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Ireland Makes a Move on Gum Litter

The 2012 Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) National Gum Litter Environmental Awareness campaign was launched in Dublin today by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Mr Phil Hogan TD and the Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague. This national 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 Minister Hogan said: “Experience has shown us that there are no short term or quick fix solutions to litter. The only long-term sustainable way to deal with the issue is to create a culture where littering of all forms is simply unacceptable. The Gum Litter Taskforce campaign has been designed with this overall goal in mind. It uses an innovative combination of educational and advertising initiatives to generate awareness of the issue and influence future behaviour regarding litter disposal.”

The Lord Mayor said “The Gum Litter Taskforce campaign is reducing the amount of chewing gum on Dublin's streets. This co-operation between public, private and voluntary sectors has delivered significant reductions in gum litter levels in Dublin in recent years and I look forward to further progress 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 gum 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 which is supported by materials and tools for teachers to download and integrate into lesson plans.
· A mass media advertising campaign (outdoor, print, online and radio) which runs for approximately four 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 awards in the TidyTowns competition.

“This is the first year in a new three-year programme of activity by the GLT”, said GLT Chairman Mr Paul Kelly. “The GLT Gum Litter Awareness campaign is focused on educating the minority of consumers who dispose of their used chewing gum irresponsibly, highlighting that used chewing gum is classed as litter and irresponsible disposal can incur a littering fine of €150. The campaign aims 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”.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 23 local authorities who are taking part in this year’s campaign as their work is critical to achieving our goals,” he added. “Indeed, without the help and support of local authorities we would not have been able to achieve the overall 57% baseline reduction in litter levels recorded during the last three year programme. 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.”

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, Kerry, Galway and Leitrim, and the town council of Ennis.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012

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