Local kids lead the march against chewing gum litter

THE cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Cllr Cormac Devlin, led a procession of kids from local schools through the town last week as they launched the 2017 Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) education campaign.

The campaign has had huge success to date in changing the public’s behaviour to gum disposal through a targeted education awareness campaign

 According to research carried out by Millward Brown on behalf of the Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) during the 2016 campaign, the highest number of people to date (93 per cent) agreed that dropping gum is littering. Almost six in seven people (84 per cent) claimed they always disposed of their gum correctly.

Speaking at the launch Cllr Devlin said: “This is a great campaign for communities up and down the country to get involved in.

“Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, in partnership with Dalkey Tidy Towns and four local primary schools, Castle Park School, Loreto Primary School, St Patrick’s National School and Harold Boys National School, is demonstrating how this campaign unites communities in a common goal to responsibly dispose of chewing gum and continue to contribute to the positive results the campaign has seen to date.”

Paul Kelly, chairman of the GLT, added: “Each year the campaign seeks to educate people on the correct disposal of gum.

“And while we have seen very positive results to date, we want to continue encouraging a positive behaviour change among the small minority who are still disposing of gum incorrectly.”

“Latest research results highlighted a significant increase in those who say they never drop gum which points towards the success of the campaign since its inception.”

“Younger people are taking the message home.”

The launch last week is just one element of a nationwide campaign which also includes an advertising campaign and a school’s education programme, ‘Bin It!’

Industry representative Alex West; Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs – UK & Ireland for the Wrigley Company (a subsidiary of Mars Inc) said: “The Wrigley Company is delighted to be the industry representative on the GLT and be part of such a successful campaign.

 The Gum Litter Taskforce is a unique industry funded initiative that runs in partnership with local and national government and civic society to tackle a common goal through awareness and education. 

The campaign results to date have demonstrated the success our approach has had in changing behaviour and attitudes to gum littering.”

This is the third year of the latest campaign, which is the result of an agreement between the Department of Communications, Climate Action and the Environment and Food Drink Ireland (FDI) representing the gum industry, to fund a national gum litter awareness programme from 2015-2017.