To change attitudes towards litter and recycling and put an end to the dumping of waste next to overflowing rubbish bins, Avoca Tidy Towns volunteers began slowly removing the rubbish bins scattered throughout their village six years ago.

This strategy may seem counterintuitive at first glance, as the logical conclusion would be that more bins are the solution to more waste. But the Avoca Tidy Towns project is not without precedent.

Tokyo is known for its densely populated but immaculately clean streets. Since the garbage cans were removed after the sarin gas attacks in 1995, the city – like other Japanese cities – has hardly had any trash cans left.

This safety measure, born out of tragedy, led to a massive change in people’s habits. In cities where vending machines were present on every street corner, people developed a disciplined way of disposing of their garbage.

Bernie Ivers of Avoca Tidy Towns explained the benefits of their initiative, saying that by removing the bins and spreading the ‘bring it home’ message throughout the community, an equal sense of ownership and pride in the place had been created.

“There used to be seven garbage bins here, from the church car park down to the village. Managing them was quite a hassle. Some people would put their garbage next to them when they were full,” said Bernie.

“They were picked up by the municipality and, especially in July and August, they drove to the village twice a day to empty them.

“We slowly started removing them in 2017 and when Covid hit we only had one left. On the day of the lockdown we knew no one would be there to empty the bin and it was too dangerous so we took it out and never put it back.

“Since then, there has been no litter in the village, partly because there are no litter bins and partly because of the ‘bring-it-home’ initiative that we launched in parallel.

“We have been encouraging the public to bring (waste) home and recycle because we find a huge amount of rubbish that is recyclable – cans and plastic bottles – and we have one of the best recycling facilities in the county here in Avoca.

“People’s attitudes towards garbage here have slowly changed, and that includes community members and those who visit our village.”

When asked if she thought the trash-free approach could be adopted in towns and villages in Garden County and beyond, Bernie said, “We see these tourist towns crying out for more trash cans and we think, ‘No, you need fewer.’

“You see pictures online of places all over Wicklow where people have had a picnic and left their rubbish next to a rubbish bin because they think, ‘Someone will pick this up.’

“We need to change this attitude and encourage people to take their rubbish with them, throw it in a bin that is not full or take it home to be recycled.”

“Of course, this involves work and when we started removing the garbage cans, we put up posters throughout the village to inform people about the initiative and explain why it is important to take the garbage cans home with them.”

“Of course, as volunteers, we must continue to do our part and quickly pick up the trash and do spring cleaning every morning,” she continued.

“However, it is far from being the case a lot of work for us and litter was a much bigger problem when we had bins. Since then we have consistently come high on the list of litter free places in the Wicklow Community and Environment Awards.

“Encouraging people to take it home is certainly one of our proudest projects here at Avoca Tidy Towns. As we say, ‘beauty dies where litter lies’ and we will continue to evolve to ensure our village is litter free.”