Council received 673 litter complaints
TIPPERARY Co Council received 673 litter-related complaints in 2022.
Despite accounting for 40% of all environment-related complaints received by the council last year, the number represents a significant decrease on the 1,056 litter complaints in 2021, and 1,262 complaints in 2022.
The figures are contained in the council’s Draft Litter Management Plan 2024-2026, which sets out the huge variety of initiatives run by the council in trying to tackle litter. These range from education initiatives in local schools to litter picks in communities to enforcement in the courts.
The council received a total of €211,600 between 2020 and 2022 for anti-dumping initiatives, which funded a number of different projects, including household hazardous waste collection days at the council’s civic amenity sites, mattress amnesty initiative, smart enforcement (purchase of drones) and the cleanup of dumping blackspots.
The council also allocated €182,550 to 122 Tidy Towns committees across Tipperary in 2022, while this year it supported 303 registered groups in the National Spring Clean organised by An Taisce. Some 6,600 volunteers took part and were supported by the council through the provision of litter pickers, bags and gloves, as well as the collection and disposal of collected waste.
The plan mentions that last year, volunteers collected some 8.8 tonnes of litter. “Without the hard work of these dedicated groups, Tipperary County Council would not be able to aspire to becoming a litter-free county.”
CIGARETTE LITTER
Cigarette-related litter accounts for by far the most litter found in Tipperary. A litter composition analysis conducted by the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System (NLPMS) found that cigarette-related litter made up 57% of all litter in Tipperary in 2021. It was followed by sweet (12.4%) and food (9.6%)-related litter.
“Cigarette litter is a particularly harmful form of litter,” the plan states. “In addition to containing plastic, filters are comprised of thousands of chemical ingredients, including arsenic, lead and nicotine, which can leak into waterways and be toxic to fish and marine species”. Disposable vaping devices are also mentioned as constituting not only single-use plastics, but also lithium batteries that are an “especially toxic form of litter”.
The NLPMS survey also revealed that 40% of litter was attributed to passing pedestrians and 20% to passing motorists, with 13% coming from retail outlets.
FINES DON’T GO FAR ENOUGH
A total of 118 litter fines were issued countywide last year. Again, this represents a significant decrease on the two previous years – 197 in 2021 and 213 in 2020. Five successful enforcement cases were brought by the council under the Litter Pollution Act last year compared to 13 the previous year and one in 2020. There were eight successful enforcement cases brought under the Waste Manager Act last year; two in each of the two preceding years.
Cllr John Carroll said it is “incredible” that the spot fine under the Litter Act remains just €150 when it costs the council five or six times that amount to prosecute offenders in court. The council should be able to prosecute litter offenders under the Waste Management Act, where they could face fines of up to €5,000, he said, adding that this would act as a much greater deterrent against littering.
As a related matter, Cllr Siobhán Ambrose asked if the many crutches being left at the council’s civic amenity centres could be brought to hospitals. She suggested that it should be possible to sterilise crutches so that they might be used again, rather than going to waste.