THE PURE project continues its battle against illegal dumping in Wicklow's upland areas by collecting over 30 tonnes of rubbish a month.

Since the establishment of the project in 2007, PURE has removed over 1,160 tonnes of illegally dumped rubbish from the landscape, including over 2,700 individual collections. This amounts to over 1,160,000kg of rubbish. If you were to put all of this rubbish into standard household rubbish bags you could fill over 165,714 bags.

The project is a partnership and the first of its kind in Ireland, incorporating statutory and nonstatutory organisations including Wicklow County Council, Wicklow Uplands Council, Failte Ireland, Coillte, National Parks and Wildlife Service and different Dublin council's.

Project Manager, Ian Davis, says it's difficult to comprehend the amount of rubbish PURE has actually removed from the uplands.

'Imagine the public's horror if over 165,714 bags of rubbish were dumped in the Wicklow Mountains in just one day. If you lined up each of the bags that we have removed from the uplands they would stretch over 165 kilometres in length – a journey from Glendalough to Waterford.'

A lo-call-phone line 1850 365 121, operating 24 hours a day 365 days of the year, allows any member of the public to report incidents of illegal dumping, or, individuals who are responsible for such activities. Callers are urged to provide accurate descriptions of both the location and waste type to the operators, and all calls are dealt with in strict confidence. Feedback on a location affected by dumping can be requested and the PURE project endeavours to contact each caller who leaves their name and details with an update on the situation. Since the establishment of PURE, the local phone number and the office have received over 2,797 reports of illegal dumping.

A continuing problem for the project is householders handing over their waste to illegal waste collectors. In 2009 Wicklow County Council had 19 cases before the courts resulting in 19 convictions. Mr. Davis has sympathy for householders who appear before the court having, possibly unwittingly, passed on their waste to an unlicensed waste collector, but hopes they will now at least think twice before handing waste to collectors whose identity they aren't familiar with.

'It's unfortunate that people are finding themselves before the courts, but if people didn't hand over their waste to these type of collectors the rubbish wouldn't end up being dumped on our landscape. On many occasions people have left rubbish outside their homes and usually what happens is someone knocks on the door and offers to take it away for a very low cost. Invariably, this ends up in the Sally Gap or some other remote area. We have done a lot of advertising and awareness campaigns informing people on the issue but it continues to be a problem.'

The majority of the areas affected by illegal dumping are located in some of the most scenic tourist areas if the upland regions. PURE are appealing to the general public to check that waste collectors have a waste collection permit, before handing over any rubbish.

Not all the rubbish collected by PURE has been freshly dumped either.

'We continue to locate historic dumping sites, or dumping sites which have been out there for a number of years. But I am happy to say that we are seeing an end to these and believe we have located and cleaned the majority of these sites. When the project is notified of larger illegal dumping sites which are outside our remit and capabilities, we pass them on to the relevant local authorities.'

The project does more than just collect illegally dumped rubbish from the landscape and have a number of initiatives to combat the problem. In 2007 PURE launched an education pack which provides teachers with a user friendly teaching programme incorporating fun and interesting ways for children to learn about their environment and the negative impact of illegal dumping. The education pack was designed to accompany the current primary school curriculum and was distributed to all schools in Wicklow, South Dublin and Dun Laoghaire and Rathdown areas. This educational material can be downloaded from www.pureproject.ie/education.

In September of last year the 'PURE Mile' was launched, an environmental initiative which aims to foster a greater appreciation and awareness of our country roadscapes by rewarding and acknowledging local community efforts.

'There was great interest in the competition and we now have communities from Ballinglen, Roundwood, Newtownmountkennedy, Rathdangan, Brittas, as well as Avondale Community College, all actively involved in improving their areas,' adds Mr. Davis, who is so far delighted at the response the initiative has received.

The competition involves community groups caring for a mile stretch of road and keeping the immediate environment litter and rubbish free. The groups also consider the preservation and careful maintenance of the flora and fauna, ditches, hedgegrows and any other natural or man-made features of the area. All of the groups are right now busying themselves with repairing and painting traditional gates, retaining stone walls and styles, and indentifying their local heritage features. All of this work benefits both the local people who live in the area and the local environment.

Many of these groups have also initiated the help of the local primary school children in the identification of the flora and fauna that exist on the mile, turning it into a real community effort.