Episode 06

(Eco Eye s3/e6)

Item 1
Community & Lifestyle
Litter
The EPA describes litter as one of the ‘most visible and regrettable environmental problems we have’. Our neighbours in central Europe don’t have this problem, neither do the Scandinavians or even the consumer-driven Americans. We ask why?
We talk to Irish Businesses Against Litter who have estimated that between us, we drop three quarters of a million pieces of it every day. IBAL was set up in 1997 with support from An Taisce. Part of its work is to monitor towns and cities around the country – recording the results in an effort to identify and combat the worst litter black spots.

Item 2
Environment & Health
Drinking Water
With huge proportion of Ireland’s wells and group schemes contaminated by human and animal waste, this segment investigates the real quality of the country’s private water supplies, sending the findings off to the lab for analysis.

Item 3
Heritage
National Parks
Certain areas of Ireland are designated as National Parks – there are just six in the whole country.These are:
Killarney National Park, Co. Kerry
Glenveagh National Park, Co. Donegal
Connemara National Park, Co. Galway
Wicklow Mountains National Park, Co. Wicklow
The Burren National Park, Co. Clare
Ballycroy National Park, Co. Mayo
Ireland has no legislation in place with respect to the establishment of these National Parks. We ask who decides what becomes a National Park and why?
Our National Parks are run centrally by the Dept of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. We visit two National Park areas in Ireland and discover the different ways that they are protected & maintained.
We visit the Wicklow Mountains National Park in Co. Wicklow and Mourne Mountains in Co. Down. The Mourne Mountains are classed as ‘an area of outstanding beauty’ in Northern Ireland. Like the Wicklow National Parks, the Mourne Mountains are a protected landscape – but, unlike Wicklow National Park, most of the land here is privately owned.

Item 4
The Big Picture
Renewable Energy in Larger Buildings
Buildings eat up a massive 40% of all the energy we consume. As single consumers, big public and commercial buildings are the hungriest by far in terms of space heating, water heating, power and cooling.
Renewable energy – from biofuel boilers to thermal collectors and heat pumps – can supply a building’s heating needs. Photovoltaic panels can supply its power.
We visit the Coillte building at Newtownmountkennedy in Wicklow, which features a thermal collector – one of the most effective solar devices for space and water heating in Ireland.
Buildings that run on renewable energy may be new to Ireland, but the concept has been part of German architecture for decades. We take a look at a few of Germany’s most exciting renewable energy run buildings.