Trashed!

Those of you who follow my blog will know I’m big into Tidy Towns. I’m not on my own. Wexford is big into   tidy towns.  In the last few years there’s been a steady improvement in the town’s score, an increase in those joining tidy towns and progress from bronze to silver medal status.

Wexford tidy towns meet up every Saturday morning at 10 AM and Wednesday evening at 6PM. 

Today was no different and we had a good turn out. I spent the morning at the corner of Bride Street and Clifford Terrace weeding and planting on a patch of land beside a derelict house.

Therese and I cleared out weeds and planted geraniums and lilies. We took out a bag and a half of weeds in 90 minutes. So imagine how proud we were to have lifted the black bags onto the back of the council truck. We cracked a few jokes with the council workers and went for a cuppa pleased with what we’d achieved.

So a few hours later when I passed up the street you can imagine how surprised I was when I discovered a black plastic bag sitting on the side of the road, exactly where we’d been working. Had we forgotten a bag of waste? Had we been more effective than we thought?

No, is the short answer. I went over to take a closer look. It seems that by an amazing coincidence  a sack of domestic rubbish had arrived hours after the truck had left.  That’s the innocent explanation.

The cynic may think that someone spotted an opportunity to dump waste and piggy back on the work of volunteers for tidy towns. And the cynic may be right. It isn’t the first time that this has happened and it may be happening more often more recently.

A few weeks ago I was in Zambia. They don’t have bin collections there. It was a frequent occurrence to smell smoke from the burning of rubbish on the side of the street as I walked around Kabwe. Scorches were frequently seen on the side of roads which were often unlit in years as the council simply doesn’t have the money for street lighting and where pavements are as rare as hen’s teeth.

I returned home in the middle of a debate about whether bin charges should be on an annual basis or by the kilogramme.  Rubbish has to be collected. For years we have accepted the principle of the polluter pays. Still some people simply don’t get it.  We can have a town as good or as lousey as what citizens want.

If the polluter doesn’t want to pay, why should I or you?