Life’s a dirty beach, because of litter louts
AFRIEND in need is a friend indeed — and this heatwave makes me very glad that I am living in a coastal country.
They invite me to visit, so I knock off work early and break for the border. The seaside looks stunning from the cliff top, but the ugly underbelly blighting all this beauty soon becomes evident. For some absolute, and literal, tossers are turning our beaches toxic with their litter.
I’ve cooled down from a swim, but within minutes I’m boiling mad — for cans, plastic and cartons are scattered everywhere on the sand. And glass bottles are falling from the rocks behind us, the draining of the alcohol attracting a swarm of flies.
Only a minority toss their litter away. But that’s enough to ruin the experience for everybody and, more importantly, it devastates the environment. Those little fish swimming around my toes will soon have this crap swirling around them. I start picking up bottles; furious because it’s roasting hot and my time off is precious. Soon my bag is full, yet I’ve barely scratched the surface of one small area.
Then I notice an attractive woman who has arrived on the beach. It’s after 8pm and temperatures are still soaring. But instead of carrying a picnic basket, she’s dragging a black refuse bag behind her. She throws her dogs a stick — and bends down to pick up someone else’s rubbish.
“This is a beautiful beach, so I’m trying to keep it that way,” she replies when I ask her what she’s doing. “I pick up the rubbish because somebody has to. Have you seen that footage of the sea horse clutching a Q-tip?”
The litter comes “mainly from younger people — you can tell by the kind of rubbish left behind... softdrink bottles, beer bottles, cans of drink.”
Litter has its own foul seasons, with the Irish summer tourists dumping “beer cans, nappies, underwear”. Meanwhile, in winter months, it’s usually plastic that gets washed up. “Most people are gone when we come down every evening and you see what’s left behind. You expect to see the sea sparkling — not beer cans.”
Her ‘we’ refers to just herself and her daughters. To add to our shame, she’s not Irish. This woman, from Wales, has been living in rural Ireland for 27 years.
What would solve Ireland’s crappy crisis that sees beaches abused and tides turned into toilets?
“Bins would help!” she laughs. “And emptying them regularly. Plus plenty of signage, with ‘leave nothing but footprints behind’ written on them, and the like.”
We could all do with adjusting our behaviour, and she admits “the nappies really annoy me — because that’s young mothers. If that’s what your children see you doing, then what hope is there?”
The family behind us are getting ready to leave and checking they haven’t forgotten anything. But others have forgotten their responsibility to raise environmentally aware children. Dumping the dire consequences on the rest of us.