VOLUNTEERS HAVE REMOVED 13 tonnes of illegal waste that were dumped in the Wicklow/Dublin uplands in the first three weeks of this year.

The Pure project said the post-Christmas period has seen a lot of dumping in the county as it received over 70 reports since the start of 2019.

The Pure project is a partnership funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, established to combat fly-tipping in these areas. It has more than 1,000 volunteers who work to remove waste from the uplands.

Volunteers removed 13 tonnes of waste including mattresses, furniture, toys, bed frames and domestic waste.

Pure Project Pure Project

The project said there has been a general reduction in the amount of illegal dumping in these areas over the last two years, however. 

“I remember driving around the Wicklow/Dublin Uplands in 2007 and 2008 and being appalled at the amount of illegal dumping that I saw,” said Pure manager Ian Davis.

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, which is a reduction of over 60%, the lowest amount we ever removed from the upland areas.

Pure Project Pure Project

Over the last two years the organisation has also installed CCTV units at a number of sites that were continually affected by dumpers.

Pure said the footage obtained clearly identified people involved in both littering, and illegal dumping and resulted in a number of people receiving fines. One case was also brought before the courts last year and resulted in a criminal prosecution and a large fine.

A number of other cases involving people caught on covert CCTV are currently under investigation by Wicklow County Council, and Pure said it is “confident that the local authority will proceed with court prosecutions this year”.

Pure Project Pure Project

“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,” Davis said.

“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.”