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Ireland is grappling with a series of challenges that are impacting our citizens’ quality of life. TheJournal.ie is examining solutions to these issues which have worked or are currently being trialled in other states and asking: Would It Work Here?
LITTER LEVELS ACROSS Ireland are undoubtedly on the rise.
Walking down a street in any city, town or village anywhere in the country will indicate this but hard data confirms it.
The latest survey results from IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter) found just 70% of the towns and cities surveyed were clean to European norms, compared to 85% two years ago.
Three urban areas were deemed to be seriously littered – Galvone in Limerick, Farranree in Cork and Dublin’s North Inner City.
Meanwhile in Galway, the latest IBAL survey described dumping across the city as a ‘critical environmental issue’ – just this week thousands of empty Buckfast bottles were found after the River Claddagh was drained as part of upgrade works.
Dublin City Centre and Limerick both slipped to join Galway as ‘moderately littered’ in the IBAL research.
And the problem doesn’t stop in cities or, indeed, at general litter such as food wrappers and cigarette butts.
Human excrement was found in a playground in Clonakilty in Co Cork this week. Disgusting, yes; unusual, perhaps not.
One mother told TheJournal.ie that this is something she has witnessed in her local playground in Dublin and at a rural area in Tipperary.
So what can be done about this?
The cleanest countries in the world tend to top leaderboards because of certain cultures and ways of life.
Japanese football fans made headlines for cleaning up rubbish in a stadium during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
In Japanese culture, it’s considered appropriate to clean up after yourself at public events such as concerts, festivals and sports games.
However, there are exceptions and it is not always just the cultural values of a place which dictate how clean it can be.
The island of Singapore has managed to transform itself from a swampy land mass to one of the cleanest places in the world.
How did it do it? Strict fines. Really strict fines.
A person can be fined, or even arrested, for littering, spitting or selling chewing gum.
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew introduced the severe anti-litter laws in the 1960s and they are still in force today.
People can be fined up to $1,000 (€670) for dropping litter on their first conviction, going up to $5,000 (€3,355) for repeat offenders.
If you’re caught a third time you could even be made to wear a sign reading, “I am a litter lout.”
You can also be fined $100 (€67) for putting your chewed gum anywhere that’s not a bin and there’s a $100 fine for not flushing a public toilet. Yes, spot checks are carried out.
Would it work here?
We already have fines here so the problem isn’t a lack of laws. There is, however, a lack of implementation.
Littering in a public place is an offence in Ireland that can be subject to an on-the-spot fine of €150, or a maximum fine of €3,000 if convicted in a District Court.
If a person continues this after being convicted, they are guilty of a further offence and can be fined up to €600 for each day it continues.
In serious incidents, there is a maximum fine of up to €130,000 and a fine of up to €10,000 per day for continuing offences.
However, while we may have the legislation around littering, very few fines that are issued are actually paid.
In the years 2014 and 2015 Dublin council paid €670,000 and €640,000 respectively to collect illegally dumped litter but those who are fined for the offence simply aren’t coughing up.
Of the 6,259 fines issued across Dublin city between 2013 and 2015 – only 2,042 were paid in full with a further 77 fines being partially paid.
The issue is not limited to Dublin city, less than half of all fines issued in Cork city since 2012 have been paid.
What’s our problem?
So why do fines work in Singapore but not here? Ireland is not alone in this. Many countries struggle with litter, and our neighbours in the UK have similar issues.
Britain has carried out extensive research on the effectiveness – or ineffectiveness – of fines which found that people who have seen or heard about fines being issued through media reports are more likely to think they are effective.
A report on the Effectiveness of Enforcement on Behaviour Change stated:
Attitudes to enforcement are greatly shaped by the degree to which an individual sees them as a threat – and many do not think it is likely they will be fined for environmental offences.
It also stated that, “A fixed penalty notice should only be issued where there is enough evidence to support a prosecution, so in the event that it is not paid, an authority will be able to follow it up in court.”
Dublin councillor Ciaran Perry echoed this describing how the current system means the chance an an illegal dumper getting prosecuted is slim but said “illegal dumpers should fear getting caught”.
It doesn’t look like Ireland will clean up its act as long as people feel they are able to get away with it.
So would you support stricter fines for littering?
