IRISH Water spent €180,000 on freeing blockages in the sewerage system in Tralee last year and up to four tonnes of ragging (wipes, grease, fats etc) is taken from Tralee water treatment plants every month.
This was just some of the information Susan Vickers of Clean Coasts/An Taisce gave at the ‘Think Before You Flush / Clean Coats Roadshow’ at Tralee Bay Wetlands on Saturday.
Susan Vickers said approximately 80% of marine litter comes from land, 70% of marine litter is plastic, Tralee blockages account for 72% of total blockages in Kerry and 5.6% of total blockages nationally.
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Meanwhile, a Kerry County Council representative said €2million is spent on street cleaning every year in Kerry.
Ken Tobin, Managing Consultant, Tralee Chamber Alliance said “We are so proud that Tralee has been selected as one of six towns in Ireland to be included in the Think Before You Flush Campaign 2020. Tralee has made great strides in the last few years in terms of environmental awareness and environmental action.
From the very active Tidy Towns groups like Tidy Tralee Together, Team Bramble and Friends of Able, to Evan, Alex and Dylan’s Canal Clean Up and the GLAN Tralee sustainability group to the many businesses that have contributed to environmental projects in our town; there is certainly an increased emphasis on making Tralee a greener place to live, work in and visit. So it’s no surprise that Tralee has been ranked in the top six towns in Ireland in the last two Irish Businesses Against Litter evaluations and the efforts of the community groups involved and Kerry County Council are appreciated.”
Martha Farrell, Tralee Tidy Towns said: “Tralee Tidy Towns is delighted to support the Think Before You Flush campaign. Having been involved in many beach cleans and canal clean ups in the Tralee area over the last two years, we have noticed the impact of sewage-related litter on our coastline.”
“Tralee Bay is designated as a Special Protection Area due to the importance of the bay to native and migratory bird species and we know this campaign will contribute to the protection of this special area. Tralee has already been accepted on the Neat Streets programme for second-level students for 2020 and there’s a great energy around all of the environmental initiatives at the moment which have been well supported by Kerry County Council and Tralee Chamber Alliance.”