Litter SWAT Teams !

‘Love Limerick Don’t Litter’

Clean-up operation takes place in city centre (Limerick Leader)

VOLUNTEERS from across the city braved the weather this week to assist the Environment Department of Limerick City Council in a ‘deep clean’ of the city centre ahead of the bank holiday weekend.

City council staff, volunteers and representatives of local businesses were invited to take part in the clean-up operation, which also marked the launch of a new leaflet, ‘Working Together to Keep Limerick Clean’.

The new leaflet outlines the ongoing work the City Council undertakes to keep the control litter in the city and includes a section on what businesses can do to help.

A large crowd of volunteers turned out to help the clean-up operation, as well as the colourful ‘street litter’ characters, who were on hand to promote the ‘Love Limerick Don’t Litter’ message and entertain city centre shoppers.

Many of the volunteers were from groups that participated in the Limerick City 50K Community Challenge, which was supported by the JP McManus Foundation and the Limerick Leader.

Mayor Cllr Jim Long was there to help promote the “simple but key message” to ‘Love Limerick Don’t Litter’.

“Every man, woman and child needs to help to keep Limerick clean,” said the mayor. “Thank you to all the volunteers and community workers for their support of this initiative.”

Limerick Chamber president, Kieran MacSweeney, said he was “delighted to be associated with this initiative and I encourage all businesses in the city to join-in and help with this deep clean and presenting Limerick city in the best possible light. Let’s make it a clean sweep together”.

City council are keen to achieve ‘clean to European norms’ in the next set of IBAL litter league results, due in January of next year.

steveon wrote: »

last year when I visited Estonia . . . . and you got 10 cents for each bottle when you brought it back...the result was not one piece of rubbish for miles . . . .

steveon wrote: »

Would be nice if they would actually install a few more bins if you ask me, there is none on the same side of parnell street except outside the train station which is ridiculous, there are some on the opposite side alrite but thats not good enough in my opinion and Parnell Street aint the only place which could do with a few more bins.

kenoconnell wrote: »

Who's that devilishly handsome chap with the shaved head by the cigarette butt!!!

kenoconnell wrote: »

The last time we got the council, (who did it no problem and always support and help us in any initiatives we do) to install bins in our area one of the shops opposite it got her son to BURN IT OUT!!!!!! Said they didn't want it near there shop...... Fire brigade had to be called and put it out....

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Calm down there, B. I'm pretty sure that's Ken himself in the photo!

University of Limerick National Spring Clean-Green Campus 2011

UL Green Campus removing litter along the banks of the River Shannon. (Images 1, 2, 3)

UL Kayak Club removing litter from the River Shannon. (Images 1, 2, 3)

Limerick drops to 44th litter league (Limerick Leader)

By Nick Rabbitts

A MAJOR new survey has found Limerick is the most littered of all cities outside Dublin.

The twice-yearly IBAL ‘anti-litter’ league ranks Limerick as 44th out of 53 Irish towns and cities surveyed - with the area now ‘moderately littered’.

The news represents a blow to the city, after it was regarded as being ‘clean to European norms’ in both surveys last year.

Mayor Jim Long has said he is “totally dismissive” to the report, which is compiled by the Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL) alliance of companies in conjunction with environmental body An Taisce.

The An Taisce report for Limerick City stated: “Not as good as last year. It is disappointing. But hopefully it will target a better result next year. It is important for Limerick, an historic city that it is perceived to be clean, in European terms.”

An Taisce inspectors pay visits to Limerick with no notice to the City Council, and they survey major streets across the city, including William Street, O’Connell Street, Catherine Street, Roches Street and Sarsfield Street.

According to their findings, only nine areas are considered worse than Limerick in the anti-litter league, including the Dublin suburbs of Tallaght, the north inner city and the airport area.

Last year, Limerick City Council spent almost €3.6m on street cleaning, and €800,000 on litter management, which includes control initiatives and environmental awareness services

That’s a real big disappointment especially after great initiatives to combat litter had taken place.

Our second clean-up action focused on the river bank from the canal junction to the Groody river, and on the canal banks, going down to the Park Bridge on both sides of the canal... lots more to be done!

Link to photo album.



The toy car we fished out - had a battery and an engine on it, making it very heavy...

Clean up of Limerick city ahead of Tidy Towns entry (Limerick Leader)

LIMERICK city’s first entry into the Tidy Towns competition took a huge step forward this weekend, as a group of business people and interested members of the public took to the streets to clean-up the city.

Sunday morning saw a large crowd of interested city stakeholders gather to clean-up of designated parts of the city centre, with a steady stream of volunteers arriving from 10am.

Helen O’Donnell, chair of the Limerick City Business Association, came up with the idea of entering the city centre into Tidy Towns’ new category for large urban spaces, and led yesterday’s clean-up operation.

“It is going very well, we are really excited. We have had a huge crew of people come in to help out today,” said Ms O’Donnell this Sunday afternoon.

Rugby star Jerry Flannery was on hand to help with the initiative, picking up cigarette butts on O’Connell Street, while property developer Michael Tiernan, his wife Maeve and their friends and family gathered around Arthur’s Quay to help clean the streets around the shopping centre and the park opposite it.

“The city is really going to take shape. It is a case of asking people to care for their place and if we could bring the passion that they had last night in Thomond Park onto the streets of the city, we would have an amazing place to be here,” explained Mrs O’Donnell.

“We have ten organisations on board and today we have had people ringing in and coming in offering us equipment and help and all of this is because people want to see the place cleaner and better and people have huge pride in the city,” she added.

The project to clean-up the city and enter the Tidy Towns competition is being supported by Limerick City Council, Limerick Chamber of Commerce, the Local Heroes group, Shannon Development and the JP McManus foundation.

1. You can register to take part in a project that is already happen.
2. Register your own project
3. Participate in our flagship event- A National Inland Waterway Clean Up
4. Commit a Random Act of Volunteering