Can you spare an hour for the Kingdom?

FOR last year’s Kerry County Clean-up day, a record breaking army of 5,000 volunteers emerged from their homes in a formidable counter attack against the scourge that is litter.

Litter, like an invasive species, would spread out of control only that it is kept in check by the strong native Kerry population of litter pickers. It is safe to say there is a general consensus that our countryside should be kept clean and litter free, and despite considerable resources being invested in litter clean ups, awareness and enforcement, unfortunately littering persists.

Many studies have been conducted in an attempt to understand and explain why people litter. The availability of bins and the amount of litter present in a location can influence the likelihood of people dropping litter and while these environmental issues might explain it, it doesn’t excuse it.

The Kerry County Clean up began six years ago in 2012 after Killarney won the Tidy Towns Competition in 2011. The great energy that was invested in winning the prestigious national Tidy Towns award was not allowed to dissipate but was instead channelled into creating the County Clean-up event which, at the time, was the first in Ireland. With the support of KWD and Kerry Co. Council the County Clean-Up day has grown in strength year on year. In that first year 500 volunteers gathered 5,000 bags of litter. Five years later the number of volunteers grew to 5,000 and the number of bags collected grew to 6,500 bags.

Individuals, small residents groups, sports cubs and community groups got involved on the day and went out gathering litter from Tarbert to Cahersiveen and from Ventry to Rathmore. Without a doubt this is a marvellous, positive, countywide, community event. The Tidy Towns motto ‘make your place a better place’ is in full flight on the Kerry County Clean-up day.

The Tidy Towns competition is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. In the first year in 1958, 52 towns entered the competition and the village of Glenties, Co. Donegal won. The competition grew in popularity and now has on average 800 entrants per year. For Kerry, Sneem was the first to win in 1987, then Kenmare won in 2000 and most recently Killarney won in 2011.

Last year there were 38 entries from Kerry in the Tidy Towns competition and they performed incredibly well. The national winning score was 332 points and Listowel was a tantalizing three points behind with the highest score in the county of 329. Kerry Tidy Towns groups came home with four gold medals for Listowel, Kenmare, Killarney, and Tralee, a silver medal for Sneem and two bronze medals for Knightstown and Portmagee. Finuge won a best endeavour award after increasing their score by over 11 per cent on the previous year. If there was an All-Ireland Tidy Towns Championship for counties, Kerry would be the county to beat.

The voluntary work that our Kerry Tidy Towns groups carry out, goes on all year round. The perception that the Tidy Towns competition is confined to the activities of litter picking and maintaining manicured flower beds is far from the reality. The Tidy Towns marking system for the competition has evolved over recent years to include wider environmental issues such as waste prevention, biodiversity and resource management. The bottom line, however, is that litter picking and maintaining a litter free environment remains the bedrock activity of Tidy Towns. The ugliness of litter and the desire to keep it in check is what often motivates ordinary members of our communities to join their local Tidy Towns group.

For the County Clean-up day the Kerry County Clean-up team needs to have all hands on deck. Our Tidy Towns groups will put out a strong team for the day but there is much ground to cover and we need to back them up with a strong bench and a deep reserve of subs to call upon. The question is, would you be willing to give one hour for your county and join the County Clean-Up?

To register your participation in the County Clean-Up day as an individual or as a community group, sports club or residents group, register with KWD by logging on to www.countycleanup.com or by e-mailing countycleanup@kwd.ie. Upon registration KWD Recycling will provide you or your group with bags and high visibility vests and they will also agree a date and location for pick-up of the collected litter.