Illegal dumpers caught on CCTV to be named

An organisation set up to monitor illegal dumping in the Wicklow mountains has said it is going to "name and shame" dumpers.

Pure (Protecting Uplands and Rural Environments) removed 400 tonnes of rubbish last year, its first full year in operation, and fielded 800 phone calls on its illegal dumping hotline.

The organisation was set up in September 2006 by four local councils, Coillte, National Parks and Wildlife Service and the ESB to halt small-scale illegal dumping and fly-tipping in the Wicklow/Dublin upland regions.

The organisation said it had removed the equivalent of 700 small household skips dumped in the Wicklow mountain in the last year.

Last month it removed 15 tonnes of rubbish from a beauty spot in the Kilcara area of Co Wicklow, including toxic materials such as car batteries, solvents and paint cans.

The organisation estimates it will take nearly three weeks to clear up another location in the Vale of Avoca, where dumpers tipped between 15 and 20 tonnes of rubbish over a steep incline near the Meeting of the Waters.

Wicklow County Council secured around 40 prosecutions for illegal dumping last year, some after tip-offs from Pure.

The organisation's project manager, Ian Davis, said it has CCTV footage from cameras secretly placed at locations where illegal dumping has taken place, which it has handed over to local authorities involved in the scheme: Wicklow County Council, South Dublin County Council, Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown County Council and Dublin City Council.

"We have registration plates and facial recognition.

"We want to publicly expose people who dump because there is no excuse for illegal dumping anymore," Mr Davis said.

"The idea behind naming and shaming is to deter people from dumping by embarrassing them.

"They will be more hesitant to do so if they find their names in the papers or on television, he added.

"This continual dumping of electrical items in our county's environment is a blatant act of disrespect for [ the] uplands region as all electrical equipment can now be disposed of free of charge at any recycling centre, or, if you buy a new electrical item, the retailer has to take back your old one," he said.

The organisation has also begun an educational programme for schools in its catchment area of south Dublin and Co Wicklow.

The Pure primary schools teachers' pack is designed to provide teachers with information and work sheets on environmental education.

It has been distributed to all schools in the Wicklow, south Dublin and Dún Laoghaire- Rathdown regions.