Anti-litter message highlights £9m-a-year problem

Street theatre and nursery rhymes are being used in the latest phase of Belfast City Council’s campaign to get people to bin their litter mentality along with their rubbish.

At the start of the traditional pantomime season, Belfast people are being treated to giant cigarette butts, ‘police bins’ and trendy 'rats' who are joining forces with Little Bo Peep and the Three Pigs in an innovative new public awareness campaign aimed at highlighting the litter problem in the City.

The Christmas campaign is aimed at educating people on all aspects of the problem of littering, including what constitutes litter, the health implications of littering and the level of fines which can be imposed on those caught dropping litter.

Martin Doherty, Waste Manager with Belfast City Council’s Health and Environmental Services Department, said: “Belfast City Council is acutely aware of the problems associated with litter throughout the City – problems which impact not on the image of our City but also on the pockets of every man, woman and child living in Belfast.

“Littering, whatever form it takes, costs the ratepayers of Belfast more than £9 million-a-year – that represents £26 per person. This, if nothing else, is good reason for us all to bin the ‘drop anything anywhere’ mentality along with our litter.”

The specially commissioned street theatre campaign highlights different aspects of the litter problem in Belfast – and not least the fact that littering is an offence which can carry fines of up to £2,500. This latter message is reinforced in an advertising campaign which uses some well known nursery rhyme characters.

In one of the street performances, ‘police bins’ pursue giant cigarette butts through the City Centre. The ‘butts’ try to hide among shoppers, because the ‘bins’ are trying to fine them for the carelessness of the people who threw them away.

The supporting 'Once Upon A Town…' advertising campaign uses striking images of three popular nursery rhymes to demonstrate the effects of littering and the financial consequences: in one advert, ‘Litter Bo Peep’ loses her sheep in a mound of rubbish; in another, ‘Litter Red Riding Hood’ cannot pick flowers for her grandmother because of dropped cans and cigarette butts; in the third, the ‘Three Litter Pigs’ scatter empty drinks cans wherever they go.

Of course, all the characters live happily ever after once they pay the fine of up to £2,500.

(SP)