Blight of dumping a social ill that needs hefty fines and jail time
THE bright start to the year has seen me out and about on the region’s roads with a group of cycling buddies and when the sun is shining and even in the mist, it’s hard not to have your breath taken away by the amazing countryside we have at our disposal.
The only problem is people are actually using the same fields and farms, lanes and river valleys to dispose of their rubbish and dirt, mostly a bag load here and a mattress there, but sometimes a mini-mountain of detritus.
Last weekend a friend of mine organised the planting of one hundred trees. You read me right, not one, but 100. She got family and friends involved and the smiles on their faces after their day’s work improving the environment were something to behold. Unfortunately she lives on the other side of the country so I couldn’t join in. I’m sure there are like-minded people here who are taking up the initiative and thinking green in a big way.
While she was doing that some thoughtless, lazy, self-serving entitled people were dumping rubbish in a field not a million miles away from you. An estimated €6m was spent by Wicklow and Wexford county councils on dealing with illegal dumping in 2017 and the figure will no doubt be in a similar ball park for 2018. Rapid response crews have been brought in to target dumping black-spots and more CCTV and technology is being invested in.
The council’s new approach is focused on education and awareness, prevention and control, enforcement and partnership with local community groups. It takes none of these to know that dumping rubbish – much of which is recyclable! – is wrong. Dumping skip-loads is outrageous, as County Wexford farmer Michael Doran can attest to.
Mr Doran was featured on Countrywide recently, its presenter gagging and coughing as he became overwhelmed by the stench he found himself reporting in on a family farm. The entire contents worth of a house had been dumped and a rightly outraged Michael has to deal with the clean up and fallout. Dumped on an isolated part of Michael’s farm, the perpetrators had the neck to return a few days after the initial ‘drop’ with more rubbish.
As a self-confessed townie, Countrywide wouldn’t normally be my go to Saturday morning radio show. Normally I’d wait until 9 before turning on Dave Fanning’s show, but I was gripped by the segment which was excellent on-the-scene reporting, but also a deeply disturbing listen.
Michael described his anger at those who are illegally dumping on his farm, saying that if one of his children littered he ‘would make them pick it up’.
Expressing outrage at the people who woke up one day, looked out their window or around their house, and decided they would seek out a corner of a farm and dump their dirt to make their lives easier, Michael said he was told by Wexford County Council that he would have to clean up the mess, and bring the rubbish – which included mattresses, high heels, sofas and nappies – to his local dump. To soften the bitter pill, the dumping fees would be waived.
I say jail these pigs and fine the piglets – (and that’s offending an intelligent animal!).