Litter & Visual Pollution on the Motorway Network

Solair

Simple : if you're caught littering you should get a community service order cleaning motorway verges.

A weekend with a high vis jacket, a rubbish lifting tongs and a black bag would be quite a serious deterrent.

Don't show up : €1000 fine.

emfifty

MYOB wrote: »

We have one, its called the NRA... extend their powers rather than form ANOTHER QUANGO.

well as fred barry (NRA) says, "there's no funding" so they aint bothered. it looks like most road management contracts are going to the private sector anyway which is probably a good thing. e.g. M50 concession now responsible for maintenance on the m50.

emfifty

Solair wrote: »

Simple : if you're caught littering you should get a community service order cleaning motorway verges.

A weekend with a high vis jacket, a rubbish lifting tongs and a black bag would be quite a serious deterrent.

Don't show up : €1000 fine.

great idea.:)

sdanseo

MYOB wrote: »

We have one, its called the NRA... extend their powers rather than form ANOTHER QUANGO.

Take that point actually, make them the highways agency as it were. Fleet of vehicles and authorised officers is all they need, one or two million would sort the issue.

GeneHunt

murphaph wrote: »

The answer lies in detecting and SEVERELY punishing the culprits. It's an afront to society which really gets my goat. I would punish this and vandalism etc. with a couple of weeks in prison, even for a first offence.

Prisons aren't places for people who dump rubbish....

Solair wrote: »

Simple : if you're caught littering you should get a community service order cleaning motorway verges.

A weekend with a high vis jacket, a rubbish lifting tongs and a black bag would be quite a serious deterrent.

+1, it is a great idea.:)

A weekend for the first offence, second offence 5 weeks cleaning road side verges, and so on....

I wouldn't have a high vis jacket but a high vis jump suit and they should be picked up from their door by a mini bus with appropriate signage! So the neighbourhood all get the message too!

Some of the rubbish (full black bags) on the M2 (Ashbourne bypass) looks like they were dumped systematically - ie about 50 meters apart, which to me indicates a vehicle (possibly a van) driven by one person and another in the back throwing bag after bag out the side door....

IMO the problem could stems from the recession and people can't afford the bin charges on top of all the other repayments... so I disagree that it's down to a 2 or 3 euro charge at recycle centres...

furtzy

GeneHunt wrote: »

Some of the rubbish (full black bags) on the M2 (Ashbourne bypass) looks like they were dumped systematically - ie about 50 meters apart, which to me indicates a vehicle (possibly a van) driven by one person and another in the back throwing bag after bag out the side door....

These are actually the bags of rubbish that the councils/NRA have collected from the verges. They just haven't bothered to remove them yet....strange I know

murphaph

GeneHunt wrote: »

Prisons aren't places for people who dump rubbish....

Even for repeat offenders?

I consider littering, vandalism etc. to be an attack on society, ie, all of us, so should receive serious punishments.

d4v1d

murphaph wrote: »

Even for repeat offenders?

I consider littering, vandalism etc. to be an attack on society, ie, all of us, so should receive serious punishments.

while i certainly detest littering i wouldn't ever consider it an offence punishable by a prison sentence. lets not allow violent/sexual offenders walk about the streets because a bed was taken by someone that threw some rubbish away.

people caught littering should be given a public service order to clean up litter. give them the option of a fine with a record or public service with no record and then we'd start seeing some places getting cleaned up.

what i would see changed is that people who smash glass in public areas to be not given the option, they get a fine and public service with a record. i hate litter but i despise broken glass on the streets.

the biggest problem is mainly down to how the waste issue is handled. for as long as people have to pay to get rubbish removed, they will look for cheaper alternatives. if the cost of waste was included in our taxes it would mean that poeple wouldn't have the excuse that it was to save money. i find it hilarious in this country that we get water, which costs the state millons, for free yet we have the pay to get rubbish removed. it's a completely failed policy that is destroying our countryside.

and there will always be ignorant people that just throw something out the car window. but if we can cut down on the black bags it would be a start.

GeneHunt

d4v1d wrote: »

i find it hilarious in this country that we get water, which costs the state millons, for free yet we have the pay to get rubbish removed. it's a completely failed policy that is destroying our countryside.

Free water is coming to an end!:(

this link below is from RTE News on Monday last

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0419/environment.html

murphaph

d4v1d wrote: »

the biggest problem is mainly down to how the waste issue is handled. for as long as people have to pay to get rubbish removed, they will look for cheaper alternatives. if the cost of waste was included in our taxes it would mean that poeple wouldn't have the excuse that it was to save money. i find it hilarious in this country that we get water, which costs the state millons, for free yet we have the pay to get rubbish removed. it's a completely failed policy that is destroying our countryside.

Paying for waste removal is standard in many places, including really clean places like Switzerland. If people didn't have to pay for this, there would be no incentive to recycle etc. so it does serve a purpose. The problem is that littering has not been seen as a serious offence for so long, that it continues. No real effort is made to find the culprits.

