Rubbish

Taxing gum is, as far as I’m concerned, a complete no-brainer. There’s absolutely no excuse or reason not to do it.
We have a terrible problem with gum destroying streets, in a way that no other form of rubbish does.
It’s particularly expensive to remove and particularly unsightly … and so the polluter should pay.
Ten cent on each pack won’t stop anybody buying it but it will go a long way to removing it off the streets.
I personally would go further and put a litter surcharge on fast food restaurants and cigarettes.
It’s all well and good McDonalds, Burger King, Wrigleys, Philip Morris, local chipper etc saying it’s not their fault but their products/premises are a blight right around the country.
I have no sympathy for any of them as all are making incredible amounts of money providing products that have no useful purpose and in most cases negative effects.

This is the official line
@DIck_Roche wrote:

While citizens have a civic responsibility not to cause litter, the producers of problematic litter items also have a responsibility and need to be more proactive in minimising the litter pollution caused by the items they produce. It is only through intensive anti-litter activities and concerted co-ordinated action that we will be able to successfully address the litter problem in Ireland.

While the consultancy report had recommended that a mandatory levy should be applied on chewing gum with the proceeds generated being used to tackle the litter problems caused by that product, I have decided – following the case made by the chewing gum industry during the public consultation process – to give that sector an opportunity to propose a comprehensive Action Plan to address the problems caused by that product

500 tons of chewing gum are dumped on Irish streets each year. No levy can raise enough money to remove all this gunk. Instead the levy should be used to discourage purchase of the product in the first place. €1 or €2 per pack. Cheap chewing gum is hardly a human right, particularly when compared with the right to live in a clean environment.

Here’s an old thread on this subject:
https://archiseek.com/content/showthread.php?t=3443

Here in Lyon they clean the streets every morning and even wash them with hoses during the summer! Thus the streets are always clean and do not have an opportunity to become dirty again. The big problem over here is with dog shit (it’s everywhere) and plastic bags. These two items have all but disappeared from the streets in Ireland so I would argue that it is not impossible to eradicate something like chewing gum litter however it would involve government intervention.
I don’t like the idea of charging tax on chewing gum or to fast food proprietors for that matter as it diminishes personal responsibility, I don’t unfortunatley have any other suggestions. I don’t believe that these steps would stop those who are littering from doing so however it might pay the cost to have public litter bins emptied once in a while.

or arrest, or for subsequent offences, put the dog down….

oops better not say that, the examiner will run “archiseek.com wants to put down oap’s dogs”

Should add that I think Crestfield is onto something. Areas that are uncared for do seem to accumulate much more litter. But I’d go further than just keeping an area clean to discourage littering – the finish of the streetscape is also important. Areas that have upgraded in recent years through urban renewal schemes tend to stay much cleaner in my view. Where footpaths are well finished, roads keep in good nick and lighting and other street furniture constructed to a durable and tidy standard people seem to acknowledge the end product by littering less. On the other hand, where you have chipped and cracked up concrete paths, leaning lamp posts with peeling paint, potholed streets with worn off road markings and shoddy disintegrating public structures people tend to treat the area as the authorities have.

I think a lot of our behaviour is dictated by the environment we inhabit. Clean, properly finished and well maintained streetscapes provide a subtle deterrent to anti-social behaviour like littering. In contrast, leave streets looking chaotic shoddy and poorly maintained and you’ll encourage similar behaviour on the part of those using it.

Swedes don’t litter in part because their built environment is so well finished and maintained. Whereas in Ireland the cracked concrete paths, bent and leaning road signs and lopsided traffic and street lights hardly set a good example to the populace. If country roads are potholed, have overgrown and unkempt verges, churned up tire tracks in the ditch with a plethora of buckled leaning road signs never mind rows of Pisa like telegraph poles smothered in ivy – all depressingly common features of southern roads – how do you expect people to behave?

The built environment must set an example.

Another point I should add is the removal or replacement of public structures that have fallen into disrepair or have been vandalised. This IMO is a real problem down south.

