asks Skibbereen Tidy Towns
The Oxford Dictionary defines litter as “rubbish such as paper, cans, and bottles left lying in an open or public place.” The practice of fly-tipping is defined as “to illegally dump waste.” While both these practices might be regarded by some as one and the same, it is important to understand the distinction in the search for solutions. Have a look at the photos in the featured image collage. Some are examples of litter, others of illegal dumping. This month’s blog post focuses on litter.
Ciara Kelly on her Lunchtime Live programme on the radio station Newstalk, recently interviewed Conor Horgan of Irish Business against Litter about picking up other people’s litter. Ciara asked ‘do we all have a civic duty to pick up litter when we see it, regardless of whether its our own’ and Conor responded that ‘it’s central to a cleaner world’. He continued ‘many people believe that it is the responsibility of the local authority but this won’t get us a cleaner environment’.
Tidy Towns groups up and down the country are involved in tidiness and litter control as a key judging category of the annual competition.
Litter management, however, is an all year round effort and needs to involve the entire community from young to old, from private citizens to business enterprises, local authorities and beyond. 
A recent visit by Skibbereen Tidy Towns to the senior classes of St. Joseph’s national school was as much a learning experience for the guest speakers as it was for the children who were very aware of the harm that litter is causing to our planet and indeed to their future.
So, what are we going to do about it? Well, there are probably lots of things we can all do without much effort. Here are just three –
- Take a walk and look around you.
If you see litter, don’t walk past it. Pick it up, keep a small bag in your pocket and drop the litter in a public bin or take it home. We know that some of our Facebook followers already do this and we thank you. A recent Facebook poll of our followers indicated that 96% of 101 respondents felt there were too few litter bins in Skibbereen. We agree, but that’s not an excuse to drop litter. A #2minutestreetclean is easy, here’s how to do it:
2. Perhaps you don’t have time to pick any litter?
One of our volunteers was in this position last week. She regularly does a #2minutestreetclean when out walking with her dogs, but this particular day she went for a walk without them and enjoy the scenery around the town. There wasn’t much enjoyment however. Along a 1.3km stretch of High Street and Gortnaclohy Road she logged about 180 pieces of litter with the camera on her smartphone. Why? To record on the OpenLitterMap and enable the Tidy Towns group to focus on this area for a targeted #litterpick. Creating open data in this manner allows anyone to access the detailed information for use in many ways in a way that closed data does not. Check out the global map, zone in on Skibbereen and you can see the photos of the litter captured by one person in just one month from 15 October 2018.
3. Don’t be blind to litter.
By all means express disappointment, disgust and even outrage at the state of our litter problem but above all, please take action. A simple #2minutestreetclean outside your house or business premises, in your estate or joining a targeted #litterpick will make a difference. Litter is not someone else’s problem, we can all do our bit to help, let’s just open our eyes to see it.
For regular updates please subscribe to this newsletter and follow us on Facebook or Twitter.
If you are interested in becoming involved with Skibbereen Tidy Towns please contact us at 087-6220132 or by email at skibbereentidytowns@icloud.com. Upcoming volunteering events are posted in advance on our social media channels.
Featured image collage courtesy of Sandra Flynn
Skibbereen Tidy Towns 