150 BAGS OF RUBBISH COLLECTED
A WHOPPING 150 bags of rubbish were collected by a team of 40 volunteers as they combed the roadsides from Aughrim to Woodenbridge recently.
The event was organised by Aughrim Community Clean-up Group in response to the growing levels of litter thrown from passing cars and dumped by the roadsides and in ditches within the locality.
The volunteers wasted no time in ensuring every scrap was gathered up and bagged and soon the countryside was looking much cleaner.
The sight of such a clean-up was a heartening one for cyclist and Knockananna native Joe Whelan who in recent weeks, while on a visit home from County Limerick, was disappointed to encounter concerning levels of littering along the Wicklow roads.
Mr Whelan highlighted the issue in The Wicklow People and, by coincidence, while out for another cycle in recent days, he bumped into the volunteers during their clean-up.
‘I was home for the weekend and I was out for a cycle. I turned the corner at Woodenbridge and I saw a group of lads picking litter and another group down the road. I was delighted to see it and it lifted my spirits no end, as I had noticed the level of dumping had become an issue,’ he said.
Mr Whelan commended the volunteers for their excellent work and said that the next step is to ‘take it to national level’ with regard to increasing recycling levels.
It is anticpated that more litter picks and weeding will take place shortly in the area.
Thanks have been extended to Councillors Pat Kennedy, Tommy Annesley and Sylvester Burke for assisting on the day and also Wicklow County Council, Miley Carroll, M.A. Healy & Sons, Blue Print Arklow, Deirdre Fox, Sean Byrne Hackney and Minibus, Spring Clean Ireland, Byrnes Stores in Aughrim, Paul Phelan, Shane Byrne and a very special thanks to all the Aughrim people who showed their support.