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Dublin City Council had CCTV of dumping near the Five Lamps in Dublin 1 and they made a poster with photos of dumpers and protected it with a perspex cover. It was a great success and one local demanded it be taken down as neighbours could identify her. Haha public shaming. Last I heard the Data Protection office got involved. Seems a very cheap and effective idea to me. Expand please :)
Some local kids graffitied and had a group photo of their work. They posted it on social media. Someone printed it off and put it by the offending graffiti. Didn’t see any more of that graffiti. Here’s hoping their parents saw their photo. Fair play to whomever did that – it worked.
It’s time for producers of products to make all packaging recyclable. And/or bring back return money for bottles and cans.
@Michael McLoughlin: was just thinking that naming and shaming would be a suitable way to deter littering. Another solution could be to educate the nation of the benefits of recycling their rubbish with a view to generating energy. Incineration is good for this but requires a constant supply of rubbish so it’s unsustainable so I recommend a bill to reduce the use of non biodegradable packaging and plastics.
I would love to see how many people received a fine last year
The place is filthy and people have neither manners nor respect for their surroundings. If they were fined heavily and made do 500 hours of ditch clearing, litter picking, and graffiti cleaning each, that should help.
The roads sides are littered with coffee cups and plastic bottles and fast food packageing thrown from cars every major road and back lane u see them. We filled 14 bags of them last year durning the Kerry county clean up on one 2 mile stretch of road.
A major problem, particularly in Dublin, is the lack of bins — and particularly bins that are not overflowing and/or damaged. You can walk huge parts of Dublin and either not see a bin, or find one that is stuffed to the gills with rubbish. It’s 8am on Sunday so why am I commenting on The Journal? Long story.
@can’t even: That’s a cop out. You know what they do in singapore? They bring their rubbish home.
It’s ridiculous expecting a bin everywhere you turn. Take responsibility for your own waste.
A disturbing trend of people when out in public feel the need to eat and drink when at the smallest event like going to the supermarket. This “Comfort ” eating always leads to the problem of what to do with the wrapper or container when finished. It’s not always someone else’s fault for not having bins.
Those pesky comfort eaters. Always trying to get away with something.
@can’t even: and David Convoy unfortunately some people will never take their own rubbish home with them or take responsibility so provision of enough bins especially in busy areas will help with the problem. It won’t stop it but it would help.
You have to ask yourself Do the people that throw rubbish on the streets, roads, etc do the same thing in their homes. They obviously have no respect for themselves never mind where they live. I’ve a dog & walk her daily. I se so many people walking dogs & leaving dog poo ehere ever their dog did a poop. I once offered a bag to an owner to clean up afther their dog. Was told to fuxk off with myself & if I wanted it cleaned up to go do it myself. You wonder what their back garden is like.
@bings: I viewed a house in a Dublin suburb last year, there were a pair of dogs barking in the neighbors garden.
When I got upstairs I could see they had paved the whole garden and it was littered all over with dog faeces.
Needless to say it was a reason to look elsewhere.
Litterbugs are as filthy at home as they are in public.
It’s a mentality in some places. Dublin North inner city where I grew up is terrible for it. I see kids all the time just fling stuff out of their hands, adults leave bags on corners to avoid bin charges and the council has removed bins because people put household waste in and around them again to avoid charges. The only way to catch them is to do what Joan did for social welfare fraud, reward those who tell tales on the naughties.
@Phil Swan: yeah there’s a certain distance from the corner shop where the crisp packets are discarded, no amount of bins or unapplied fines will fix that.
Probably the only thing that would work is to name & shame using community cctv as was done for fly tipping.
Bar them from the shop then.
Another avenue is to accept clips from cyclists and car dash cams.
I saw a passenger throw a McDonald’s coffee cup out the window of a car, it wasn’t legible in the video but they are improving in leaps and bounds. The authorities should be able to fine the car owner as responsible party.
There is a wider issue here with people taking responsibility for their own surroundings. The more the council cleans up after people, the more they continue to think it’s OK to litter! Bring back deposits for cans, bottles, tins and jars. Get very very strict on dog owners not cleaning after their dogs & disposing of it correctly!
