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South Dublin County Council Making Moves on Gum Litter

South Dublin County Council Making Moves on Gum Litter

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21/05/2012

Archived item. This item is published here for historical reasons. The information below may be out of date.

The 2012 South Dublin County CouncilGum Litter Awareness campaign was launched inthe Square Shopping centre Tallaght on Thursday, May 17th, 2012 by the Mayor of South Dublin County, Cllr Catriona Jones. Run by the Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) in association with local authorities throughout Ireland, the National Gum Litter Awareness campaign aims to reduce littered gum in the most sustainable way; by changing irresponsible disposal behaviour – the root cause of the issue – by encouraging the public to dispose of their gum responsibly.

The GLT includes representatives of the chewing gum industry; Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government; Food and Drink Industry Ireland; local authority representatives and civic society.

Speaking at the launch, Mayor Jones said: “The key to tackling the gum litter and all forms of litter is education. This approach to education builds awareness and influences behaviour in order to deal with the problem at source and stop people from disposing of gum irresponsibly. The campaign has delivered very impressive results in the past in terms of reductions in gum litter levels and I hope to see similar success in our town/county/city this year”.

The theme of the 2012 campaign is “Bin it your way”and it features a series of professionally choreographed and highly innovative dance moves which communicate the responsible disposal of litter in an engaging way. There is also a strong interactive element to the campaign with members of the public being encouraged to go online at Facebook.com and search “Bin it your way”, view the dance moves and record and upload some of their own.

The campaign will also include

· A schools education programme aimed at first year secondary school students called “Bin It!” This includes an actor-led workshop tour which take place in schools each autumn and tools and materials for teachers to download and integrate into lesson plans. A mass media advertising campaign (outdoor, print, online and radio) which runs for approximately three months.
· Distribution of point of sale materials to over 1,000 retailers around the country.
· Litter monitoring by local authorities to see how much littered gum is reduced on the streets as a result of the campaign.
· Sponsorship of five categories in the TidyTowns awards.


“I would like to take this opportunity to thank South Dublin County Counciland the other 22 local authorities who are taking part in this year’s campaign as their work is critical to achieving our goals,”said GLT Chairman Mr Paul Kelly. “This is the first year of a new three year progamme of activity by the GLT. This year’s campaign takes an innovative approach cutting across all media platforms and channels and is aimed at building on the success of previous campaigns. The campaign is focused on educating the minority of consumers who dispose of their used chewing gum irresponsibly, that used chewing gum is classed as litter and irresponsible disposal can incur a litter fine of €150. We want to change consumer behaviour with regard to the disposal of gum rather than implementing short-term solutions that do not address the underlying problem of irresponsible disposal.”

Paying tribute to the local authorities who have supported the campaign over the years Mr. Kelly said: “Without the help and support of South Dublin County Councilwe would not have been able to achieve the overall 57% baseline reduction in litter levels recorded during the last three year programme.”

Each of the participating local authorities will launch their own campaigns in the coming weeks. The 23 local authorities participating they are: Dublin City Council, Cork City Council, Waterford City Council, Limerick City Council, Galway City Council and the County Council’s of, Clare, Donegal, Laois, Roscommon, Meath, Wexford, Sligo, Kilkenny, Fingal, Westmeath, South Dublin, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, South Tipperary, Waterford and Leitrim , and the town council of Ennis.


Further information:
Issued on behalf of the Gum Litter Taskforce

Paul Kelly, Chairman Arnold Dillon
Gum Litter Taskforce IBEC Press Office
Tel: 01 605 1621 Tel: 01 605 1638
Mobile: 087 202 5545 Mobile:087 923 8188