This is the busy season, declares 71-year-old author Alice Taylor – and she’s not talking about writing books. She’s talking about litter-picking.

Along with thousands of people in an estimated 700 towns and villages throughout the country, the best-selling author of To School Through the Fields is gearing up for the 2010 Tidy Town competitions.

Over the next few months, they’ll do everything from planting tubs to collecting rubbish – and they’ll do it despite the daily avalanche of litter dumped on our streets and roadsides by fly-tippers (people who sneakily dump their rubbish) and uncaring motorists.

All systems go
Taylor, who is passionately committed to the Tidy Towns ethos – she devoted an entire chapter of her 2008 book The Parish to the organisation – says that, between now and September, it’ll be all systems go in her picturesque village, which is known as the gateway to west Cork.

Innishannon’s 30-strong Tidy Towns team will spend the months of spring, summer and early autumn doing their utmost to keep the hamlet – which nestles in a river valley between protective forests – looking its very best.

“We’ll be doing everything from picking litter to planting flowers, shrubs and trees, and painting public areas,” she explains.

Highlighting history
However, it’s not all about cleaning. “We’re also creating an awareness of history in the village. We’ve just put up an historic map of Innishannon, which highlights the village’s old historical connections, and we’re erecting a mini-map at each historical site in the village.”

Tidy Towns volunteers participate in everything from the conservation and preservation of buildings to the treatment of derelict sites, waste minimisation and recycling. They plant trees and flower baskets, mow lawns, paint buildings and even install false windows to improve the appearance of rundown properties. Participating areas are rated on all aspects of their local environment and prizes are awarded under different categories.

The overall winner is ‘Ireland’s Tidiest Town’, which is announced at a national ceremony in September.

Although there are no official figures as to how many people are actively involved in Tidy Towns, experienced sources reckon there are several thousand volunteers in communities around the country.

Getting in on the act
While the organisation, which announces local and regional awards throughout October and November, has strong links with schools and the training and employment authority FÁS, a large proportion of its volunteers are older people, many in their late 50s and upwards.

Their work has become a crucial part in Ireland’s annual face-lift – illegal dumping and fly-tipping in both urban and rural areas has become a major problem in recent years.

On average, every resident in Ireland generates 729kg of municipal waste, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Waste Report 2008. However, it seems not everyone recycles their household rubbish or pays to send it to landfill.

Fly-tipping on the rise
In the three-and-a-half years since the EPA’s Dump the Dumpers hotline was established, more than half of the 5,300 calls received involved complaints about fly-tipping: 38 per cent related to fly-tipping of up to 20 bags, while 16 per cent related to illegal dumping of more than 20 bags.

“While substantial progress has been made in identifying and dealing with large-scale illegal dumping in Ireland, challenges remain, including tackling and stamping out fly-tipping of waste, as reports from the EPA’s Dump the Dumpers hotline show an increase in calls relating to illegal dumping and fly-tipping,” says EPA senior inspector Jim Moriarty.

Dial the hotline
“The Dump the Dumpers phone line has been a great success due to the vigilance of the many callers who have reported environmental crimes. We’re urging the public to continue their fight to protect their environment by calling 1850 365 121 and reporting any sites that are used habitually for fly-tipping and illegal dumping of waste.”

However, as Taylor points out, small-scale dumping is constant and unrelenting. “There’s a huge avalanche of litter being dumped casually. It’s terrible – bottles thrown out of cars, people dumping black plastic bags of household refuse on the roadsides and in fields and ditches.

Eyesore
“I remember standing on a stone bridge outside our village, looking down to admire the stream, and seeing all these bulging black plastic refuse bags somebody had thrown into the water.

“You need great tenacity to keep going. A certain amount of dogged determination is required. It’s not always easy to go around picking up other people’s refuse – you have the distinct feeling sometimes that you’re trying to keep back the tide.”

So why do they bother? It’s about taking action on an individual and community basis, says Taylor. Furthermore, she says, children reared in towns or villages that take pride in their environment will develop a good attitude towards litter and their environment.

Lifting spirits
Along with that, an active Tidy Towns ethos creates a sense of place for residents, Taylor believes. “It promotes a pride in yourself and in your environment. It lifts your spirits and the spirits of the people living in a place.”

There’s also the social element. “It’s very companionable – you get to know each other very well when you’re working side by side, brushing the street or planting flowers. It’s very good for the community. I’d say it’s a community-enriching organisation.”

Committed Tidy Towns volunteer Eileen Corcoran agrees. This energetic senior citizen does several litter-picks a day in her neighbourhood – starting at 6.30am.

Get some satisfaction
“Litter is a big problem now. I like the place to be neat and I get great satisfaction out of going out and doing it and seeing the place nice and clean,” says Co Cork-based Corcoran, chair of the Ballineen-Enniskeane Tidy Towns Committee.

“Also it’s very sociable – it’s nice meeting up for the work with people in the evenings. You get a chance to chat while you do the brushing or the weeding.”