Your Rights on Littering and Illegal Dumping
Littering and the illegal dumping can have a significant impact on individual and community wellbeing.
Not only is waste unsightly in a community, it can cause or contribute to health issues such as infectious diseases or respiratory issues. In particular, dump sites can become breeding grounds for rodents that are linked to a variety of increased health risks.
Waste also causes harm to local wildlife. When waste ends up in waterways or other habitats, it causes ecosystem pollution that harms wildlife.
Littering in urban areas typically some communities much more than others, such as working-class communities living in inner city areas, and other marginalised communities.
Your right to live in an environment free of litter and illegal waste is protected in local, national, and international law.
Below, you will find step-by-step guidelines that can help you understand those rights.
(Last Updated – March 2026)
The Litter Pollution Act 1997 outlines the main duties on local authorities regarding litter. It says that both your local authority and the Government are responsible for protecting you from litter pollution.
This means that local authorities must take whatever measures they consider necessary to prevent or limit litter pollution. They must control the disposal of waste when it builds up. They must also make sure that all public roads in its area are, as much as possible, are kept free of litter.
To meet these requirements, local authorities have to prepare litter management plans, in consultation with the local community. The plan must set out how they will prevent and control litter and make people more aware of litter.
To enforce littering offences, local authority litter wardens and the Gardaí have the power to issue on-the-spot fines.
Local authority bye-laws are laws that apply to a specific area of a local authority. They provide for waste enforcement provisions regarding waste disposal and illegal dumping. They also provide for penalties that apply if people dump litter.
The first step that you should take to resolve a litter or dumping issue is contact the person or business you believe is causing the problem.
They might not know about the issue and may be willing to fix it. When you contact them, it is important to explain the problem, why you think they are responsible, what steps they should take to fix it, ask for a timeline for fixing it, and to tell you when they have taken action.
If you do not want to contact the person or business causing the problem, or if they do not respond to you, you can raise the issue with the Waste Section of your local authority.
Sometimes, there may not be one individual or business responsible, for example, in the case of illegal dumps.
As outlined above, your local authority is responsible for keeping public places free of litter.
If Dublin City Council is your local authority you can lodge a complaint with them here for littering, and here for dumping. Alternatively, you can use their Citizen Hub Platform to lodge a complaint.
For all other local authorities, you can contact them directly, or report illegal dumping or littering via the National Environmental Complaints Line at any time via phone at 1800 65 123 or use the ‘See it? Say it!’ smartphone app.