Litter Initiatives
Litter Blackspot Competition
Annually during the National Spring Clean South Tipperary County Council run the very popular Litter Black Spot Competition. The competition offers 15 prizes of €300 and welcomes applications from youth groups, secondary schools, resident & tidy towns associations or any group of people with an interest in their local environment. The Litter Black Spot Competition focuses on the clean up event organised by your group and asks you for a summary report on your clean up. Before and after photographs to support your application are essential to assist the judge in making a final decision on the winning entries.
National Spring Clean
National Spring Clean is Ireland’s most popular, well recognised and successful anti-litter initiative. Now in its 13th year, the campaign encourages every sector of society to actively participate and take responsibility for litter, by actually conducting clean-ups in their own local environment. National Spring Clean traditionally takes place throughout the month of April. During the National Spring Clean bags, gloves and litter pickers are freely available to participating groups from the Environment Section. In 2011 over 100 groups participated in the National Spring Clean in South Tipperary. Further information is available at http://nationalspringclean.org.
FÁS Spring Clean Up
In 2008 and again in 2009 FÁS teamed up with South Tipperary County Council to clean up all the main road ways in South Tipperary. The good news is that in 2009 the amount of litter and dumping on the roads was noticibly less than 2008. This is thanks to all the hard work carried out by the FÁS crews. In 2008 over 8500 bags of litter were collected around the County. It is hoped to run this initiative again in 2010.
Litter Management
(
9,055 kbs) Litter Management Plan 2011-13
In Ireland we have a serious litter problem nationally and locally, which needs to be addressed urgently. Protection of the environment is a real concern and perhaps the biggest challenge facing South Tipperary County Council is that of how to motivate the public into action against litter. Litter Pollution is a major threat to the quality of County Tipperary and Ireland’s environment.
South Tipperary County Council acknowledges the primary management and enforcement responses to the litter problem must come from the Council. However, responsible practices and actions by the business community and the general public are also necessary to end the blight of litter pollution in South Tipperary.
It is acknowledged that this challenge is best addressed by a partnership approach involving all key stakeholders in society (general public, schools, businesses etc) in raising awareness of litter and its effects, as well as reviewing and enhancing where necessary the local authorities’ own role in litter prevention and control. To this end and in line with the Litter Pollution Act 1997 we have developed a new Litter Management Plan for the County.
This Plan recognises that the problem of litter will not be eradicated unless every sector of society takes responsibility for its share of the solution. We need to recognise as a society that litter is not the sole responsibility of the local authorities, and that cleansing alone is not the most cost-effective or sustainable, long-term solution. There is an undoubted need for a major change in public attitudes, such that littering, whether carried out by individuals or by commercial premises, is viewed as an anti-social and uncivil act. This change of attitude needs to be complemented by a consistent and high-profile enforcement policy by the Local Authority so that fines and prosecutions are utilised to their full extent.
This Litter Management Plan 2011-2013, for the prevention and control of litter, sets out to achieve quantifiable improvements in the prevention of litter in South Tipperary. It is intended that all measures to be undertaken are realistic and measurable. It sets out specific objectives for the following:
- Public awareness, participation and education.
- Prevention
- Enforcement and control of litter
The Plan will lead to continual improvement in the eradication of litter pollution throughout the county. To this end South Tipperary County Council actively monitors litter pollution levels through participation in the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System (NLPMS) which is overseen by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.
