By
The Associated Press
DUBLIN, Ireland - Seen from an airliner flying into Dublin, the Irish midlands sparkle emerald green for mile after scenic mile. On the ground, though, it's hard to see the shamrocks between the litter.
Mounting trash on sidewalks, along highways and even in rivers has given the Irish a reputation as hard-core litterbugs. The economic good times of recent years have only thickened the stew of fast-food wrappers, coffee cups and other garbage.
"It's always been dirty, but it's getting dirtier," said Ruth Walsh, a native Dubliner, standing outside the 16th-century Trinity College as discarded plastic bags skipped across the lawn. "People, they don't care basically."
Complaints are even showing up on tourist surveys, threatening one of the country's most lucrative industries.
More than just a sight for sore eyes, the trash crisis highlights one of the problems faced by a country of 3.6 million people whose economy suddenly took off in the 1990s.
"New Economy" software and high-tech companies have created thousands of new jobs, boosting disposable income - and stuff to be disposed of.
The mess is not confined to Ireland's urban centers. Garbage collection and environmental monitoring are inadequate in many remote rural areas, where it's common for waste to be dumped on vacant lots just beyond the hedge-lined roadsides.
Recognizing the crisis, officials are drafting new strategies to manage the waste, ranging from upping fines for littering to planning the country's first trash incinerator. But they say the infrastructure can barely keep up with the Celtic Tiger economy.
"We're coming from a base in the mid-'90s where we had a booming economy and practically a Third World waste-management system," says Matt Twomey, the Dublin official in charge of trash. "So we had an awful lot of distance to go in a very short time."
Statistics show there's still a long way to go.
A government-sponsored survey found "rubbish on the street" the country's top environmental concern, far ahead of traffic jams or the ozone layer.
Yet the same poll found half of all Irish citizens admit to littering. Only 20 percent said they'd pay higher taxes to protect the environment.
While a European Union survey found over half of Europeans recycle regularly, only one-quarter of Irish say they do - and that's just glass. The percentages are even lower for paper, cans and plastic.
The Irish make up only 1 percent of the EU population, but account for 10 percent of the environment-related complaints filed at EU headquarters.
On the one hand, that shows the public is aware of problems, said Liam Cashman, the Irish case-handler at the EU Commission in Brussels, Belgium. On the other, the government appears slow to respond.
"The problems are quite acute," he said.
Tom Raftery posts photos of especially dirty spots on his Web site, RealCork.com, hoping to embarrass authorities into taking action.
"Really what prompted me is the shame I feel when friends of mine visit," Raftery says. "They're looking aghast at the state of the city."
His site, launched in August, provides a no-blarney look at Cork, Ireland's second city, right down to shopping carts and traffic cones dumped in the river Lee.
Alan Warren, an oil-industry engineer who travels the world, launched DirtyDublin.com in April.
"I've been writing to the local council for years asking them to do something," he said. "Finally I got fed up."
Twomey, the trash official, feels "Dirty Dublin" is personally offensive.
"I think New York is dreadful," he said. "I've seen parts of Paris that are far 'less clean.' And they have far more resources (than Ireland.)"
Still, Dublin is moving to improve its image.
A new waste-management plan is being implemented, including, for the first time, charging households for trash collection to raise an extra $12 million this year to finance the cleanup.
The number of street-sweeping ''green machines'' has doubled to 36, and the number of litter wardens tripled. Wheeled bins are being distributed to homes to reduce the litter created by torn plastic bags. Separate collections for recyclable items are being expanded.
Will attitudes change?
Warren, the engineer, wants a national advertising campaign. Walsh doubts it would work.
"There's no sense trying to change the mentality," she says. "You just have to clean the streets."
