Roscommon County Council have been working with secondary school students on the production of anti litter short films & advertisements for a number of years.
Young people are the future caretakers of our environment and you are the people who can bring about a change of attitude not only towards litter but also with regard to our environment in general. Through the making of an anti litter advertisement students are bringing the anti litter message to their peers and the wider community. As well as being an anti litter initiative students are given the opportunity of learning media skill through the participating in the making and production of a cinema ad.
Roscommon County Council will be working with Sky Rocket Media on this project. If your school participates in this initiative the Environment Awareness Officer and Sky Rocket Media will meet with students and teachers to explain the process and outline what is involved.
Being involved in projects like this can bring home to us the problem of litter, make us think about where it comes from, who causes it, and also educate us about the environmental problems it causes.
An Awards Ceremony will be organised by Roscommon County Council next Spring at which all the entries will be premiered and the winners announced. The winning entry will be shown in Roscommon Cinema for a month before showings.
Some facts
Roscommon County Council spend approx €450,000 each year on clean up of litter in our towns and villages, so it is a very costly environmental problem, This is a huge waste of resources and this money could be spent on providing important services to our citizens.
In Ireland over 35,000 tonnes of litter is produced each year, enough to fill Croke Park. Costs associated with street cleaning are a major drain on valuable resources in terms of money and manpower. Both of these could be better by providing more worthwhile services.
Litter pollution is the most visible form of pollution. Not only is it very bad for our environment, for wildlife, and its presence gives a very negative impression of a town or village, and can seriously impact on tourism, and investment in the County
It is a very preventable problem that is caused by individuals who carelessly dispose of their litter out the car window, or on the footpath, without thinking about the consequences of their action.
Tourism in Ireland depends a lot on our green, clean image , and we often see tourists commenting on litter in our countryside, on walkways, forests, lakes etc. If we want to encourage more tourism and promote this County as a tourist destination, and also as a place to invest in, then we all need to take on responsibility for the litter and waste we produce and make sure we dispose of it properly.