Community appeals for volunteers for clean up

The Killydoon community are hosting their annual Spring Clean tomorrow (Saturday), April 14. The 'Bag It' initiative will seek to clean up the public road from the community hall at Killydoon as far as the county bridge near Granard, Co Longford, along the N55.

The committee is urging everyone get involved for an hour or two to help clean up their community. They are meeting at the hall at 10am to divide the route up into segments.

The initiatives comes after Cavan County Council invited members of the public and community groups to get involved in the biggest national clean up ever this April. The 2018 National Spring Clean is a month-long effort to improve the overall environment with the aid of local volunteers.

The Spring Clean aims to galvanise the practices of recycling and re-use where possible and promote personal responsibility for litter.
This year's campaign was launched last month at the Courthouse by the captain of Cavan ladies GAA, Sinead Greene.
Sinead told The Anglo-Celt how she got involved: “Cavan County Council are linking in with the GAA and tidy towns groups to promote the Spring clean this year, which is a wonderful idea. I was delighted to be a part of it.”
Now in its 20th year, the National Spring Clean campaign has been building momentum. “It's to get people aware of the litter problems across the country. It aims to stop illegal dumping at the sides of the roads and get people go out and help with the clean up,” Sinead told the Celt.
The captain of the county team said that the involvement of the GAA is a natural fit: “It is about getting everyone, young and old, to take part. What better training is there than to get people out picking up litter. We want young and old to get out and help with the clean up.”
Conor Craven is the environmental awareness officer with Cavan County Council. He explained the importance of public participation: “On behalf of Cavan County Council, we would like to call on all community groups to get involved in the campaign. It is a way of getting fit and is good for community interactions.”
In 2017, there were 72 groups registered to clean up with An Taisce and 2,400 people took part in the event. Over 1,380 bags of waste and recyclable material, as well as tyres, old furniture and broken toys were collected in Cavan.
These items were disposed of by Cavan County Council at its three civic amenity sites in the county.
Tidy towns committees, schools, societies or any group of people are being urged to register their Spring Clean with An Taisce and come together in order to tackle litter and take pride in their environment.