BIG SPRING IN VOLUNTEERS
Northern Ireland’s Biggest Clean-Up Targets Plastic Problem.
Northern Ireland’s largest clean-up, The Big Spring Clean, launched this week at Shane’s Castle for the ninth year running. Organisers called on volunteers, schools, businesses and community groups to pick up their litter pickers and spring into action – with a particular focus on plastic.
The Big Spring Clean is a province-wide campaign organised by charity Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful’s Live Here Love Here programme. Last year 119,000 volunteers took part, making it the largest volunteer clean up in the country.
This year, as Big Spring Clean launches its month-long campaign, problematic plastics are high up on the agenda. Plastic in our environment is not just litter, it’s a pollutant, making up two of the top three most frequently encountered litter items. 80% of this litter ends up in our oceans which is incredibly costly and difficult, if not impossible to remove, devasting coast lines and harming marine life which in turn means plastic is entering our food chain, damaging our health.
Jodie McAneaney, Live Here Love Here Manager comments at the launch: “The time is now for preventative steps to reduce, reuse and recycle the plastics we use. The Big Spring Clean is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the issues here in Northern Ireland and record our findings so that we can take steps to improve. It’s also great to get all the volunteers together to discuss the issues surrounding plastic litter and give our parks, forests and beaches a Big Spring Clean before the Easter Break so that people can enjoy the outdoors.”
We can all do just one thing and together make a difference. Volunteers can either organise their own clean-up or get involved in an existing event.
Visit: www.liveherelovehere.org/bigspringclean or contact enquiries@liveherelovehere.org to register. #onesmallthingmyni #2minutesolution #goplasticfree #reduceplasticwaste #UseLessPlastic –
Live Here Love Here is a national campaign aimed at promoting civic pride and a community can-do attitude by improving environmental quality in Northern Ireland. They tackle issues such as poor environmental quality, littering and dilapidation, by encouraging volunteers to take practical action in their local communities.
Live Here Love Here is an inspiring partnership between the Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs; Choice Housing; Northern Ireland Housing Executive; Coca-Cola; McDonald’s; and councils across Northern Ireland.
Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful is a charity working towards the vision of a cleaner, greener Northern Ireland by running environmental education programmes and awareness raising campaigns, increasing volunteering opportunities and reporting on local environmental quality. Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful runs a range of awareness raising and volunteering campaigns including the BIG Spring Clean and the Clean Coast programme as well as local environmental quality programmes such as international Eco-Schools and Blue Flag programmes, the Seaside Award, Borough Cleanliness Surveys and Live Here Love Here Green Business Awards. For more information, visit:
