A life in rubbish

Litter. What is it in our culture that has made us such a filthy, thoughtless nation? It's as if we were born with some gene that makes it an entirely natural instinct, even compulsion, to litter the environment.

All over Ireland, in ditches, canals and rivers, at the side of the road, near beaches, in fields and bogs, there are dirty nappies, plastic bags, wrecked cars, broken fridges and household rubbish by the sackload.

Every year, it's so predictable. The tourists come and gasp aghast, provoking the familiar weary rituals: a spate of letters in the papers, a flurry of noises from the Government, young schoolchildren doing clean-ups, temporary public shame.

In the long-term, litter has been one of Ireland's most embarrassing and seemingly unsolvable problems. Nothing seems to work. Nothing changes. Or might it be slowly changing now, with the passing of the Litter Pollution Act in July of last year?

These litter laws are the most wide-ranging to be passed in this country. To enforce these laws, there are now 45 full-time and 95 part-time litter wardens throughout the Republic. They have the authority to issue fines and start proceedings for prosecutions of offenders.

Like the first elusive cuckoo, people are beginning to watch out for litter wardens, not terribly certain that they actually exist. In Dublin, there will shortly be 14 full-time wardens, employed by Dublin Corporation, including two who patrol the city in their mobile vans. From this week, there will be an extra 140 staff on street-cleaning duties for the summer in the Dublin area alone. So what do litter wardens actually do? To find out, The Irish Times joined one of Dublin's two mobile vans for a morning. Small, white and nifty, one of these vans patrols the northside seven days a week and the second one travels the southside.

Des Malone worked as a street cleaner for Dublin Corporation. But for the past year he has been driving the southside van.

He loves his new job. "The thing that used to kill me was when I'd sweep a street and then I'd look back and see someone throwing papers down on it. If that happens now, we can fine the offender," he explains, driving along Leeson Street, people giving second glances as they clock the Dublin Corporation Litter Warden moniker on the side of the van. There's a skip on St Stephen's Green, which Des looks at with an expert eye. "That's way too full. Once it goes up too much beyond the level, the skip company won't want to collect it, because they'll be fined. What'll happen here is either that the skip company will chance taking it away, and it'll be fined by us if we spot the lorry and get the reg, because it's illegal to have it that full, or we'll take it away ourselves. There's a charge of £500 for that, to the skip company."

Every pole and lamp-post seems to have a `Vote Yes' poster attached to it. "If they don't come down within seven days of the referendum, there's a fine due of £25 on each. The political parties always pay their fines, though. They don't want the bad publicity of going to court."

What's the big space in the back of the van for? "Auctioneers' signs. They're a curse. They're not permitted to put up signs anywhere except in the garden of the house that's for sale. There's a few back there at the moment." Des grins. "I have a special tool for getting them down. That's in the back too." There's also an instamatic camera. "I need to take pictures of rubbish sometimes if I think I'll need it as evidence in court."

Des's mobile phone rings - the first of many calls from the public he takes during the morning, concerning illegal dumping. This one is about rubbish left in Windmill Road, Crumlin. "On my way," Des says, a glint in his eye.

We drive up and down Windmill Road. Nothing untoward. "We get a lot of hoax calls," Des reports fretfully. "Maybe this is one." Then he spots the offending laneway. There's a big heap of junk dumped at the end of it, clearly visible from the road, something which is now illegal. We get out of the van and go to investigate.

There's an old washing machine, a broken chest of drawers, lots of cable and wires, and several opened bags spilling with papers.

"Look at the bags," Des instructs. "Full of oily newspapers. I bet they'll be from a garage." He speculates that the bags were opened by people after copper. "They'll have taken whatever there is from those wires and searched the bags for more." He raps on the laneway door closest to the rubbish. There is no reply. "What happens now is I'll send someone in to collect this and then they'll go through it at the depot, looking for something to link those bags with a person. We always find something."

BACK in the van, he keeps an eye on people out walking their dogs. "The dog dirt is worse than the bags left outside houses. At least we can try and identify the owners of the rubbish, but unless you see it happening, you can't tell whose dog has crapped on the pavement."

Dog owners are obliged to clean up after their dogs, with the exception of farm dogs and guide dogs. The foot patrol litter wardens issue the majority of dog-dirt fines. A number of people have already been fined this week. "We've been instructed to go heavy on dog-dirt offenders from head office." Dog owners, take note.

We're heading towards Rathmines, down the South Circular Road. "These landlords of rented properties are our major problem." Des becomes very agitated. "Look!" he keeps saying. "Look over there and there!" He's referring to the bags of rubbish in front gardens, awaiting collection. He knows that it was bin day in this area the previous day. "So those bags will be there illegally for another week now," he says. "But we'll get them yet. We'll keep trying."

Des knows exactly which houses are rented, and which of the landlords he can name. Without names, he is powerless to fine or prosecute. In the year he has been on the road, he has built up a good relationship with residents' committees. "Sometimes they contact me with names or reports of rubbish. That way, we get the landlords." If Des ever leaves Dublin Corporation, he could probably apply for a job with the Special Branch.

The mobile rings again. It's a report of bags dumped in Ash Street, in the Liberties. Sure enough, when we get there, about a dozen, black bin bags are nestling under a tree. At the same time as we get there, Des Maloney, also of Dublin Corporation, has arrived with an electric cart to remove the rubbish. Bin day is not for another two days here.

Des and Des put on big boxing-type gloves, and start going through the bags, looking for clues to their owner's identity. People come to their front doors and stare.

"You have to be careful opening bags," Des warns, "because of the syringes". Do they come across many? He rolls his eyes. "It's phenomenal."

Six bags later, the smell is enough to knock birds from the trees. "Maggots. They're full of maggots," they report. They keep searching. "There has to be something," Des mutters. Then he finds a torn bank letter, with a name and address of one of the houses opposite. He is triumphant.

The Irish Times watches from a prudent distance while he marches over to the offending door and knocks. The owner is in. Stunned, he admits all the rubbish is his. He is not very happy, especially when Des returns a couple of minutes later with a fine form, a copy of which he keeps. "He has 21 days to pay. If he doesn't pay by then, he'll be in court. But 95 per cent of people pay up. They don't want the humiliation of appearing in court."

"I love this job." Des enthuses, driving down Dame Street. "We're making a difference. Dublin is much better than it was six months ago, and with the help of the public, it'll get better. Yesterday, Italian tourists came up to me and said that Dublin had really been cleaned up since they were last here. That just made my day. I couldn't wait to get back to the lads and tell them."

Louts' law

Some of the litter offences liable for fines:

Dropping papers or cigarette butts

Letting your dog foul a public area

Putting flyers under windscreen wipers

Handing out flyers on the street

Putting out household rubbish on the street before collection day

Not having your household rubbish tied up in proper bin bags

Having rubbish in your garden which is visible from a footpath or road

Putting up advertising posters anywhere except official billboards

Not keeping the area clean outside your commercial premises

Putting domestic rubbish in a street litter bin

Overfilling a skip