IN a two-hour period last Saturday morning, 36 volunteers picked 1.2 tonnes of litter in Dunmanway.
The litter pick was organised by Tommy Collins, chairman of Dunmanway Community Council.
The volunteers met at 10am and by noon they had all of the approach roads picked clean.
Photographs of green bags filled with refuse were dotted along the road sides, ready for collection by Cork County Council’s litter department.
The big clean up attracted three times the usual number of volunteers who meet regularly to keep the levels of trash in the hedgerows under control.
The volunteers have also signed up to a special ‘adopt a street’ campaign locally and it has engendered a tremendous amount of civic pride.
Cllr Deirdre Kelly (FF) told The Southern Star how great it was to see the volunteers all spread out as they worked their way methodically back to the town centre.
‘In the end, it was impossible to count the actual number of bags of rubbish, but we can confirm it weighed 1.2 tonnes,’ she said.
‘The increase in littering is very disappointing,’ Cllr Kelly added, ‘and the problem is accentuated by the fact that the plastic and cardboard facility at the recycling centre remains closed.’
Cllr Declan Hurley (Ind) said: ‘Events like the litter pick makes people aware that we all need to be more mindful of how we dispose of our rubbish. It sends out a strong message that we cannot tolerate the level of littering happening at present.’
