Litter

[david]

Litter could be placed in three categories: dropping or throwing out of a car window single items, dumping black bags of household stuff (or fridges etc) and bigger things such as building waste and abandoned cars.

Instances of all three categories are increasing by the day. To my mind, there is no excuse. None whatsoever.

Do you lads have any sensible solutions to any dumping/littering problems? I have plenty of ideas myself, from the obvious to the radical but I'd like to hear posters' views on the problem in general and their solutions in particular.

I intend contacting the government and local representatives once I put together a list of possible solutions.

[Trojanhorse]

There is only one solution to the litter problem in Ireland and that is recycle. i do it at home all the time and so do my parents. the biggest problem is that there are not enough recycling facilities in ireland. For instance plastic milk cartons can't be recycled and they could definitely be re-used. we need a government system which could fund and encourage recycling companies to set up. if not we are going to be living in a mass dump in 20years.

[qtman]

Litter could be placed in three categories: dropping or throwing out of a car window single items, dumping black bags of household stuff (or fridges etc) and bigger things such as building waste and abandoned cars.

Instances of all three categories are increasing by the day. To my mind, there is no excuse. None whatsoever.

Do you lads have any sensible solutions to any dumping/littering problems? I have plenty of ideas myself, from the obvious to the radical but I'd like to hear posters' views on the problem in general and their solutions in particular.

I intend contacting the government and local representatives once I put together a list of possible solutions.

An Eco-Levy on Plastic Bottles sold in filling stations, which would be waived if the purchaser returned an empty plastic bottle when purchasing a new one.

[david]

These are good ideas, lads but I wouldn't stop there. For instance, why just filling stations, qtman? Is it because of cost or facilities or space or something?

I would favour much more radical ideas but, like the plastic bag levy, simple ideas can work too.

[stringjack]

Snipers. I definitely liked the snipers suggestion.

[hivemind]

If you leave a black bag by the side of the road the council will go through it to find personal information and then use this to send you a bill. Unfortuntately at the end of the day this will just mean people will make sure not to put identifying information in the rubbish they dump.

People were dumping their black bags all over the place before the waste charge came in. The fact it costs to get rid of your rubbish now might aggravate the problem but even if putting your bins out was free some people would still throw their garbage wherever they wanted.

People who dump cigarette butts out of car windows ('it's bio-degradeable' they oink) or dump their snack packaging wherever they happen to be standing aren't influenced by lack of recycling, it's lack of a proper upbringing.

For reducing the first kind of littering you detail...

Education is probably the best way to fix the fact that a significant portion of the population see nothing wrong with littering. I don't know how much effect the current advertising is having (little I suspect) but it's a start. Schools and childrens TV should drive home the idea that it is wrong to litter as well. It's wrong to dump your kebab in someones doorway even if you are drunk. It's wrong to throw your sandwich box on the grass even if you might get crumbs in your fake prada handbag. It's wrong to flick your ash and butts out the car window even if it would mean your cars ashtray might get dirty.

Next would be enforcement of the existing littering penalties. I've no idea how often people get fined for throwing their wrappers in the street, but it is clearly not enough. High minded talk about the environment or tourist revenues count for nothing with a lot of people. If they feel they are likely to get a €50 fine, I'd be willing to bet people ability to find a litter bin would go up massively.

Finally the various councils need to facilitate this. The streets should be kept as clean as possible since people are more likely to dump if the place is already filthy. There should be litter receptacles available relatively nearby all over towns, especially adjacent to locations likely to generate rubbish. These bins need to be emptied as often as required that they are never so full as to be unusable.

[david]

Good points, HM, just what I'm looking for. I use our local litter hotline maybe once or twice a week to tell them of new instances of dumps. The council department is under-staffed though and they can take weeks to pick up rubbish out in the country. I recently found stuff dumped out of a car, cans and stuff and an envelope with what I presumed to be the perp's name and address; who else's would it be? Some people are thick.

But yes, education is paramount. Unfortunately, the life even educated kids come into doesn't exactly encourage responsibility.

Your thoughts will be incorporated into a submission I'm working on.

[david]

Trojanhorse: you don't honestly think that recycling is the only way? I would start with reduction of waste before dealing with recycling. That's going to be the thrust of my arguments, anyway.

[hivemind]

I think there might be some confusion. There are two seperate issues here really.

One is the general waste problem, we produce way too much and it is increasingly hard to find places to get rid of it. Reduction in packaging and recycling will help to reduce this.

The point David originally raised was to do with litter which I see as a completely different issue. This is about people dumping their rubbish illegitimately, not using the approved waste management facilities.

The two are related though. As waste management measures make it more difficult or expensive for people to get rid of their rubbish legitimately some will, of course, simply dump it. Why pay €5 to get rid of your old fridge when you can drive it up to the woods and throw it out of the car. Why pay your waste management charge when you can just bring your black bags down to the green and chuck them (making sure you take out all your bills and junk mail first).

Reduction in packaging helps both of these issues though and since you can nail companies down and fine them it's a very workable method of going at the problem. The plastic bag levy worked because the bags themselves are useful objects so people just started saving and re-using them, and they are also optional, people no longer take a bag to hold their mars bar and coke. The same thing won't work with other forms of packaging, you have no choice about taking the big plastic bag the little plastic bags of crisps come in and there's no point in saving it for an alternate use since there isn't really one. It's possible there are similar tricks out there, but the exact same thing won't work again I think. The only one I can think of offhand is putting a levy on paper coffee cups to encourage people to bring their own mugs instead of getting a take out cup. I don't know if there's a levy, but in Seattle people bring their own fancy mugs to coffee places all the time.

[eurocrat]

Can't we just throw it all in the river? Ireland is blessed with some many rivers ripe for dumping. We should use this important natural resource.