Tidy Towns’ concern over discarded PPE
Paul Kelly, secretary with Cavan Tidy Towns, classified abandoned PPE in the same category as “bio-waste” material.
Local Tidy Towns groups have expressed concern about the safety of their volunteers picking-up used and discarded items of potentially contaminated personal protective equipment (PPE).
Apprehension at volunteers clearing junked PPE such as masks and rubber gloves at road verges or hedgerows was raised by Tidy Towns groups in both Cavan Town and Virginia.
Cavan County Council has now committed to launching a public advice campaign on the subject.
Bio-waste
Paul Kelly, secretary with Cavan Tidy Towns, classified abandoned PPE in the same category as “bio-waste” material.
He noted that many Tidy Towns volunteers would have been cocooning for their own safety during the height of the pandemic, and suspects they might not return out of fear for their own health and safety.
A frontline healthcare worker himself, Paul described the sight of items of PPE strewn on streets as “galling” given the difficulty in accessing such potentially life-saving items when the country first went into lockdown.
Persisted
Ahead of the Council's intervention, Paul's group in Cavan Town sought to use social media to highlight the problem.
They received a good response to the campaign, but PPE littering has persisted.
“Everyone is so constrained around this,” explains Paul. “A lot of it comes down to the newness of the situation for people, but at the same time littering is a very basic wrong whatever the case may be.”
The likes of rubber gloves, Paul points out, if thrown away, will take “generations” to degrade and break down.
He adds: “To see PPE discarded irresponsibly is disappointing. This is bio-waste. You could argue that every piece of litter in Cavan over the past five months is bio waste. We've had this debate on our online meetings, that should we even be picking litter at the present time?
"Do we know what we're picking? If there is a risk, is it fair then to ask people to put themselves or loved ones in danger? It's the strange situation we find ourselves at the moment. We were disappointed seeing it happen at the start of all this but we've definitely been grateful to see the response by people to our own campaigns.”
Director of Services with remit over waste management in the county, Paddy Connaughton confirmed to The Anglo-Celt that the local authority had indeed been approached by Tidy Towns groups over PPE littering.
“We will run an advertising campaign in The Anglo-Celt next week to raise awareness of this issue. Like all litter, people should dispose of such waste materials properly,” he said.