'A pandemic of laziness'- Shocking video emerges of Salthill beach covered in rubbish after heatwave
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Anger in Galway after Salthill beach was covered top to bottom in rubbish after recent heatwave
There has been massive anger and frustration in Galway recently after Salthill beach was left destroyed in rubbish after the recent hot weather.
Galway City councillor Niall McNelis shared a video of the beach which was left in a shocking state after people spent the sunny days there.
Commenting on the incident, Cllr McNelis said: “That video showed the aftermath of a day of people enjoying the amazing diamond that is Salt Hill and then people took the sparkle out of it by just leaving all the rubbish behind.
“I think the calls for extra bins is a weak call because there is extra bins out there. The wardens were out there all day trying to clean up.”
The councillor said: “To be honest with you, we had two good days of the year and people don't know how to behave themselves. It's as simple as that.
“The majority of them will be young people and I hate giving out about young people. I would say it's very simple. You bring your rubbish home or you put it in a bin. If the bin is full, you look for another bin that isn't full.
“Just to discard your stuff like that and expect somebody else to clean it up is just laziness in the first place.
“It's a pandemic of laziness. It's an epidemic of just thinking that somebody else is going to clean up after them. I think that, for me, is not where we want to be. If you're going to bring a quilt to the beach, don't leave it behind you. If you're going to be bringing a bag of cans, again, we have a lot of people talking about the environment. There were 15 cent refunds there. There were all these cans and bottles left behind.”
A worry for Cllr McNelis and many other people is the rubbish being washed out to the sea.
“I didn't want anything to be washed out because we have to clean up the ocean all the time,” Cllr McNelis said.
“Thank you to the good Samaritans who did litter pick up before this got washed out. To those who left litter behind, or couldn’t bother, this is why some nice things in society get spoiled. It’s very simple put it in a bin and if that’s full bring it home or wait till you find another bin. Every little effort helps. Thank you to the parks and environment teams out early today putting the sparkle on the City.”