Littering fine

lostexpectation · 25-01-2009 9:09pm

ask em how much it costs to catch your reg

friendface · 25-01-2009 9:10pm

Serenity Now! wrote: »

Lets just say that you were eating some hot food or a roll and its wrapped in foil and/or paper. You finish eating it and go to dump it in a garbage bin. However the garbage bin is stuffed from the night before.
What do you do with the trash you have in your hand? Do you leave it on the ground beside the bin
OR
do you take it with you to dump in another bin elsewhere?

Well I wouldn't consider that situation to equate to the situation described by the OP. It is far easier to carrier a wrapper or some paper to another rubbish bin but when you have a car load of glass bottles or whatever, you may not have the option of finding another recycling center. Anyway, I didn't really want to get into an argument about this. I don't think the OP was being malicious in leaving his recyclables to be collected.

My main point was that the punishment does seem harsh in comparison to the 'crime'.

I would advise the OP to take a picture of the recycling site when they get a chance. Are there signs warning against leaving your recyclables? Perhaps check when you visit the site if the bottle banks have been emptied or if they are still overflowing. You could mention it in an appeal if they are not emptying them on a regular basis.

I would just like to point out that I am completely against littering but it sickens me to see charges like this being imposed on the public.

If there are signs warning against leaving boxes beside the bottle banks then I guess there isn't much grounds for an appeal.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 26-01-2009 2:50pm

I'm amazed that anybody is surprised by fines issuing for leaving (dumping) items at a bottle bank. This has been going on for years. And rightly so. If a bin is full you go to another bin or take the material home with you.
As for calling it a scam - there is not intention to defraud anybody just enforce the law.
If a bin's full don't leave litter (bottles, cans, cardboard, it doen't matter what) lying on the ground!
Good for the local authority!

nesf · 26-01-2009 2:57pm

Is it ok to drop your rubbish beside a normal bin that's completely full? If you can't see how doing this is littering then I give up to be honest. Just because it's not convenient for you to hold onto your rubbish until you get to an empty bin doesn't mean that it's suddenly ok to just drop it on the ground!

Hagar · 26-01-2009 3:02pm

How long was the bottle bank full?
Is there an oweness on the Council to provide a usable recycling point?
If the Council are failing in their duty to do so surely it is they who are at fault not the concerned members of the public who turn up with bottles but find no recepticle available?
There is a recycling area at the bottom of my road and it is emptied daily.
If it wasn't, phones would be lifted and the mayor's ears would be reddened by outraged tax-payers.
Why can't the local councils in Ireland do simple things?
The councillors in Ireland should get a good kick up the arse.

OhNoYouDidn't · 26-01-2009 3:14pm

nesf wrote: »

Is it ok to drop your rubbish beside a normal bin that's completely full? If you can't see how doing this is littering then I give up to be honest. Just because it's not convenient for you to hold onto your rubbish until you get to an empty bin doesn't mean that it's suddenly ok to just drop it on the ground!

Come on, the OP made an effort to recycle and left bottles beside a full bin.

I think its mealy mouthed in the extreme of the authorities to prosecute here. May be within the letter, but certainly not the spirit of the law.

nesf · 26-01-2009 3:26pm

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

Come on, the OP made an effort to recycle and left bottles beside a full bin.

I think its mealy mouthed in the extreme of the authorities to prosecute here. May be within the letter, but certainly not the spirit of the law.

I agree that it is pedantic in the extreme but it is still legally correct. I wonder how bad the problem of people just dumping stuff at the site had gotten before they decided to do the camera thing. Maybe people were truly taking the piss before?

Littering it is, but it's similar to someone going 2mph above the speed limit, it is speeding so it'd be correct for a Garda to call someone up on it but it'd be pedantic in the extreme. Very harsh but ultimately not in any way incorrect.

mickoneill30 · 26-01-2009 3:41pm

While it was littering the council are showing an ingenious solution to their problem.

