Swinford Tidy Towns recently launched their new litter carts, these new carts are actually old carts that have been upcycled for use by the Tidy Towns group in their efforts.
Speaking at the launch, Imelda Kelly Swinford Tidy Towns chairperson, thanked all the volunteers, saying: "I would like to thank Castlebar Tidy Towns who originally came up with the idea and for providing us with some of their excess golf trollies.
"We would also like to thank Swinford Golf Club members for providing some trollies to us also. Our volunteers do great work about the town, and especially all the Tús and RSS workers and supervisors who do tremendous work all year round.
"We have 16 Mutt Mitt dispenser's and doggie bins at various locations around the town. The Tús workers empty the bins twice weekly, which can be quite difficult. We hope that these new carts will make their work a little easier. These new litter carts are a brilliant idea and they also tick all the boxes of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle."
Michael Maye, Swinford Tidy Towns PRO, said: "I think these new carts are a great idea. We first saw them in use by Castlebar Tidy Towns and couldn’t get over the simplicity of the idea.
"It takes the heavy lifting out of carrying bags of litter. Even though the bags on a litter pick might not be all that heavy, your arms can tire and your fingers cramp up sometimes holding the bags.
"I think these new carts are 99.95% made from upcycled and recycled materials. The Golf trollies were shortened and narrowed and recycled, all the nuts and bolts reused.
"The steel needed was salvaged from a skip. The plywood used was offcuts from my own shed. The paint was also donated to the tidy towns previously. The only thing I can think of that was new, was the few welding rods used to weld the steel."
With life returning to some sort of normality, so are the group's tidy towns activities (while strictly following government guidelines ). They have a few small projects lined up for the coming weeks and months. They are also continuing their weekly litter-pick around the town, on Saturdays and Sundays at various times that suit the volunteers. If you would like to help out any time, please get in contact with any committee member. Whatever times suits you they can arrange litter-pickers etc.
Imelda Kelly added: "We would like to take this opportunity to ask all the businesses and indeed householders to help us out in a small way. All we ask is to keep on top of any weeds outside your premises and along the kerbside. It would really make a big difference."
If you would like to help out Swinford Tidy Towns in any way, you can contact them on any of their social media channels or at www.swinfordtidytowns.com/contact-us/
