It takes all kinds to make a world, including some who have no respect for it. Some people would happily throw their rubbish into your garden if they thought they would get away with it and they often try. There are others who regularly dump their leftover food and coffee cups out the car window while returning to whatever hovel they inhabit.
There are more who would leave the old washing machine outside your front door. I suspect that some would happily chuck their rubbish over the Cliffs of Moher and not bat an eyelid. Litter bugs and fly tippers are causing problems all over Ireland.
Dublin City Council recently captured cctv images of a number of culprits dumping their rubbish on the streets. And we’re not just talking about sweet papers here. They were leaving full refuse sacks of waste on the public footpaths. One guy was filmed dumping a couch.
The Council put some of these images on a giant poster and put it on the wall near the spot where people were leaving their refuse. The effect was immediate and it wasn’t long before one of the litter bugs appeared at the office of Dublin City Council asking them to remove the image before his neighbours saw it. Well done to the Council and they should be commended for their efforts. But not everyone agrees.
The Data Protection Commissioner is now jumping up and down making noises about peoples’ right to privacy. Well in my mind you forfeit your right to privacy if you engage in illegal and antisocial behaviour. That includes dumping your rubbish in the street.
There is no doubt that as a nation we are pretty poor at maintaining a litter free environment. For some reason we don’t appear to have much of a difficulty in discarding our litter in public places. The evidence is there for all to see on every street and road in the country particularly after the weekends. Sadly it’s one of the first things you notice when you return from a spell abroad.
There are people who would prefer to throw their rubbish anywhere rather than bring it home and put it in a bin. If you see someone doing this, don’t be afraid to report it to the gardai. Just give them the details along with the registration number of the car and they’ll do the rest.
Take a look outside the fast food outlets in the early hours of a Saturday or a Sunday morning in the city centre and the amount of discarded food and drink containers is quite staggering. For most of us, the idea of finishing a take-away and just dropping the left-overs on the ground seems unnatural and goes against the grain. But this is not the case for everyone.
It takes a serious effort to clean up this mess and just because local authority sweepers are going to tackle the job shouldn’t mean that it’s ok to treat the street like a land fill site. Tidy Towns groups exist all over Ireland and these volunteers give up their free time to go out and about, collecting the rubbish that others have deliberately thrown away. They shouldn’t have to do that.
Fly tipping is another serious issue. It’s difficult to understand the mindset of individuals who would prefer to dump their rubbish illegally and blight the countryside rather than pay to have it removed properly. It’s not unusual to see old fridges, washing machines, mattresses and bags of waste dumped over farmers’ gates or unloaded into streams. It’s disgusting and so are those responsible.
There are rules and regulations in relation keeping public areas free of litter and the law nominates certain individuals to be liable for that responsibility.
Leaving or throwing litter in a public place is an offence that can be subject to an on-the-spot fine of €150, or a maximum fine of €3,000. These fines can be issued by a litter warden appointed by the local authority or by a garda and we should see more of these.
The amount of landfill sites available are decreasing rapidly every year so we really need to educate people on waste reduction. We can all do our bit to reduce the amount of waste by reducing the amount we produce, and the waste that cannot be reused may be recycled or composted. Waste that cannot be reused, recycled or composted needs to be disposed of safely. And it would appear that while some of us are getting better at it we still have a long way to go.
We have laws, rules and regulations in relation to dumping rubbish and litter but you have to wonder why these should even be necessary. You would think that keeping your own street or estate in a decent condition would be a natural inclination. You would think that residents would have enough respect for themselves and their neighbours that they would make a little effort to keep the area clean. And a little effort is all it would take.
We regularly hear complaints that Ireland is fast becoming a nanny state but it seems to be a fact of life in Ireland that we are unable to do anything right without being told how to do it. We need to be threatened with fines and imprisonment before we start to act properly and even then it’s a struggle.
The real solution here lies in the hands of the culprits but unfortunately it isn’t easy to get this message across to people who have barely progressed from dragging their knuckles along the ground. The local authorities get a lot of stick about litter on our streets and our countryside but they’re not the ones putting it there.
When you were a kid the rubbish strewn about our streets was just as bad or even worse! The solution is obvious and always was; Employ more people to clean up after us? It’ll take more people off the dole. Everyone’s happy!
Brilliant. You should be the Minister for jobs. We could increase the amount of crap we dump on the streets and create even more jobs. You’re name suits you.