There has been a bit of talk in the halls of Leinster House recently over the new tax that aims to clean up to 500 tonnes a year of rubbish off our streets. It also makes up to 25% of the litter on the streets and on Grafton street an estimated 180,000 individual pieces of it were removed. So what is it ?
This is the problem of used pieces of chewing gum destroying the look of our streets. John Gormley from the Green Party and also the newish environment minister warned that Ireland may impose a 10% levy on the food item.
We here think this is a great thing, but also think it’s not enough. The levy which could make up to €4 million, will be used for clean up purposes. But is it stopping the problem ? People aren’t going to stop buying chewing gum in the same quantities because it costs 6 cents more. Maybe the government should supply more bins and introduce (and impose) fines for those who spit out their gum on the streets. Or maybe we should go along the lines of what Singapore did in 1992, and banned it totally ?