The highly successful local Gum Litter Campaign is to get a timely boost with Westmeath County Council and Athlone Town Council engaging in a range of additional activities aimed at heightening awareness of the problem over the coming weeks.
“Our aim is to sustain the tremendous momentum already achieved by the gum litter campaign both locally and nationally,” said Bernie Ginnell of Westmeath Co Co. “The idea is to build on the success achieved to date. The clear evidence on the streets is that the campaign is working and this benefits the whole community in terms of a cleaner and more visually attractive environment.”
Westmeath local authorities are among 30 local authorities participating in the Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT ) National Gum Litter Campaign.
This year’s national Gum Litter Campaign was launched in June and follows on from highly successful campaigns in 2007 and 2008. These campaigns saw very significant improvements in relation to gum litter awareness and disposal behaviour. In five cities monitored during 2008, there was an overall decrease of chewing gum litter of 36 per cent since the beginning of the campaign.
Commenting on the success of the campaign to date Paul Kelly, chairman of the Gum Litter Taskforce, paid tribute to the participating local authorities. “None of this could have been achieved without the efforts of the participating local authorities. Their hard work on the ground has resulted in very significant improvements and I am very pleased that we have had a record number of local authorities participating this year.”
