Beautiful Ireland

Sitting on a bus full of strangers regularly gives someone an awful lot of time to think. Today the topic on my mind was litter.

Rubbish. Litter. Waste. All words connotative of ugly images and paint a negative picture of Ireland today. As I sit contemplating I can’t help but to notice how bad the litter situation on the sides of roads are.

Travelling for four hours every Friday and Sunday gives some one loads of time to look out the window, for fear of being caught looking at someone else and being given an incredibly bad look.
Today however, sitting in my usual seat by the window the only thing that is grabbing my attention is the amount of rubbish dumped on the side of the road.

Normally I’d be the last person to take any notice of this but what must tourists think when they come into the country and see hedges covered in newspapers, crisp packets, nappies and general household waste.

Why is it so hard for people to put the litter in the bin? God knows I’m not mad about the environment but I wouldn’t discard coffee cups out of the window of my car.
Are we blind to the fact that it is we ourselves that are ruining the environment?

If Bord Fáilte and Tourism Ireland want us to stay in Ireland for our holidays someone is going to have to clean the place up a bit. All the ads in the world aren’t going to convince us to stay in a country that uses its hedges as bins or dumps.

http://www.tourismireland.com/Home/Our_Marketing_Overseas/TV-Advertising.aspx.

What must tourists think of us? If I’m taking offence to this they must have an awful opinion of Ireland… The once ‘Beautiful Green Pastures’ have been replaced with sweet wrappers, polystyrene cups and various other household materials.

To say I’m disgusted would be an understatement. Wake up and smell the coffee… Stop this litter obsession.

As for me I’m off to daydream a little more, perhaps count how many wrappers I see… although that could prove quite challenging.

JOC