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kilkennyobserver.ie
The Kilkenny Observer Friday 10 September 2021
Opinion
We need to do exactly what it says on the tin AS I SEE IT MARIANNE HERON
EVERY so often a new buzz word enters our vocabulary and one of the loudest buzzes now is sustainability. Quite right too, given the urgent need to address climate change and this year’s extreme weather with soaring temperatures, wild fires and floods, should be enough to convince us just how urgent that need is. But it’s a word that frequently gets used meaninglessly. Take someone talking about their company’s new sustainable policy or sustainability for their fashion brand where they don’t mention how their claim really does what it says on the tin. Is this just so much greenwash? Without an explanation there is no way of knowing if the production methods involved are really going to make a difference at all to the planet. In the case of fashion, I sometimes suspect that the garments in question are simply more expensive. Well at least the garments are likely to get replaced less often. We really should know by now that we are using up planet Earth’s scarce resources and that we can’t carry on this
unsustainable manner, so we all have to make changes. But the argument that carrying on producing and consuming so long as the products are mere described as sustainable doesn’t add up. We need to consume less and consume things that are genuinely more sustainable. Wikipedia defines sustainable as “living a lifestyle that attempts to reduce an individual’s or society’s use of the Earth’s natural resources, its practitioners often attempt to reduce their carbon footprint by altering their methods of transportation, energy, consumption or diet”. It is easy to think that the ball is in someone else’s court when it comes to making changes: the Government should take action or the farmers need to find some way to stop cows burping up the greenhouse gas methane when they chew the cud. But this is something that involves everyone, households are responsible for nearly a quarter (23.9%) of the greenhouse gases created by transport and energy use. That’s without taking all the things that we buy and consume into account. One study quoted in the Journal of Industrial Ecology estimated that households are responsible for 60% of greenhouse gas emissions that’s taking everything
— food, fashion, energy, fuel — into account. It can be daunting to know where to make a start too but even small changes can make a difference. One way is to adopt the circular economy, make, mend and reuse and I have started doing my bit here. I often wear OPs (Other People’s cast offs,) or PLs (Previously Loved Garments from charity shops.) Making my own clothes is an option too but have you noticed how few fabric shops there are around,
never mind haberdashers? I do wonder though, what happens to all those jobs in the fashion industry and retail sector if everyone adopts the circular economy? That is a conversation that we haven’t even begun. Currently I am consuming my home raised veg, grown peat free with garden compost and leaf mould gathered from the woods, (although I haven’t found a culinary use yet for courgettes which grow to marrow size.) Flowers come
from the garden rather than buying ones that have been flown from around the globe and come to Ireland via Dutch flower markets. Going to the butcher and the fishmonger involves less plastic and packaging than buying in supermarkets, but when are shops going to start using paper for wrapping? Those are small things, big ticket items lie ahead to be tackled like changing to an electric car,(more consumption) retro-fitting the house, maybe installing solar
panels and not using the car when going to town. But there are lots of questions to be asked. For instance, why don’t we have more electric recharging points for electric cars and hybrids, what really is the sustainable truth about electric car batteries which need to be changed after several years? Why aren’t there realistic park and ride provisions so cars can be left behind? And those sustainable claims really need to be, er, sustainable.
Kilkenny County Council tackles illegal dumping KILKENNY County Council is promoting the “Your Country - Your Waste” campaign throughout September, a campaign created to highlight the importance of eliminating illegal dumping activities across Ireland. Funded by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and part of the National Anti-Dumping Initiative, it acknowledges that the problems caused by illegal dumping is a matter of individual responsibility and compliance with the law. The Environment Section tackles illegal dumping on a daily basis with members of the public reporting illegal dumping on the Litter Hotline 1800-200-156. Dump sites on public ground are then investigated and cleared away within a 21-day window. To date the Environment Section has handled a total of 889 environmental complaints in 2021, 66% attributed to litter and illegal dumping issues. Throughout the National Spring Clean, volunteers were assisted by the Council and approximately 50 tonnes of litter and waste which volunteers pulled out of ditches and quiet rural locations throughout the county was collected for disposal by Kilkenny County Council.
“Illegal dumping is a blight on our countryside but it’s not just a rural issue as we’ve witnessed an increase of illegal dumping incidences on the back lanes of Kilkenny City. The enforcement team has been working with the community to get to the bottom of the problem. An intensive information campaign informing the tenants of their waste management options available to them was completed and now the enforcement team is following up and requesting householders to return information on how they manage their household waste to ensure that everyone is disposing their household waste responsibly. Illegal dumping poses a public health hazard and can easily lead to environmental pollution. The Environment Section of the Council is determined to keep communities safe by ensuring waste is disposed appropriately” commented Ann Marie Shortall, Senior Executive Officer with the Environment Section. A multi-facetted approach must be taken to tackle the problem, incorporating enforcement, public awareness and education. The Environment Section received funding from the Anti-Dumping Initiative from the Department of Envi-
ronment, Climate and Communications this year to tackle illegal dumping hotspots, three litter black spots in rural Kilkenny were cleaned costing €32,000, two sites were of significant concern as they were located beside rivers. Two urban areas in Kilkenny City was cleaned at a cost of €11,500. Clearing away illegal dumping is unsustainable and the enforcement team is pursuing offenders through the courts. Following an inter-agency criminal investigation with An Garda Siochana and neighbouring local authorities, Kilkenny County Council successfully prosecuted a local company and a director of the company at Kilkenny District Court on 12th May 2021 under the Waste Management Act, fines totalling €8,000 were imposed and awarded the Council’s costs of over €27,000. Kilkenny County Council asks everyone to dispose of their waste via permitted recycling centres and only give your waste to authorised waste collectors who hold a valid waste collection permit issued by the National Waste Collection Permit Office. If your waste is illegally dumped and traced back to you, it will come back to your door and you will face a fine or a day in court.
