By Louise Walsh
"Humanity is doomed if we continue like this," claimed a disgusted Laytown walker after large swathes of the Meath beach was left covered in litter by sun-lovers yesterday evening.
A pleasant walk on Laytown beach by native Lisa McCabe (33) turned into an hour-long clean up of bottles, cans, barbecues, nappies and endless plastic wrappers strewn across the sand.
She was helped by Nichola Matthews who stopped while out for a drive to get her young kids asleep at 9.30pm.
Lisa was also hugely surprised at a large number of people out walking the beach who never offered a hand in cleaning up.
In an angry open Facebook post to those who littered, the TV producer said: "This is not ok. What was meant to be a pleasant walk on the beach ended up as a beach clean-up.
"What is so hard about bringing your rubbish with you or putting it in the bins provided. You're destroying the very place you come to enjoy."
Lisa and the other lady concentrated on a small portion of the beach and still collected eight black sacks and three car boot loads which they deposited in empty bins at the entrance to the beach.
"I wouldn't mind but I had just posted that I had the whole beach to myself and then I saw what looked like a picnic blanket covered in food on the beach.
"It was a plastic sheet with a disposable barbecue, raw food that no-one had cooked, ice-cream, crisp and chocolate wrappers and beer cans.
"Then I saw other bottles of beer all over the beach from other people. These are not kids, it's adults that are the offenders and kids are looking on, thinking this is ok
Picture: Lisa McCabe
"I initially thought the public bins were full, but at least two of them were practically empty. What is wrong with these people that they have no respect for their environment.
"It was a real eye-opener and also the amount of people who passed myself and Nichola but never offered to help was a huge shock.
"There has been so much in the news about how plastic is destroying our oceans and sea-life but no-one obviously cares."
"Humanity is doomed if we continue like this - there's no hope for the future"
Anyone who wants to get involved can email Lisa at [email protected]. The Laytown/Bettystown Beach Committee have organised a clean-up this Saturday, July 7 at 10am if people want to help.