Problem:
Our bins are overflowing and people are leaving bags beside them. Obviously we're not meeting demand.

Solution1
Increase the frequency of bin collection.

Solution2
Put an extra bin there.

Solution3
Lets put up security cameras and pay for someone to monitor those. We'll make a few quid there.

Which council was it by the way. How about getting on to them or your politicians to try and get them to get the finger out for collecting the full bins. You're stuck with the fine but at least maybe next time you go there they'll have a bin with capacity for the area it serves.

Mr. Presentable · 26-01-2009 8:18pm

mickoneill30 wrote: »

While it was littering the council are showing an ingenious solution to their problem.

Problem:
Our bins are overflowing and people are leaving bags beside them. Obviously we're not meeting demand.

Solution1
Increase the frequency of bin collection.

Solution2
Put an extra bin there.

Solution3
Lets put up security cameras and pay for someone to monitor those. We'll make a few quid there.

Which council was it by the way. How about getting on to them or your politicians to try and get them to get the finger out for collecting the full bins. You're stuck with the fine but at least maybe next time you go there they'll have a bin with capacity for the area it serves.

OK. But in the meantime, no littering or illegal dumping, thank you.

DublinWriter · 26-01-2009 8:36pm

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

Come on, the OP made an effort to recycle and left bottles beside a full bin.

I think 'effort' is the operative word there.

Just after Xmas last year the bottle banks at the Howth carpark were an absolute tip. Cardboard boxes and plastic bags of bottles everywhere, breaking and spilling out onto the carpark. I took a pic, but I can't find it ATM.

Again, it's the 'ah-shure-itildo' attitude of the Irish.

...and let me save you the bother of the 'but I drove all the way to the bottle-bank' argument. When go to the bottle bank, I do it en-route to somewhere else, if it's full, then no biggie, I keep the bottles in the car 'till next time.

dodgyme · 27-01-2009 11:53am

The OP dumped beside the bottle bank. Despite the protests of innocence, the OP decided when it was full to just dump his bottles which someone was going to have to deal with. He got a fine and good is all I can say.

However the council might be better spending its money ensuring the banks are not full then catching people who arrive to find the thing full.

OhNoYouDidn't · 27-01-2009 12:11pm

dodgyme wrote: »

The OP dumped beside the bottle bank. Despite the protests of innocence, the OP decided when it was full to just dump his bottles which someone was going to have to deal with. He got a fine and good is all I can say.

However the council might be better spending its money ensuring the banks are not full then catching people who arrive to find the thing full.

someone was gound to have to deal with the bottles if there was space in the bins too......

dumping at the dump? mobilise the army! :mad:

OhNoYouDidn't · 27-01-2009 12:13pm

DublinWriter wrote: »

Again, it's the 'ah-shure-itildo' attitude of the Irish.

but not attitude of the council who put resources into catching people leaving bottles at but not in a bin over providing the service properly.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 27-01-2009 12:15pm

A lot of complaints here about the council. I think Repak have a responibilty for the maintenance of most bring centres. The council is responible for ensuring people do not litter and that those that do are propery fined.

dodgyme · 27-01-2009 12:24pm

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

dumping at the dump? mobilise the army! :mad:

Its not a dump. I think this is the core of the problem. Its a bottle bank, and when its full you have to find another one or wait until it is not full.

RDM_83 · 27-01-2009 12:44pm

How does Repack operate, I presume they get a hefty subsidy from the council to operate these sites, wondering because at my local bottle bank there is no place to put aluminium can which IMO is crazy considering scrap aluminium is something you can _sell_ normally so doesn't make any sense not having place for people to give it too you for free

Grade LTL TL Units Funds
Old Mixed Aluminium 254.14 338.86 MT EURO

LTL means less than truck weight

messrs · 27-01-2009 12:48pm

Last summer I was going on my hols and the morn I was leaving I left a green back full of recycling out side my front door, and when I got back from my hols, I had a letter from Dublin city council with a fine for littering!! Seemingly what happened was when the bin men came to take my bag, it was so heavy and split the bag,(it was full of magazines ect) and everything fell out but they just left it there and didn’t pick it up, so there was a tablet box in there with my name and add on it, so I got fined for it, i wasn’t even in the country and didn’t know anything about it!

gnxx · 27-01-2009 1:04pm

The availability of recycling services is always used as a counter-balance when bin charges are increased. We are told "bin charges are going up but we are providing more recycling facilities".

