Litter Management Plan - Mayo County Council

Litter Management Plan 2007 – 2009Mayo County CouncilMayo County Council currently employs a fulltime Environmental AwarenessOfficer (EAO). Among her various functions and duties, she is responsible forrelaying an anti-litter message to both primary and secondary school students.Of utmost importance on a worldwide level is the Green-Schools (Eco-Schools) initiative. Co-ordinated on an international level by FEE (Foundationfor Environmental Education), there are currently over 14,500 schools in 37countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America taking part inthe programme. On a national level, over 2,300 primary, secondary andspecial schools in Ireland (~ 55% of all Irish schools) are currently taking partin the programme and 885 have been awarded the Green Flag.In Mayo, over 110 schools have registered for their Green Flag Award and atpresent (2007) 63 schools retain the Green Flag. The importance of litter andwaste as one of the central themes of this initiative cannot be over-emphasisedand with the regular visits and continuous advice from the EnvironmentalAwareness Officer, in addition to financial support from Mayo CountyCouncil, there will be a significant increase in the number of Green Flagrecipients in Mayo.Proud recipients of their Green Flag - Knock NS, Co. MayoAdditional youth education measures undertaken to date have been incooperation with voluntary community groups. One such example was theAnti-litter Photograph Competition held by Castlebar Tidy TownsCommittee and partly funded by Mayo County Council (70% funded by AntilitterAwareness Fund, 2005). This initiative was undertaken to educatesecondary school students on the problem of litter and to actively encouragePage - 19 -