We aim to support towns through a series of community based workshops to raise awareness, dialogue with local businesses, schools and organisations on actions they can take to reduce their waste, and the development of a zero waste roadmap.

In Rush the steering committee are doing great work and have just surveyed all schools, sports clubs and businesses in the town. The results of the surveys will be used to map environmental efforts currently being made in the community and to establish the willingness of the community to take on new environmental initiatives. In Cobh a waste characterisation study is being planned. This is due to take place in September and will provide the steering committee with information on the amount of waste produced by households within the town, as well as levels of contamination. This information will help the group to identify areas to focus on in their waste reduction efforts going forward.

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‍Cobh

Cobh began it’s zero waste journeyseveral years ago in 2016, with a group of concerned locals forming Cobh ZeroWaste. The committee is made up of representatives from various local groups,including Cobh Community Allotments, and Cork Harbour Alliance for a Safe Harbour(C.H.A.S.E.). They went on to organise talks and events, and run a monthly zerowaste stall in the local market. VOICE is now working with the well establishedgroup to push the movement further and help them realise their ambitions. Thefirst steps are underway with Cobh Zero Waste launching a household survey forthe town, asking residents how they currently manage their waste to getbaseline information from which to work. There are also plans to undertake afull waste characterisation study to enable the group to get the full pictureon household waste generated, which is supported by Cork County Council and theCommunity Foundation. 

FollowCobh’s journey on the zero waste programme here:

https://www.facebook.com/cobhzerowaste/  

Dunshaughlin

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The Eco-Friendly Villagers aim to cometogether as a community to reduce waste and promote sustainability in theirvillage in order to make sustainable living as easy as possible in theirvillage. Always eager to work with such people, VOICE offered to helpDunshaughlin become a Zero Waste community in late 2020, so the ECO-FriendlyVillagers reached out to other groups in their area (such as the local TidyTowns group) and we've started from there. It's early days but the group havealready begun to speak to local businesses about the campaign and with MeathCounty Council firmly backing the project, the future is very bright indeed.

To keep up to date on the zero wasteprogramme in Dunshaughlin see:

https://www.facebook.com/TheEcoFriendlyVillagers 

Rush

Rush is the most recent addition to our Zero Waste Communities Programme! We look forward to working with them through2021! 

To keep up to date on the progress with the zero waste programme in Rush see:

https://www.facebook.com/Rush-Tidy-Towns-277659815746848 

Get involved!  abi@voiceireland.org    

Let us know if your town or village would be interested in working towards becoming a zero waste community!

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