue to be evaluated for operational and fiscal viability
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The project page: 'The 30-month pilot would continue to be evaluated for operational and fiscal viability'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Smart Docklands, Smart Bin Innovation Services project page (official)
Claim 10 clm-f83516af64680ee5 quantitative
put the cost at about €1,000 per bin per year, declining to break it down for reasons of commercial sensitivity
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Inquirer: 'Each bin costs about €1,000 per year, says Cudden. "I can't break it down into different components because of commercial sensitivities," he said.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Dublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media)
Claim 11 clm-b5ffdd47a9865a40 quantitative
The tender aimed to cut the number of on-street bins by about 20 per cent
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Irish Times: the bins 'could reduce the number of on-street rubbish bins by 20 per cent'; the Inquirer: the council 'said it was looking to cut the number of litter bins on the streets in its area by 20 percent'.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Irish Times, on the 800-bin contract (media)
  2. Dublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media)
Claim 12 clm-b0c25de2e4cb0fa4 quantitative
Councillors objected that parts of the city were already short of bins, the council's count having fallen from roughly 5,000 to 3,091 since its 2008–2011 litter plan
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Inquirer quotes councillors worried about a shortage of bins and states: 'There were roughly 5,000 bins in the Dublin City Council area when the Litter Management Plan 2008–2011 was drawn up. That had fallen to 3,500 bins by the time the 2016–2018 plan was written – and, more recently, to 3,091.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Dublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-09-25-baseline effective 2026-09-25 · created 2026-09-25

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:165c67a9d1c286dde98278ef75cdd9554500bf8bb4c9f15ee71fce5cf0aa40b8
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
12
of 12 claims mapped
5
source dossiers
4
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Dublin City Council (bins supplied by Kyron Street Ltd, Irish distributor of Bigbelly)
Actor types
city-government, private
Funding model
public
Funding description
Dublin City Council; advertising on the Docklands bins offsets part of the leasing cost
Cost
Contract worth €2 million excluding VAT (2018 tender award); about €1,000 per bin per year according to the council's smart city lead (2019)
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

5 source dossiers

Irish Times, on the 800-bin contract (media) irishtimes.com · 3 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-19b3e69facc48da9
Publisher
Name not classified · irishtimes.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2018-05-28
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-25
Dossier created
2026-09-25
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report of 28 May 2018: Dublin city centre is to get 800 solar-powered compactor bins that could reduce the number of on-street bins by 20 per cent; Kyron Street was awarded the contract, worth €2 million excluding VAT according to the council's tender award notice; the bins tell waste collectors in real time when they are full. It notes more than 3,500 bins across the council area.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Dublin Inquirer, on the Bigbelly roll-out and its costs (media) dublininquirer.com · 5 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-826bd41f4bd68b7e
Publisher
Name not classified · dublininquirer.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2019-09-18
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-25
Dossier created
2026-09-25
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report of 18 September 2019: the council's smart city lead says every bin communicates in real time, 110 bins are installed in the Docklands in a partnership with Bigbelly and about 300 more were bought under the tender for up to 800, at about €1,000 per bin per year. Councillors question the aim of cutting bin numbers by 20 per cent; the article traces the council's bin count from roughly 5,000 under the 2008–2011 litter plan to 3,091.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Smart Docklands, Smart Bin Innovation Services project page (official) smartdocklands.ie · 4 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-cc951c9894ee8747
Publisher
Name not classified · smartdocklands.ie
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-25
Dossier created
2026-09-25
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Project page of Smart Docklands, the council's Docklands smart-city programme: 110 Bigbelly bins supplied by Kyron Street installed over a 30-month period, fill levels shown on an online dashboard map, collection frequencies in the Docklands reduced by as much as 85%, advertising revenue offsetting the leasing cost, and a statement that the pilot would continue to be evaluated. The page shows no date of its own.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Cities Today, on the bins' pandemic repurposing (media) cities-today.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-17a17a2e78519539
Publisher
Name not classified · cities-today.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-02-26
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-25
Dossier created
2026-09-25
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Report of 26 February 2021: in a pilot with the council, Bigbelly configured its system to time-stamp each deposit; the smart city programme manager describes 350 bins in parks, the city centre and suburbs; small radar sensors were placed on around 20 bins.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Dublin City Council, public bin locations dataset (official) data.smartdublin.ie · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-8fbb809db86bf971
Publisher
Name not classified · data.smartdublin.ie
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2018-08-16
Updated
2026-05-01
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-09-25
Dossier created
2026-09-25
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The council's open register of public bin locations (CC BY), updated monthly. The May 2026 file lists 3,434 bins by type, 437 of them recorded as 'Bigbelly Bin'.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇳🇱 Cure Afvalbeheer Fill-Level Sensors for Underground Waste Containers · Eindhoven Both put fill-level sensors on bins: Eindhoven's in underground containers, Dublin's in solar compactors on the street. 🇮🇩 Surabaya Waste Fleet GPS Tracking & Cleanliness Dashboard · Surabaya Two ways to cut empty trips: Dublin's bins report when full, Surabaya tracks the trucks and pools the data on a dashboard. 🇮🇪 Smart Docklands · Dublin The smart-bin pilot ran under the Smart Docklands programme before the bins spread citywide.

Explore the wider context

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📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “Dublin's Bigbelly Smart Bins: Fill-Level Alerts and a Smaller Bin Count” — Dublin, Ireland. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/dublin-smart-bins/ (last verified 2026-09-25). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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