Given the amount of taxes and bin charges used to encourage recycling etc, it is appalling that the council can not ensure these are run efficiently.

Finally, I'd make a wild guess that the council deployed somebody to this overflowing collection point to take registration numbers. Isn't this an interesting use of council resources?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 27-01-2009 2:01pm

gnxx wrote: »

...it is appalling that the council can not ensure these are run efficiently.

Finally, I'd make a wild guess that the council deployed somebody to this overflowing collection point to take registration numbers. Isn't this an interesting use of council resources?

Where have you been for the past 10 year? The councils do not waste resources deploying someone to take reg numbers. A cheap CCTV is installed at trouble spots and this had been the case for years now.

Also, it is Repak's resonsibility not the local authority! The council don't pay Repak to provide the service.:rolleyes:

RichMc70 · 27-01-2009 2:48pm

My experience is very similar to the OP and I am also not someone who litters deliberately.

Arrived at my local Bottle Bank to find them full. Around the area of the banks where bottles and broken glass strewn everywhere. I placed my bottles beside the bank in a cardboard box, which I believed was more safer.

Four weeks later I received a fine through the post from Galway CC. When I queried the fine, they emailed me still photo shots of me placing the box beside the banks. I then queried what should I have done, seeing as the banks were full. The girl I spoke to explained that I was fined for leaving the cardboard box and not the bottles. So had I just fcuked the bottles everywhere like other recyclers, then I would have been ok. Anyway I paid my fine and left it as a lesson learnt.

Five weeks later I received another fine notice for supposedly another separate litter incident. Again I contacted the council and they sent me still photo shots that they had taken with their cctv. The photo shots looked familar so when I checked the images from the previous incident, I found that they were in fact the same photos. All they had done was change the file name on the jpeg. This time I asked them for a copy of the actual cctv footage. The moving footage was from the first incident and had the date/time shown on it.

I told them that unless they could provide supporting evidence of a separate incident, then they could go to fcuk. That was nearly two months ago and since then they have not provided any further evidence however they have still not cancelled the Fine Notice either.

Is this a new ploy by county councils in raising their depleted revenue's ? :mad:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 27-01-2009 2:56pm

RichMc70 wrote: »

A). I placed my bottles beside the bank in a cardboard box, which I believed was more safer.

So had I just
(my edit) the bottles everywhere like other recyclers, then I would have been ok.

c)
Is this a new ploy by county councils in raising their depleted revenue's ?

A) You should surely have realised that was not on and was littering.

Not true. Leaving the bottles in any state other than in the bins is littering.
C) No. It has been the policy and practice for several years now to fine people, who leave items beside bins, for littering.

dodgyme · 27-01-2009 2:58pm

RichMc70 wrote: »

My experience is very similar to the OP and I am also not someone who litters deliberately.:

you are!!!!!!!!!;)

RichMc70 wrote: »

at my local Bottle Bank to find them full. Around the area of the banks where bottles and broken glass strewn everywhere:

wonder how that happened :rolleyes:

RichMc70 wrote: »

. I placed my bottles beside the bank in a cardboard box, which I believed was more safer.
:

Ah you left them there for safe keeping sorry I just thought you were a litter lout, but as long as it was for safe keeping thats ok - Unreal :mad:

OhNoYouDidn't · 27-01-2009 2:58pm

Ira Greasy Fawn wrote: »

A) You should surely have realised that was not on and was littering.
Not true. Leaving the bottles in any state other than in the bins is littering.
C) No. It has been the policy and practice for several years now to fine people, who leave items beside bins, for littering.

