Dublin Mts - One man's trash is another man's treasure (in recessionary times anyway)

pprendeville

was up Dublin Mts yesterday. went up mt venus and coming around a hairpin just before car park (there's a path off the road leading up into a forest) and didn't i spot a pair of jeans. stopped, had a quick inspection of quality, brand (Diesel so worth a few pound), blood stains (just in case they were being worn by an axe murderer). They were soaking wet but in good nick so put them down where they were and cycled on thinking they would be a nice addition to my threadbare wardrobe (my possessions occupy about 5% compared to my wife's 95% of which about 20 pairs of shoes take up a good bit of space. in fairness who could want more than a pair of decent runners, going out shoes and a top of the range pair of Sidi's, not that i have them).

as we cycled on up towards Glencree I was horrified to see a huge quantity of household rubbish on the left hand side of the road in particular. Everything from TV's, tyres, genral bin bags, glass bottles (really hate to see these as there are so many recycling depots around). I even saw a flippen childs cot broken up and a few mattresses thrown around that went with it. do these people not know that there are others (myself included) who could benefit from these goods. plenty of charities would greatfully accept them. we have gotton practically everything for our daughter on freebie websites and they're almost as good as new. just can't get over the ignorance of some people. alas, we cycled on and i did my best to concentrate on the climbing which wasn't too bad. lovely foggy mist and it was really calm up there yesterday. really enjoyed the spin.

going off the track a little, 1 or 2 of my fingers have really poor circulation from getting belts in hurling matches and they usually go numb on descents from holding on brakes or just from general cold. cycing buddy's bro is a doc and h said it's something to do with vibration but i def know it's coz of the hurling. brought a pair of light kleeneze gloves yesterday to wear inside my long fingered specialised cycling gloves. worked a treat.

got back home anyway and decided i was going to go back and get those jeans. sick and tired of seeing so much rubbish thrown around up there and everywhere plus the fact that they fitted me perfectly (size 32 although i have lost 2 kg in the last month so a little loose now) so went back up for them. thankfully they were still there. hope they don't belong to any boardsie. if they do, they are nice and fresh hanging out on the line but would have no probs returning them.

remember another time when i was working in clonmel i was cycling along the main road (one that bypasses the town) and i saw a broken phone or at least what i thought was a broken phone. stopped, turned round and assembled myself a cool Nokia phone ((the one designed for builders i think coz it had loadza ruber padding to absorb shocks, had a spirit level, an LED light and a most amazing of all (at least at the time) a VGA camera)). i had a Nokia 3210 at the time and thought i'd just won the lotto. was going to contact ppl on phone but wait til i tell u... was thumbing home to limerick that night coz i missed the bus and a nice gentleman from West Limerick (Mouncollins I believe) picked me up and left me off in Rathkeale and didn't i leave the phone in the van. never saw the chap again but i rekon the phone came in handy as he was a builder himself. he's probably won something on Dragon's Den with that phone.

so anyone else found anything strange or exciting on their cycling trips? would love to hear. meanwhile i've a lovely pair of going out jeans to sport at the Swords CC AGM coming up. hoping to join them this yr. couldn't go out this morning with them as hosting a cake sale tomorrow. out kitchen looks like we just robbed a bakery it has so many cakes in it. :pac:cake

Columbia

Found a handbag one time when I stopped off for a natural break down some out-of-the-way road. No money or anything in it, just some I.D., so I picked it up and dropped it off at the nearest town's police station. Other than that, I found a mini tripod (mini enough to actually fit in a jersey pocket), which is quite handy for travelling.

Hauk

I was hiking last week up around Knockree and Maulin mountain. The amount of rubbish people just dump everywhere. So much disrespect. I wasn't pleased. :mad:

tomasrojo

My panniers were found in a dumpster, but not by me. A co-worker of mine found them by coincidence after I'd asked her whether she had any old panniers I could use. She didn't, but the next day she spotted some.

