Two Co Wexford volunteers collect 45kgs of rubbish including a discarded pregnancy test

Chairperson of Kilanerin Tidy Towns, Damien Meaney said the already obvious problem of littering was highlighted to the group and the wider community in stark terms this month following a litter pick by two local residents on a busy entrance road to the village.

“Two of our members picked 344 items of litter weighing 45kgs on a 3km stretch of this road recently in just over an hour. The same stretch of road had been picked clean just four weeks previously so this highlights the amount of roadside littering going on unhindered,” said Damien.

The 344 items of litter collected included 150 empty drink containers, 200 items of sandwich wrapping, takeaway packaging or coffee cups and other miscellaneous items such as an auctioneer’s sign, a hand saw and a used pregnancy testing kit.

“The 3km section of road in Kilanerin that has had the 344 litter drops in a four week period, or 12 per day on average, carries about 600 vehicle movements a day so it is clear the problem is caused by a small minority of road users of around 2 per cent who have no consideration for their actions or the state they leave the public roads for their fellow motorists,” said Damien.

Members of Kilanerin Tidy Towns have been carrying out regular litter picks over the last 10 years and have not noticed any decrease in the amount of roadside litter, if anything it has increased during that period.

“Any tidy towns group in the county will tell you that they are facing much the same issue as we are here in Kilanerin. If we consider that Wexford has approximately 3,000 kilometres of roads and we take our section of road as a barometer, that more or less equates to over 4,000,000 individual pieces of litter or over 500 tonnes or 20 truckloads of rubbish being discarded into our ditches and hedgerows each year across the county,” said Damien.

Leaving or throwing litter in a public place is an offence that can be subject to an on-the-spot fine of €150.

Kilanerin Tidy Towns has won several awards in recent years for their efforts to keep their community clean and beautiful including the Gold Standard Award for their participation in the 2023 North Wexford 2K Clean. They’ve also won first prize in the Most Environmentally Aware and Presented Town/Village at the 2023 Keep Wexford Beautiful Awards.

“We’re not suggesting for a moment that the council either has the time or the resources to find or fine each and every litterbug.”

"However, some enforcement of existing litter laws would act as a deterrent to the people who are casually disposing of their waste into our beautiful countryside. There is also a need to increase awareness of the problem through a countywide publicity campaign through social media and within the educational system,” said Damien.