Sir, – Our recent “spring clean” of Portarlington shows the best and worst of Irish society. We had over 170 volunteers giving up their time to collect over 300 sacks of rubbish dumped by their fellow citizens.
Over the 10 years which we have run this event, there has been a drop in illegal littering, but a huge increase in illegal dumping. Within our town this translates into relatively cleans streets, housing estates and public places. However, our approach roads, hedgerows, woodlands and bogs have now become unofficial landfill sites – with sacks of rubbish, tyres, mattresses and other waste being dumped.
There is only so much a voluntary group can do – and we are simply being overwhelmed by the scale of the problem. The root of the problem is while in all other western countries rubbish collection is paid for from local property taxes, in Ireland it is left to individuals to choose whether to pay for the service or not. The consequences have been utterly predictable and depressing – people when given financial incentives to dump illegally choose to do so.
The complete absence of electrical goods (which can be recycled for free at the town’s recycling depot) is proof that financially rewarding bad behaviour encourages bad behaviour and the converse is also true.
In short the Minister for the Environment could eliminate the scandal of illegal dumping overnight by simply ensuring that all houses are provided with a refuse collection service and that this is funded directly from the local property tax. Are there any political parties out there who are willing to publicly commit to this principle? – Yours, etc,
DAVID MAHER ,
Portarlington Tidy Towns,
Co Laois.