Nothing wrong with them, except one of the pockets had a slight hole that I glued, and the waterproof lining was peeling off a bit.

I find individual tools by the side of the road from time to time -- allen keys, screwdrivers and spanners. They were just dropped by accident, I think, not dumped.

You also see quite a few pedal reflectors on the road and on footpaths. I guess they fall off quite easily.

levitronix

Well i think its a joke the dumping that’s going on right now, was up kilakee road and it was light surreal episode of Noel Edmonds house party passing the dumped rubbish,,, old TV , babies crib , mattress , TV , VCR another TV , mattress and this was all only five mins from the view point on the way to sally gap all within about 300 meters of each other oh an a cuddly toy !!

pprendeville

so whats the story with cleaning up there? who's responsible for doing it when those ignoramuses drop their unwanted items there? as you rightly said, it's a really scenic spot and i'm sure a lot of toursits go up that way. i know there are buses that bring tourists there frequently as we pass them regularly (in peak summer months at least) so you'd imagine the council would make an effort to keep the place clean.

one time, there was a big tripod in where the german planes crashed. was fair tempted to bring that home but i didn't. would have felt too guilty. was back there following day abd it was still there but some guy asked me was it mine, i said no so he said he was going to bring it to the gards. in fairness, he was genuine as i think he was escorting 2 tourists around.

petethedrummer

pprendeville wrote: »

so you'd imagine the council would make an effort to keep the place clean.

Report it to the county litter warden and they'll have something done about it.

levitronix

the council do clean it up !! they a truck kitted just for that , dublin mountain partnership writen on the side of it .. they clean it up all the time, but just as much they clean the more gets dumped , it got worse when bin charges went up

dr ro

found a car key on the bray side of path from bray to gstones recently, went back to bray looking in car parks for toyota, had the zapper attached, no sign. Decided to cycle on to gstones and hand in to guards there while asking people along the way. Towards the end, after asking loads of people, i came up behind a group of 4 backpacking tourists. The man at the back of the group saw me but didn't acknowledge me or make any effort to let me pass. I wasn't being pushy either, never am, and i would probably have been there for ages if i hadn't said excuse me to him. He didn't turn around or stop, he just said ya and waved his arm as if to say yeah whatever go ahead. I almost considered not saying anything to him about the key but i had said excuse me and didn't want him to think i was asking to be let by, so i asked him did he drop a car key, well he changed his tune pretty fookin quick smart when he realised it was his key. They must have been austrians or swiss or something cause no mention of cash rewards, not that i'd have accepted anyway.

jimm

A couple of points:

1. Does anyone else think that Irish rural roads are littered with discarded CD's? What is it with these motorists, and do they have to fling them out the window? "Don't like this one anymore, this one is scratched/skipping, let's see it fly like a Frisbee". Brainless Morons. :mad:

2. If I stopped to pick up all the loose change I've cycled past over the last few years, I'd have..............a pretty penny.

tomasrojo

dr ro wrote: »

found a car key on the bray side of path from bray to gstones recently, went back to bray looking in car parks for toyota, had the zapper attached, no sign. Decided to cycle on to gstones and hand in to guards there while asking people along the way. Towards the end, after asking loads of people, i came up behind a group of 4 backpacking tourists. The man at the back of the group saw me but didn't acknowledge me or make any effort to let me pass. I wasn't being pushy either, never am, and i would probably have been there for ages if i hadn't said excuse me to him. He didn't turn around or stop, he just said ya and waved his arm as if to say yeah whatever go ahead. I almost considered not saying anything to him about the key but i had said excuse me and didn't want him to think i was asking to be let by, so i asked him did he drop a car key, well he changed his tune pretty fookin quick smart when he realised it was his key. They must have been austrians or swiss or something cause no mention of cash rewards, not that i'd have accepted anyway.

