A novel campaign to create greater awareness and responsibility for litter in their area has been launched by Kilworth's Village Renewal Group.

The group approached Cork County Council last October in response to an invitation for applicatioins for funding under the LA21 Environmental Partnership Fund Scheme. The scheme was designed to help increase local levels of environmental awareness or to help local communities become more sustainable.

Cork County Council liked Kilworth's proposal of a public awareness and voluntary rota for litter picking and collecting in the village and surrounding townlands. They sponsored the printing of 350 calendars, public signage and 60 special litter-picking instruments.

The calendars were distributed through the local school and are also available in the shops of the village for the public to take. Each week on the calendar is marked with letters, which correspond to a person's surname. People whose initial is listed on a particular week are asked to make a daily effort for that week to go out and pick litter somewhere in their area, that they think needs attention.

There are four stations in the village where signage is erected and public litter-picking instruments are available to encourage the public to get involved and make the job easier.

"LITTLE BY LITTLE"

The scheme seeks to develop on the successful anti-litter campaigns of recent years which aimed to stop public littering. Kilworth's campaign goes a step further, asking that people not only take their own litter home, but that they also pick up litter thrown by others.

The group accepts that no matter how successful their campaign is, there will always be those who litter and also some degree of unintentional littering. Kilworth, like many other villages around the country, doesn't have a paid public litter collection service, so they believe it's up to themselves to chip in and keep their local environment tidy just as they would do at home.

"So far the scheme has been working well and people have been spotted doing their duty, especially some school kids who are enjoying the novelty of the public litter-pickers," Cian O'Meara of Kilworth Village Renewal Group says. "All that remains is for the public to do their bit, little by little."

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