Illegal dumping in the landscape is cause for serious concern and a growing problem for many communities. Dumping is illegal, unsightly and unnecessary, causing serious problems to habitats, species, and human health. It pollutes our water courses, damages soil nutrients, encroaches on habitat space, kills insects and animals, and is a threat to both the people who live in the area and recreational users.
PURE (Protecting Uplands & Rural Environments) was officially launched in September 2006. The PURE project is a regional initiative, the first of its kind in Ireland, and incorporates local authorities including Wicklow County Council, South Dublin County Council, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Dublin City Council, as well as Coillte, National Parks & Wildlife Service, Fáilte Ireland, and a number of non-statutory organisations represented by the Wicklow Uplands Council, to halt incidents of small-scale illegal dumping/fly-tipping in the Wicklow/Dublin upland regions.
In a time when the majority of the public continually strive to enhance our natural environment, a minority number of people undermine these actions by needlessly dumping rubbish in our landscape. On a monthly basis, the PURE project collects over 30 tonnes of illegally dumped rubbish from the upland areas. The PURE project encounter varying degrees of indiscriminate acts of illegal dumping, from a single black bag left on a roadside to tonnes of illegally dumped rubbish in a forest. There is no need for illegal dumping as all local recycling centres accept unwanted goods such as glass, cans, plastics, plastic bottles and containers, cardboard, newspaper and magazines, office paper, batteries, and much more. Material not accepted at recycling centres can be brought to your nearest landfill site.
Under the government’s Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), your local recycling centre will also accept all of your old electrical appliances (fridges, washing machines, cookers, TVs etc) FREE OF CHARGE. Alternatively, if you are replacing and electrical appliance, the retailer must take back the used one FREE OF CHARGE. Despite these free alternatives, however, the PURE truck continues to regularly collect electrical appliances from the landscape. There is no reason why any of this material should end up in our environment.
When you see dumping in the Wicklow/Dublin Uplands, Lo-Call 1800 365 123 and the PURE project will remove it
PURE
Wicklow Mountains National Park
Kilafin
Laragh
Bray
Co. Wicklow
Phone: (0404) 45547
Email: info@pureproject.ie
Web: www.pureproject.ie