Ring of Gullion to use social media to combat litter

The battle against the scourge of litter in our countryside is stepping into the world of websites and social media with the launch of a dedicated new litter reporting site on www.ringofgullion.org which is going live this week.

The Ring of Gullion Landscape Partnership is part of the Heritage Lottery Fund’s programme to conserve and enhance some of the region’s most treasured landscapes. A part of the project is to work with the council and the people of the area to reduce the occurrence of litter in order to provide a cleaner and safer environment to improve the quality of life for communities, visitors and wildlife alike. One essential way that this is being approached is this new initiative, making it easier for people to report where they have seen litter, so that it can be cleaned up as quickly as possible.

The easy-to-use report page on the website at www.ringofgullion.org/how-to-help/report-litter-ring-gullion/ can be accessed using a mobile phone and the location of the litter can be marked using the phone’s GPS, making an instant report which will be passed onto the council’s street cleansing teams. Alternatively someone wanting to register litter they saw earlier can mark its location using Google Maps. Reports can be made anonymously or feedback on progress can be made if contact details are left.

The new web-page also asks people to keep an eye out for and report laundered fuel waste, graffiti, abandoned vehicles, fly-tipped material, dead farm animals or road-kill and dirty or missing signage. It is simple using the on-line tools to upload a photograph of the site which will help the cleansing team to bring the right equipment or contact the correct people to clean up a site.

Gillian Fitzpatrick, chair of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council praised this initiative, “Litter clearance is high on our agenda but our cleansing teams cannot be everywhere at once and we rely on the general public to be our eyes and to let us know where the problem is. This new website reporting page will help us to keep the Ring of Gullion clean and beautiful” she said.