In the current economic mess, with a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, banks being nationalised for the sake of builders and a raft of issues to get angry about, this is the one you get the soap box out for?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 27-01-2009 3:05pm

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

In the current economic mess, with a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, banks being nationalised for the sake of builders and a raft of issues to get angry about, this is the one you get the soap box out for?

No soapbox by any means and most certainly not angry about anything on Boards.ie at the moment (Don't try to read a mood into a reply - always fatal). :P It's others here who seem to think that this litter fine business is the end of the world as we know it. I'm far from concerned about the issue but I'll always correct blatantly incorrect statements no matter who or what they are directed towards.

gnxx · 27-01-2009 3:14pm

Do you not see something wrong with this situation?

1) We are encouraged by a large advertising spend to "recycle"

2) The facilities available are unable to cope

3) Instead of fixing the facility problems -- the council install video cameras to catch people leaving bottles next to the facility

If I was into conspiracy theories I would suggest that the council are now cashing in from from a badly run service.

Ira Greasy Fawn wrote: »

Where have you been for the past 10 year? The councils do not waste resources deploying someone to take reg numbers. A cheap CCTV is installed at trouble spots and this had been the case for years now.

Also, it is Repak's resonsibility not the local authority! The council don't pay Repak to provide the service.:rolleyes:

OhNoYouDidn't · 27-01-2009 3:49pm

Ira Greasy Fawn wrote: »

No soapbox by any means and most certainly not angry about anything on Boards.ie at the moment (Don't try to read a mood into a reply - always fatal). :P It's others here who seem to think that this litter fine business is the end of the world as we know it. I'm far from concerned about the issue but I'll always correct blatantly incorrect statements no matter who or what they are directed towards.

But surely you can see why people who got fined are not amused?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 27-01-2009 3:56pm

Gee! You didn't read it did you? :rolleyes:

The bring bank is Repak while the upholding of littering bylaws is the Council. One is doing their job the other isn't. Why do so many people consider fines for breaking the law to be money making scam?

OhNoYouDidn't · 27-01-2009 4:10pm

Ira Greasy Fawn wrote: »

Gee! You didn't read it did you? :rolleyes:

The bring bank is Repak while the upholding of littering bylaws is the Council. One is doing their job the other isn't. Why do so many people consider fines for breaking the law to be money making scam?

Because while the council may be technically correct, the prosecution of people making an effort to recycle is seen as petty and counterproductive because it makes people less likely to bother.

Or put another way. The council should have better things to do. Such as inspecting the sites to see are Repak doing their job. Unless its a revenue generating thing.....

oscarBravo · 27-01-2009 4:23pm

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

Because while the council may be technically correct, the prosecution of people making an effort to recycle is seen as petty and counterproductive because it makes people less likely to bother.

Leaving bottles on the side of the road isn't "making an effort to recycle", it's littering.

gnxx · 27-01-2009 4:26pm

You don't seem to get it. Either directly or indirectly we are paying for the Repak service via taxes, bin fees, Repak is a joint venture between the Dept. Of Environment and the various industry bodies that sell packaged goods.

Over the last 10 - 20 years, government has funded huge advertising campaigns telling us to recycle. We have paid via taxes etc for this advertising.

Now we find that the organisations that we pay to provide this service are dropping the ball.. In some parts of Dublin, we have had a similar shoddy service with Green Bins in the closing weeks of 2008.

We are paying for these services directly or indirectly. We should not be prosecuting the individuals that attempt to use these services. Instead we should be chasing private companies that don't deliver services to tax payers.

How about arresting people for loitering in accident and emergency wards? How about parking fines for those stuck in traffic in the city centre?

Ira Greasy Fawn wrote: »

Gee! You didn't read it did you? :rolleyes:

The bring bank is Repak while the upholding of littering bylaws is the Council. One is doing their job the other isn't. Why do so many people consider fines for breaking the law to be money making scam?

Littering fine

Comments