Sir, – The results of the litter survey of beaches and coastal areas comes as no surprise ("Some of Ireland's most scenic spots have serious litter problems", Kevin O'Sullivan, Front page, August 13th).
The amount of litter strewn over the beaches and surrounding coastal areas is a disgrace and an embarrassment.
On a recent visit to Ballyvaughan and Fanore in Co Clare the most obvious observation was that there were no bins. The attitude seems to be that if bins are present then people will put rubbish in them and – God forbid – they’d have to be emptied.
I’ve never seen a single beach being cleaned and I suspect there’s not a single machine in the entire country to do so.
There’s a national blindness regarding litter in this country and the local councils and the Department of Environment must accept a lot of the blame. People can be educated not to dump litter but some people will always litter and it has to be picked up.
Just look at the beaches in Spain. They’re spotless and machine-cleaned daily. We do with the occasional empty rusty oil barrel at the side of a car park, if even that. – Yours, etc,
GEORGE LINDSAY,
Stillorgan, Co Dublin.