Call to 'think twice' before littering as fines increase

Mahon Tidy Towns is reminding members of the public to “think-twice” before littering, as all fixed-payment fines across Ireland increased by €100 on Tuesday.

Under the Government’s Circular Economy strategy, a new €250,000 fund was announced to reinforce the 'polluter pays' principle.

Announcing the increase, Minister of State with responsibility for the Circular Economy Alan Dillon said the measure aims to deter littering and support cleaner communities.

The increase has seen all fixed-payment fines for littering increase by €100, seeing the traditional €150 on-the-spot fine jump to €250.

A spokesperson for Mahon Tidy Towns said "apparently €150 wasn’t quite enough to make us think twice”.

"It’s not just discarded coffee cups and crisp packets causing headaches, motorists continue to be caught throwing rubbish from their cars, with some offenders facing fines of €1,000 or more — including cases involving cigarette butts being thrown from vehicles.

“So, in case anyone needed reminding, the bin is still there, your car window is not one, and now it’s going to cost you a bit more to get caught.” 

The comments come as a reminder to members of the public across Mahon to maintain high-standards of public cleanliness, with Mahon ranking 23rd out of 40 towns surveyed in the latest Irish Businesses Against Litter (IBAL) survey.

While Mahon had been ranked as ‘moderately littered’ in previous years, it has risen to and maintained its ‘clean to European norms’ class in the last two iterations of the survey.

In the most recent IBAL report, four out of 10 areas surveyed in Mahon received the top Grade A ranking, another four received a Grade B or B+, and the remaining two received a Grade C+.

The report highlighted: "There have been extensive works in Mahon, and this was very much in evidence at some of the sites surveyed including Avenue de Rennes and Skehard Approach Road, both of which were deserving of the top litter grade.”

The report additionally said while this time around there were “no very heavily littered/dumped upon sites”, areas in need of improvement include Cappanoole and the retail park off Avenue de Rennes.

The report said that the residential area of Cappanoole was particularly poor, being “one of the most heavily littered sites surveyed in Mahon – with little change or improvement on previous IBAL surveys”.

The “most obvious litter items” included fast-food wrappers and sweet papers, other food related items, dog fouling, and plastic ties on poles.

“There was not one area which was particularly pronounced, just a steady stream throughout,” the report said.

Mahon Tidy Towns has also issued a call for new members to join at mahontidytowns@gmail.com.