Two tonnes of rubbish removed from uplands
PURE Mile Groups across Wicklow got out into their local areas, forest, uplands and even the mountains recently where they removed close to two tonnes of dumped rubbish through clean-ups and litter picks.
The Beech Road PURE Mile in Arklow and the Avoca PURE Mile groups combined their energies. The latter group walked all the way from Avoca village to meet up with the Beech Road group and, with their joint litter picks, removed over 100 bags of rubbish from the road verges.
Another litter pick organised by PURE, and attended by over 60 members of Dublin’s Glenwalk Hillwalking Group PURE Mile, resulted in the removal of over 20 bags of litter from the mountains of Glenmalure and Barravore. Their collection included a discarded satellite dish.
A litter pick organised by the Wicklow Uplands Council, from Sally Gap to Lugalla, collected up to 40 bags (see above).
‘ Two tonnes of rubbish and litter removed in one weekend by volunteers is an amazing achievement,’ said Ian Davis of the PURE Project. ‘It goes to show you how much litter is out there. But it also shows that the majority of people do care about their environment and these groups demonstrate that.’
Madeline Doherty of the Glenwalk Hillwalking Group said that all of the group were amazed at the amount of litter they found on the mountain trails but said if felt great making a difference.
‘When PURE came to our attention, our club wanted to find a way to get involved with this great initiative. It’s our way of showing our appreciation for the beautiful uplands where we love to walk. And it’s our opportunity to give something back to the farmers, landowners, and communities where we walk,’ she said. Ms Doherty added that the clean-up was the group’s way of showing their respect for the land and to encourage responsible hillwalking.
PURE supplies all groups with bags, litter pickers and gloves, and also col- lects the rubbish gathered. If any groups, communities, individuals, schools, walking groups, cycling groups, scouts, businesses, anyone, wants to get involved in the PURE Mile by adopting an upland area and doing a litter pick to ‘Clean-Up The Uplands’, the can contact PURE at info@pureproject.ie or download and application from www.pureproject.ie/ what-we-do/the-pure-mile/.
Groups who enter the competition are invited to the PURE Mile Awards Night, and will receive a certificate of participation, a selection of Native Irish Trees, feature in the PURE Mile Calendar, and be in with a chance of winning €500. Further information is at www.pureproject.ie and those who want to report illegal dumping can locall 1850 365 121.