Reminds me of when I found a handbag in the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. I went looking for a porter to hand it in to Lost Property, but met an out-of-breath girl on my way into the courtyard, who looked at me askance. Turned out it was her handbag. I got the impression that she somewhat suspected me of stealing it. Then as she left a porter came over and started giving me grief for wheeling my bike into the courtyard.

Nobody ever forgives a good deed.

Crippens1

I lived in Brussels some time ago and once ayear residents are allowed to put all unwanted furniture, electrical equipment, etc. out on the pavement. It's left there for a day and anyone who wants anything just takes it away. Then bin lorries come round and clear up whatever is left.

From cycle lanes to rubbish collection I don't know why we can't borrow ideas that work.

ThisRegard

Crippens1 wrote: »

I lived in Brussels some time ago and once ayear residents are allowed to put all unwanted furniture, electrical equipment, etc. out on the pavement. It's left there for a day and anyone who wants anything just takes it away. Then bin lorries come round and clear up whatever is left.

From cycle lanes to rubbish collection I don't know why we can't borrow ideas that work.

We do, various councils do something similar. I know South Dublin used to do it anyway, residents leave stuff like that out and if your that way inclined you can take it but the main aim was for the council to come around during the day and remove it for you.

Hungrycol

Friend of mind told the council that someone fly tipped a load of rubbish into his back lane. Council picked the stuff up and billed him for it. He was furious.

morninwood

Crippens1 wrote: »

I lived in Brussels some time ago and once ayear residents are allowed to put all unwanted furniture, electrical equipment, etc. out on the pavement. It's left there for a day and anyone who wants anything just takes it away. Then bin lorries come round and clear up whatever is left.

From cycle lanes to rubbish collection I don't know why we can't borrow ideas that work.

Just leave all the unwanted stuff out the night before Halloween. The kids will love the additional fuel for the bonfires.

souter

Yup, hate the rubbish up there.

Was trying to think of the motivation for someone loading up a honking great TV and driving several miles up there to tip it when there are loads of bring centres taking them for nothing and presumably a lot nearer.

I think the main culprits are fly tippers rather than individuals i.e. Joe Bloggs is too lazy to freecycle or take to a bring centre but happy enough to pay a tenner or so to some man with a van.

So remember kids, if waste removal / rubbish clearance seems too cheap to be true, it probably is.

manwithaplan

Don't worry. The boys are on the case. I was cycling towards Powerscourt Mountain from Sallygap yesterday morning and there were two guards on motorbikes inspecting some rubbish dumped in a lay-by. I think they were about to call in air support.

@ppendeville Would your bike take a settee? I saw a nice one up there.

levitronix

powerscourt mt its called kippure

pprendeville

manwithaplan wrote: »

Don't worry. The boys are on the case. I was cycling towards Powerscourt Mountain from Sallygap yesterday morning and there were two guards on motorbikes inspecting some rubbish dumped in a lay-by. I think they were about to call in air support.

@ppendeville Would your bike take a settee? I saw a nice one up there.

if it's for a dolls house.:)

petethedrummer

The council search through the litter in cases like this and if they find addresses they prosecute the offenders.

manwithaplan

I think they were looking for a remote control down the back of the couch. They are going to point it through the windows of known suspects to see if it changes the channel on their TV. They are going to call it Operation Sinderella, I believe.

I only called it Powerscourt Mountain to put tech-savvy fly tippers off. You've gone and blown it now, Levi.

L'Enfer du Nord

jimm wrote: »

A couple of points:

1. Does anyone else think that Irish rural roads are littered with discarded CD's? What is it with these motorists, and do they have to fling them out the window? "Don't like this one anymore, this one is scratched/skipping, let's see it fly like a Frisbee". Brainless Morons. :mad:

It was ever so, I used to see lots of unraveled cassette tapes. Could be road rage induced arguments of music.

Yep, I remember cycling up from Bohernabreena. Felt like I was cycling through some kind of war torn landscape where the refugees had to leave behind what possession they had managed to take with them. Not sure whats more amazing, the crap people have in the first place or the crap they throw out.