OVER ONE TONNE OF WASTE DUMPED AT THE AVONMORE WAY
OVER a tonne of illegally dumped waste had to be collected from the recently established Avonmore Way last week.
A mixture of building material, green waste and household waste was dumped at the entrance to Coillte woodland at the location known locally as Stump of the Castle.
As the PURE (Protecting Uplands and Rural Environments) dedicated clean-up vehicle was clearing the site, the crew were also made aware of a another nearby dumping incident on the road leading to the Garryduff crossroads.
Ian Davis, the PURE Project Manager, said the organisation fielded a number of calls from the public complaining about the dumping on the Avonmore Way, a walk which was only officially launched in April of this year.
‘We received numerous calls to our office about the dumping on Tuesday, September 13, while reports were also phoned into the EPA phoneline. We went out to inspect the dumping that evening and at 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, our cleanup truck was already at the site and clearing up the waste and rubbish.
‘ There was actually a second dump further up the road which also had to be cleared. There was quite a lot of waste at the first site, well over a tonne, including building materials and household waste.
‘We checked the location for evidence of who might have been involved in the dumping but didn’t find anything that would identify the culprit or culprits.’
Incidents of illegal dumping, especially at locations in the Wicklow Uplands, appears to be on the rise, though providing an explanation for the increase in such activity is proving more difficult.
‘It’s very hard to determine what the reason is but since the economy started to improve, it appears the number of illegal dumping incidents has increased, both in fly-tipping cases and larger dumping cases. The fact is there are a lot of illegal waste collectors doing the rounds in Dublin. The collections take place in Dublin but the waste is dumped in Wicklow, in locations such as the Sally Gap and Ballymanus. We know this is a fact because we have been able to collect evidence and most of that waste is coming from Dublin.’
PURE celebrates its 10th birthday this year having been established to combat illegal dumping and fly-tipping in the uplands. The project’s success has been noted by other counties.
‘We received a call over the Stump of the Castle dump on Tuesday and had it completely cleared up by Wednesday morning. You wouldn’t get that sort of response in any other county in the country. We have had calls from the likes of Cork, Donegal and Galway all wanting to know how our model works. The PURE Mile has been an unbelievable success. This year 60 groups are involved. Seven years ago it was only five.
‘We are also pursuing a number of prosecutions in the courts,’ Mr Davis added.