Littering across Louth overwhelming resources of Louth County Council

The clean up of littering in Louth is overwhelming the resources of Louth County Council, and nationally, the amount of littering has jumped exponentially, councillors were told at the Louth County Council February meeting.

Director of Services, Catherine Duff, was responding to a query from Cllr Antóin Watters, who had raised the issue of littering throughout the county at the February meeting. Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Watters, said that a lot of their social media posts related to littering in the county, mentioning places including Dunleer and Edentubber, places that recently saw illegal dumping taking place.

Cllr Watters put forward that if a case study was done, then he thought the cost to the council for the clean up would probably be a lot more than the €150 fine that would have been issued. He added that he would have a question for the next Dundalk Municipal District meeting to find out how many people are paying the fines, but he would also love to see if a case study could be done "because I'd say its thousands we are spending each month".

Ms Duff said that the Council needed a task force to look at the issue because excess littering was taking place on a county wide basis.

Cllr Edel Corrigan asked if there was a possibility that instead of fixed fixed fines, would there be any way that they could include the cost of the clean up and if the amount of the fine could be increased.

Cllr John Sheridan also spoke on the matter, highlighting his motion on the circular economy at the June 2021 county meeting. Cllr Sheridan's motion at the time called on the Council to write to the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government to lobby for an introduction of EPR (Extended producer responsibility) on bulky household items including mattresses and couches, similar to the WEEE initiative, which introduced a scheme of free recycling for old electrical goods via retailers.

Cllr Sheridan said that there was no reply from the Minister at the time, and put forward that the Council write to him again on the matter, as the WEEE initiatve had resulted in electrical goods like fridges and washing machines no longer being dumped.

Responding to the councillors, Catherine Duff said that the fines are statutory amounts so they can't change them. Ms Duff added that if the dumping occurs on private property then the Council will try to resolve the issue with the person and that fines are only issued if the issue is unresolved.

Ms Duff went on to say that mattresses are an issue but there was probably a bigger issue around casual littering, and the inability to use CCTV has been a hinder to the Council. She added that they have been told that that issue will be resolved a but further added that “it can't happen soon enough”.

Cllr Watters asked if the councillors might have any input on the task force. The Director for Services replied to say that it had not met yet. Chief Executive Joan Martin said that it was an exploratory plan and that she wanted a group of staff from across the council to examine the legal side of it and all the options that are available.

"The littering is largely coffee cups, plastic bottles, drink cans, casual littering thrown out of car windows", she added, saying that she wanted the Council staff to examine the issue in detail and to come back with potential options, to see what additional actions they might be able to take. She further added that they would welcome any information that anyone had.