L1011

Saw street sweepers doing the H/S of the Kildare BP and the outer lane / median strip of Cashel-Mitchelstown (guarded by a rolling roadblock and three vans with lane close signs behind it) on Thursday - first time I've seen this done!

munchkin_utd

whilst not focusing exclusively on Motorways, the NRA is getting a slap on its wrists for the mountains of litter on the nations roads.

Key tourist routes blighted by litter - survey
Monday, 26 April 2010 07:46
A new survey on litter has found that key routes for tourists are being ruined by large amounts of rubbish.

The survey by Irish Business Against Litter described Dublin's airport road as 'an appalling sight', routes in and out of Cork city as litter blackspots and the route to Shannon airport as 'heavily littered'.

Surveyors from An Taisce also called the capital's Port Tunnel 'an eyesore'.

Fáilte Ireland has said this litter problem poses a serious threat to the credibility of our clean, green image as a tourist destination.

This new survey paints a worrying picture for our tourism industry, because the first thing visitors see is large amounts of litter.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0426/litter.html

damoz

I did hear them on the radio this morning, and am glad its getting some attention. I emaied the NRA, Bord Failite and Cork Coco about the M8. Bord Failte said they would raise the matter with the NRA. The NRA and the CoCo said they dont have any money !

I agree with the one off deep clean followed by strick enforcement and punishment for offenders. As i posted before i would also have some scheme where long term unemployed would do some community service in order to keep their benefits. This would reduce the cost of maintainance, and give them some incentive to get out and work.

GeneHunt

Mary Wilson - Drivetime RTE radio one this evening also covered this subject, I didn't hear all of the report yet, just the end of it, the report is on from 6.30 till 7pm ( 6.50pm I caught the it)


Drivetime link, (note this link is only available till next Monday...)

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/player_av.html?0,null,200,http://dynamic.rte.ie/quickaxs/209-r1-drivetime-Monday.smil

and the news report link

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0426/litter.html

mysterious

If everyone made an effort to clean things up (despite the few irresponsible minded) things would improve greatly.

All you need to do is focus on your local area, and the next person focuses on his or her local area.

If anyone rubbishes on motorways, give them a 2000 euro fine if cot. Also gardai should penalise anyone on the spot cot littering. More signs should be put on motorways "no littering"

And every little helps too. By informing others not to litter and teaching your children the principles of been respectful and tidy with nature.

Ban Ki Moon

As our national debt increases (due mainly to bank bail-outs) the government will see operating motorways as costly.Their solution will be to sell off this infrastructure to private companies to operate,thus,implement tolls.

M7 from Dublin to Portlaois is a big target !

mysterious

Ban Ki Moon wrote: »

As our national debt increases (due mainly to bank bail-outs) the government will see operating motorways as costly.Their solution will be to sell off this infrastructure to private companies to operate,thus,implement tolls.

M7 from Dublin to Portlaois is a big target !

Em no. What is this got to do with littering? There will be no toll on this section of route, unless of course you want to give money to it. Which I believe is just getting a bit to naive in this actual topical debate.

BluntGuy

mysterious wrote: »

If anyone rubbishes on motorways, give them a 2000 euro fine if cot. Also gardai should penalise anyone on the spot cot littering. More signs should be put on motorways "no littering"

Take it a step further, "No Littering - €500 FINE" signage. And even though I don't agree with laybys on motorways, since they're there, and since they're littering hotspots they should have operational CCTV. We're not going to catch everyone this way, but if even a few people start getting caught, the message will eventually catch on. Even less expensively, they could provide a bin or two!

KevR

BluntGuy wrote: »

Take it a step further, "No Littering - €500 FINE" signage. And even though I don't agree with laybys on motorways, since they're there, and since they're littering hotspots they should have operational CCTV. We're not going to catch everyone this way, but if even a few people start getting caught, the message will eventually catch on. Even less expensively, they could provide a bin or two!

Agree about bins and CCTV in rest areas until the MSAs are open.

They have these signs in Galway City. Granted, there is nowhere near enough enforcement to backup these signs but it's a start. I think if you get caught littering you can either pay an on-the-spot fine of €70-90 (not sure exactly) or you could end up paying a €1,900 fine if you refuse the on-the-spot fine.

mrrepublic

I traveled the PPP section of motorway M7/M8 on two occassions last week and this was the only motorway in which I saw any litter picking activities

Amtmann

mrrepublic wrote: »

I traveled the PPP section of motorway M7/M8 on two occassions last week and this was the only motorway in which I saw any litter picking activities

That's one of the best maintained sections I think.

runway16

E-mail the operating companies and councils. If they get enough e-mails, they might do something. The M50, and in particular, M50SB TO N4OB, M50SB TO N7OB, and M50SB to N3OB are a disgrace. I sent an email to m50 company, not even a reply.... maybe strength of numbers might do it?

Solair

I am regularly seeing trucks carrying recycling with no top cover.
This seems to go a long way to explaining why light household waste i.e. cardboard packaging is ending up strewn everywhere.

There's definitely some littering involved too, but the recycling industry needs to get its act together and have properly enclosed vehicles too!