I agree with getting strict on dog owners who don’t clean up but how about more bins. I complained to the council about bagged dog poop in Balmayne park as it was beyond belief the amount and where they place a bin the problem is gone. More bins, stricter fines and collection of them and a better education of our children on this matter
Definately. It also really gets on my nerves when leaving the cinema – the mess people leave behind them for staff to clear up. Accudentally spilling ur popcorn/drink is one thing but is it so hard to just collect your wrappers, drink or popcorn box and put it in the bin on the way out the door!
Country roads around mallow are filthy littered with old furniture mattresses. plastic bags and people’s waste..its not being picked up so it’s getting much worse.. its disgusting
All these light sentences handed out by our all knowing judges could be made less annoying to the public if they attached something like a one hour a day litter removal for a length of time in their local area.
Ban cheeing gum
Walk through any Town around 6am before the street cleaners start their routine & the main streets are filthy with used take away & the stench of urine does be terrible. Make you wonder how these peoples Caves look?
Not to be making excuses but the amount of human waste might have something to do with the lack of public toilets. Take Dublin city centre for example. I cannot Be 100% sure but it use to be a case that there was no public toilets. If you need to use the bathroom you had to go into a pub or restaurant etc who are not always welcoming to someone that’s not a customer. The problem gets worst after chucking out time on any given night.
Litter fines are a cash cow to London councils where about 100,000 fines are issued each year, at £75 a time. The can only be appealed through the courts – and the finest are issued by private firms who are incentivised.
Who’s going to vote no in fairness??
I was going to, because the article goes through all the existing laws and fines that exist, mentions the need for better enforcement and then, in perfect symmetry with every government and local authority in Ireland, the poll asks whether we should increase the fines, with no question of whether we should increase the enforcement levels. That’s Ireland to a tee: make a law, don’t enforce it, react to the public outcry by making a new law with draconian fines, but still don’t enforce it, repeat until no one wants the law enforced because consequences are unfair (eg: 5 points for no NCT).
I did, because if people won’t pay the current fine amounts there’s no possibility of anyone paying more. Keep the fines smaller , manageable for most people with rigourous enforcement.
@Type17: The poll didn’t ask if we agreed with increasing fines. It asks: “So would you support stricter fines for littering?”
The fines we have are adequate. It’s strictly enforcing them that’s the issue.
Litter went down significantly a few years ago with the “Litter is disgusting / so are those responsible” ad campaign. We had a little forward thinking for a change and then regressed to not giving a crap.
Though the last one isn’t quite true as some people are literally leaving their crap on the streets and in playgrounds.
Stop government support for selfish stupid humans who exist only to create more selfish stupid humans, we seem to reward those who behave the most irresponsible in this country. They grow up with no moral compass and massive sense of entitlement, and it’s always those areas that have biggest problem. Get to the source of problem instead of treating the symptoms.
Our education system is sadly lacking…
Show your Bin Tags or Bin collection payments each year when you
pay tour Property Tax or collect any Soc. wellfare payment like Dole etc.
match the PRT to The Bin Collection Companies Invoices etc
Our resource people need to be doing a full 8 hour shift….
Litter wardens in every town with a 10-20 euro on the spot fine or a day in court and 1000 euro fines, the revenue generated goes to pay the wages of the wardens.
Job creation at no expense to the public coffers and cleaner streets, excess revenue goes to providing more public bins so there is no excuse for littering.
Dog muck and fag butts alone would raise a small fortune.
I think the problem is enforcement and if people were made do community litter clean up service or face a really hefty fine , they might think twice about it . Education , plastic packaging reduction ,can returns at shops ,bottle returns , there are many solutions but little action on the part of the governments to solve it. Many community groups are doing their bit but government and councils aren’t
at bundesliga games they all drink their cans and bottles outside the ground and then the homeless people collect them as they get money bag for recycling it
Blimey. I knew Buckfast was sold in Ireland but I didn’t realise it had acquired the same association with yobbery/trashiness it has in Scotland.
If everything was made biodegradable it wouldn’t really be a problem
Get the people on the dole and the people who are doing community service to do this!
@Linda Hughes: people on the dole are already doing this through CE schemes . It still does nothing to catch the culprits who are from many walks of life until this addressed nothing will ever be solved..
I just posted a video yesterday of black bags of litter dumped in a country picnic area close to me. As far as I know no one has ever been prosecuted for this.
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