Faced with a mountain of illegally dumped household waste, ACR+ member, Dublin is working to tackle the problem. In the six months to April 2016, the council’s North Inner City Litter Action Group investigated 4,000 bags of illegally dumped rubbish. Ultimately the council published photographs of people dumping in a bid to discourage them and others.

The scale of the problem is severe. Figures up to March 2016  show that 54 per cent of Dublin City Council households had not signed up to any authorised waste collection service despite a legal obligation to do so. The council said the cost of disposing of illegally dumped waste in 2015 was 640,000 euro. South Dublin County Council spent 1.3 million euro in 2015 disposing of waste illegally dumped on roads and public spaces. The figure excludes street sweepings and litter bins.

The problem is not just Dublin-based for instance early 800 cases of littering were investigated by Kerry County Council in 2015 and in Longford, Leitrim and Roscommon, research carried out by Shannonside Northern Sound found just 17 cases of littering or illegal dumping were successfully prosecuted through the courts in 2015.

Source: www.irishtimes.com