Sir, - The post-Christmas/ New Year dumping season is once again upon us. The drains and ditches of my local south Meath area are repositories of the detritus of the celebrations just past, and the once beautiful country lanes between my home and the ever-advancing suburbs of Dublin are strewn with filth of every description.
This dumping is no thoughtless, spontaneous action. It requires planning and mobility. Why do the perpetrators do it? What possesses people to carefully bag their rubbish, load it into their cars, and drive miles from home to deposit it on the roadside, in watercourses, and in farm gateways?
It is time - indeed long past time - for an all-out campaign against this national scandal. Words are no longer adequate. Nothing less than a crusade is required to halt this progressive despoliation of our remaining precious environment.
I call on every concerned individual to become active against these saboteurs whose actions are nothing short of treasonable, so great is the damage they are doing to our nation's image. Become an informer. Watch for the dumpers. Note their car registrations. Observe them at their despicable polluting, then report them to the relevant authorities. Be prepared to give evidence against them in court.
Make dumping of all kinds a serious offence, as against the quasi-serious approach currently taken. A mandatory 12-month community service punishment should be imposed, to be spent on rubbish-clearing, with no appeal, even for a first offence.
Drill the anti-litter message into our children from pre-school age. The younger the better.
On principle, I am against capital punishment, but I would not argue against the re-introduction of the gibbet for the midnight befoulers of this island on which we are privileged to reside. - Yours, etc.,
Andrew Jones, Portmanna, Clonee, Co Meath.