HUNDREDS OF BAGS OF WASTE ARE COLLECTED
PURE MILE CLEAN-UPS ACROSS WICKLOW HAVE ALREADY YIELDED TONNES OF RUBBISH, WRITES
CLEAN-UP operations at rural locations throughout County Wicklow have yielded hundreds of bags of rubbish in recent weeks.
Organised by the PURE Project, clean-ups took place in Avoca, Stratford-on-Slaney and Glencree, hosted by members of the local PURE Mile groups.
The 2018 PURE Mile Competition has attracted a huge number of communities, individuals, organisations, businesses, scouts, walking groups and cycling clubs, and all are busy cleaning up the uplands.
The most recent events have resulted in the removal of tonnes of illegal dumping and litter from the county, with groups concentrating their efforts on cleaning up roads, forestries, upland amenities and mountains.
The Avoca Scouts, a new group to the PURE Mile, organised a clean-up on a stretch of the Vale Road which attracted over 30 volunteers, and they have more activities planned throughout the year. The Beech Road PURE Mile has held a number of litter picks this year and have already removed over 50 bags of rubbish.
A recent litter pick by the Glencree Walking Group in the beautiful uplands, all the way from Kilakee car park in south Dublin to the Sally Gap crossroads in Wicklow, resulted in the removal of over 120 bags of rubbish, with another clean-up organised this weekend.
Two past winners of the Best PURE Mile Award – Ballinabarney/Ballyteige and Glenmalure – are determined to keep their areas clean, with cleanups resulting in the collection of approximately 100 bags of rubbish, tyres and furniture from local roads and forestries.
Over 60 groups, ranging from Ballinaclash to Ballinascorney in south Dublin and involving over 1,000 volunteers, are now involved in this year’s competition.
The Statford-on-Slaney PURE Mile group has adopted 12 miles of road in their local area with their first community litter pick resulting in the removal of 65 bags of rubbish from the landscape, as well as an office chair, laminated flooring, a wheel, a skateboard, remnants of a Christmas tree, buckets, an oil drum, and two boxes of bottles.
The neighbouring village of Grangecon has been extremely busy organising regular litter picks with over 14 miles of road now in the PURE Mile, including the new areas of Tinoran, Knockarigg Hill, Raheen, Rampere and Ballynure.
‘ The PURE Mile has grown from strength to strength every year, with over 190 miles of road adopted in this year’s competition, the largest number since the PURE Mile established in 2009, with more groups eager to get involved in next year competition,’ said Ian Davis of PURE.
‘PURE has removed over 3,100 tonnes of illegal dumping from the Wicklow/Dublin uplands, but we only have one truck and one driver, so we are unable to remove the unsightly small-scale litter. All of the PURE Mile groups make a huge difference to the appearance of the Wicklow/ Dublin uplands and I would like to congratulate and thank all the people involved,’ he said.
More clean-ups and events have been organ- ised by the numerous PURE Mile groups with PURE supplying all groups with bags, litter pickers, gloves and high-vis jackets, and the PURE truck removes all the rubbish gathered by groups.
If any group, community, individual, school, walking group, cycling group, scouts or business, would like to get involved in next year’s PURE Mile, they can contact PURE at info@purepro- ject.ie or download an application from www. pureproject.ie/what-we-do/the-pure-mile/.
Further information on PURE can be found on www.pureproject.ie