Gum Litter Taskforce

The Gum Litter Taskforce (GLT) is part of a joint initiative which aims to achieve a long-term solution to irresponsible chewing gum disposal. The GLT is charged with developing and implementing an Action Programme to tackle gum litter in the most sustainable way - by changing behaviour, the root cause of the issue.

A campaign has been developed which will incorporate a set of integrated initiatives including education, raising awareness and measures to ensure the greater visibility of penalties for littering. Members of the GLT include representatives of the chewing gum industry; Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government; Food and Drink Industry Ireland; Department of Education and Science; ENFO; ECO UNESCO; Foroige and local authority representatives.

Ennis Tidy Towns Works with The Gum Litter Taskforce, and the Town Council, to raise awareness of gum as litter. Ennis Tidy Towns committee has worked , and will continue to work closely with the council in order to raise awareness of gum litter in the community. The committee got involved at an early stage and worked with the council in generating an awareness campaign and designing street signage. The Gum Litter Task Force (GLT) logo will be used for posters and distributed by committee members during school visits.

Ennis Tidy Towns has a number of teachers involved in the committee who will spearhead this project in the schools. Ennis Town Council has also committed to visit every class and get the GLT message out. As part of our awareness building campaign we hold art competitions, distribute merchandise with the GLT message and hold classroom debates about the importance of disposing of your gum correctly. Our theme for this year will be “chewing gum litter”, and prizes will be given out at our local awards.

We are also engaged in an important and useful study on gum deposits and have counted chewing gum deposits in different locations in Ennis. We are particularly interested in results derived from ” Chapel Lane ” which has recently being refurbished and was completely repaved. We will continue to monitor this area to determine levels of gum litter at various stages of our campaign to see how effective our awareness campaign is. This experiment will also add as an interesting exercise to discuss when visiting schools.

We have also written to all residential groups asking them to discuss the GLT message with the residents, and their children with a view to raising awareness that gum is litter, and the only sustainable way of getting rid of the problem is through education.

Local retailers are also on board and Ennis Chamber of Commerce has emailed all their members asking them to place a GLT poster on their shop/ business window, for the duration of the GLT campaign. Posters will be displayed in English, Irish and Polish to facilitate our growing Polish population.

For more information on this national initiative visit www.gumlittertaskforce.ie