Already 70 cases of dumping this year
...BUT PROGRESS SEEN BY PURE AS SIGNIFICANT FALL IN DUMPING IN 2018
THERE was a significant reduction in illegal dumping in the uplands in 2018, with the Pure Project recording the lowest amount of material collected since the project started.
However, 160 tonnes were removed from the Wicklow and Dublin uplands last year and, with over 70 cases of dumping reported already in 2019, the group warns that there can be no room for complacency.
Pure Project manager Ian Davis has welcomed the reduction last year but says that the group will remain focused.
‘I remember driving around the Wicklow/Dublin Uplands in 2007 and 2008 and being appalled at the amount of illegal dumping that I saw. In 2008, Pure removed 436 tonnes of illegally dumped waste from the uplands, the largest amount of dumping we ever collected. Ten years later, in 2018, we removed 160 tonnes – a reduction of over 60 per cent and the lowest amount we’ve ever removed from the upland areas. A huge amount of progress has been made since the project was established, however, there is absolutely no room for complacency, and it is vital that we continue to monitor the situation or we will see a return to the old days,’ he said.
January 2019 is proving to be a very busy time for Pure. The post-Christmas period has seen a lot of dumping in the county, with Pure receiving over 70 reports in the first three weeks of January alone. Its truck has removed over 13 tonnes of dumped mattresses, furniture, toys, bed frames and domestic waste from the Wicklow/Dublin Uplands already this year.
The Pure truck is on the road every day and, since the project was established, has collected over 3,250 tonnes of rubbish from over 11,000 illegal dumping sites in the Wicklow-Dublin Uplands and have received 11,750 reports to the Pure office.
‘We have been recording and mapping every location and incident of illegal dumping in the Wicklow/Dublin Uplands since 2007, working hard to build up base-line data of all illegal dumping activities in the uplands, and we are delighted to see that we are noticing an annual reduction in dumping,’ Mr Davis said.
Pure attributes its success to a multi-disciplinary approach to combat illegal dumping, incorporating a number of preventative measures, covert CCTV operations, media/PR campaigns, public awareness campaigns, community projects such as the Pure Mile, and educational initiatives. The Pure Mile has been a tremendous success with over 220 areas involved in 2018 and over 1,000 volunteers helping to clean-up the uplands. Even more groups are getting involved in this year’s Pure Mile.
In both 2018 and 2017, Pure installed covert CCTV units at several upland sites which were continually affected by dumpers, and the footage obtained clearly identified people involved in both littering and illegal dumping. This footage resulted in a number of people receiving litter fines, and one case brought before the courts involving large scale illegal dumping resulted in a criminal prosecution and large fine.
A number of other cases involving people caught on covert CCTV are currently under investigation by Wicklow County Council and the Pure team is confident that the local authority will proceed with court prosecutions this year.
‘We will continue with our covert CCTV operations in 2019 and a number of locations that are continually affected by illegal dumping have already been selected for monitoring. We will be collaborating with Wicklow County Council, Coillte and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and we are determined to catch those involved in illegal dumping and further reduce this environmental scourge,’ said Mr Davis.