National Spring Clean begins

It takes place across the country every year.

The National Spring Clean for 2022 is well underway this month.

The An Taisce initiative aims to encourage people to look after and care for their communities.

National Spring Clean is operated by the Environmental Education Unit of the organisation, in partnership with Local Authorities and supported by the Department of Environment, Communications and Climate Environment and Mars Wrigley Ireland.

The initiative takes place throughout April and for the past 23 years has seen over 12 million hours volunteered and over 42,000 tonnes of litter across the country removed.

This year the theme of community pride is at the forefront of the campaign with The National Spring Clean urging people of all ages to gather friends, family, classmates, neighbours or colleagues to unite in cleaning their shared green spaces together.

The 2021 National Spring Clean was the biggest and the longest campaign ever, taking place between March and August, despite the pandemic and restrictions in place at the start of the year.

In county Cavan, over 1,000 volunteers carried out over 100 clean-ups throughout the county in 2021. Over 50 groups and communities have already registered to carry out a clean-up this year.

The campaign is on track to make 2022’s National Spring Clean campaign the biggest yet with the organisation already surpassing the number of registrations they had gained this time last year.

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, said:

“The statistics for what the National Spring Clean achieves every year are staggering and are a real testament to the energy, drive and community commitment of volunteers up and down the country who come out and work hard together to protect, enhance and clear up our local environments. It’s unpaid, largely unsung and often unseen work that improves the quality of life for all of us. I would like to salute your work and express my gratitude for the hours of selfless volunteer work that help make National Spring Clean such a critical part of the annual environmental calendar here. I would also like to acknowledge the key role played by An Taisce in overseeing the campaign. My Department will continue to provide support to the campaign and I look forward to the many events that will be held countrywide.”

For those who would like to organise a clean-up please log on to our website at www.nationalspringclean.org to request a free clean-up kit.