Ireland’s largest anti-litter initiative, the National Spring Clean, has started. Hundreds of volunteers from Westmeath have already signed up to take part in this years initiative with clean-ups currently being planned all over Westmeath.
However, more volunteers are needed! You can show your pride in your local area by organising a clean up event in your locality. An Taisce will provide you with free clean-up kits which contain information, posters, colour coded refuse sacks for segregation of waste materials, protective gloves, and tabards to keep participants clean. An Taisce will also liaise with local authorities to ensure that all materials collected will be picked up without charge.
Patricia Oliver, National Spring Clean chairperson said: “The National Spring Clean campaign encourages people to work together to create a cleaner environment and plays a vital role in improving quality of life by empowering people to take responsibility for, and have pride in, their local areas. The initiative is totally reliant on people’s willingness to give their time and energy to help to make a difference in their community and the results continue to be outstanding. I would like to praise the people from Westmeath who have already signed up for the initiative and I hope that we can encourage more to take part.”
The National Spring Clean campaign is organised by An Taisce and funded by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. In 2008, more than 450,000 people volunteered to join with other members of their community to organise clean-ups around the country where an estimated 1,596 tonnes of litter was collected and 35 per cent of that waste was recycled.
The National Spring Clean campaign is sponsored by Coca-Cola Bottlers Ireland and the Wrigley Company. It is also supported by Repak who supply colour coded refuse sacks for recycling the materials collected and Killeen who sponsor the general waste sacks. The campaign is backed by all local authorities who co-ordinate activity in their communities.
To register for National Spring Clean call (01 ) 4002220 or log on to the website at www.nationalspringclean.org
