Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Gerald Mitchell and Helen O Donnell, Chair of Limerick City Centre Tidy Towns met to highlight the Gum Litter Task Force’s (GLT) national awareness campaign. The campaign is titled Chew’in Out – Bin your Gum When You’re Done and it aims to make gum litter an issue of the past.
Research published recently to coincide with the National Launch of the 2023 GLT Campaign revealed that 87% of people now report proper gum disposal, versus 49% when the campaign began in 2007– an increase of 77.5%, demonstrating the positive impact the campaign has had on attitudes towards gum litter. Peer pressure was found to be the key contributor to this shift in attitudes, followed by knowledge of the €150 fine.
However, work remains to be done to further reduce this figure, as still only 46% of people can claim to have never dropped gum on the ground, demonstrating the continued importance of the awareness and behavioural change campaign.
In September, the Gum Litter Taskforce’s Bin It! education programme will travel across the country including Limerick and deliver over 60 performances a year to primary and secondary schools nationwide, with the ambition to visit 180 schools by 2025. This is in addition to useful lesson plan material that has been made available to almost 730 schools across Ireland.
Mayor of the City and County of Limerick Cllr Gerald Mitchell added, “as Mayor of Limerick I wish to highlight this positive environmental message around proper gum disposal. I would ask all those who live work and visit Limerick to embrace this initiative and bin your gum when they are done.”
Source: Limerick City & County Council