Picture the scene, you’re in a public area where there are three posts that presumably once displayed signs. Then there are a number of stumps that may once have held seats. All have been graffitied and the older ‘stumps’ have their last coat of paint peeling from them. Nearby, in the uncut grass there’s a council ‘no dumping’ sign that someone’s pull off and thrown away for a laugh – showing that the council clearly never check to see if any dumping has taken place. Add to this the favourite down there – a row of concrete bollards with the last remnants of paint still clinging to them and the odd one knocked over and another replaced with a more ‘recent’ version that doesn’t in anyway match. Finally, surrounding this benchmark of public spaces – no that’s not a bench that has been pulled off and gouged – is a fence that’s overgrown with briars and where it does protrude is both long since rotten with planks snapped from people clambering over/through it.

The above describes more or less a public area I recently experienced in the Republic. Suffice to say, the collection of what remained of public structures resembled little more than pieces of junk themselves. Accordingly, it appears that when presented with a public space that looked like an unkempt assortment of rubbish, people used it as a dump. There was dog shit everywhere and plastic packaging etc. stuffed into every crack and crevice you could find. Not a pleasant sight.

If a public are looks like a dump, smells like a dump and already contains enough council ‘junk’ and more conventional rubbish to pass as a dump, it’ll be treated as a dump.

Then again, considering a clearly embarrassed local had had the gumption to remove the sign indicating this area from its pole, no one will find it with any luck. Er, well not the council anyway.

Dare I say it, but there was once a very nasty and typically Unionist joke up here, along the lines of ‘Keep Northern Ireland tidy, throw your rubbish in the Republic’. To which one wag repplied, ‘but would they even notice’. Of course, such remarks say more about the unappealing nature of the North than anywhere else, but there is surely a grain of truth about the amount of litter down south.

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

or arrest, or for subsequent offences, put the dog down….

oops better not say that, the examiner will run “archiseek.com wants to put down oap’s dogs”

Thanks mate. I just had half the office look at me after i unexpectantly laughed out loud! Classic.

That story about the beach is priceless, Frank. On the Swedish experience, I really think it demonstrates the power that the environment exerts over our actions. There’s a very good Winston Churchill quote along this vein about the replication of the House of Commons after the chamber was destroyed in the Blitz. Alas, it just doesn’t come to mind at the moment. But on the littering issue, it’s just so much easier to throw rubbish onto a street or verge that’s unkempt than something that looks immaculate.

On the Protestant cultural thing, I’ve heard that mentioned before. I was brought up as a Protestant and while I may have lost the belief in the bearded chap in the sky I think I’ve been scarred for life by Sunday school slogans such as ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ amongst others. I’m always spotless as a result. 😉 Aaargh, I’ve just dropped a crumb on my seat, where unearth did I put the vacuum cleaner…

Whereas I’d agree about decrepit environments attracting dirt and littering, this ought not to be offered as any sort of excuse for such behaviour.
Only yesterday I passed a young man walking along with an empty water bottle, and he went to the effort of bending down and making it stand upright on the ground against a wall and then walk off! Couldn’t even got to the lesser effort of putting it in one of the ample number of bins about (let alone recycling it at home).

Also yesterday, in the sun lots of people were taking their lunch on the steps of the various monuments on O’Connell St – you should have seen the pile of plastic salad containers and paper and general crap left behind on Sir John Grey and no doubt on others during the day. I mean, how can anyone have such a mindset? Do they think it magically disappears when they walk away?
This is a year round problem in this location in particular – it irritates me so much at times that I gather up the stuff myself and find a bin, which only makes you feel worse for ‘giving in’ to picking up after other ignorant sods.

It is a mindset, a pathetic culture, in this country that is at fault. Even if there isn’t a bin in sight there is still no excuse for such filthy practices. Until there is a culture shift here, albeit amongst a minority of people, we’re not going to see any real difference with littering.

I wouldn’t regard Dublin as having a particularly dirty centre, though you can come across some ‘off’ days when it does look pretty grimey. Summer seems to be the worse for such conditions, with so many people about, and so many eating and drinking outside. It can also be unpleasantly hot and dusty on such days, making the litter seem worse than it really is.
I was disappointed about the state of the Plaza on O’Cll St the other day, covered in cigarette butts and ‘juice’ stains – not it’s usual pristine self. A one-off hopefully.