Newsletter Articles 

The Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs has launched a consultation to develop a 25 year plan for our environment.

That gives you One BIG Opportunity to make a real difference and we want to make sure decision makers hear from you.

Here’s how: copy and paste these environmental asks listed below, and email back to DAERA by 5pm on 5th February 2020.

Remember to say who you are and include your age.

It’s that simple. Use just ONE email to take your ONE BIG Opportunity to make a lasting impact on our environment.

#ONEBIGOPPORTUNITY

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Question No.1 Response

Create healthier communities by providing opportunities to get together more outdoors in accessible public spaces to do good and feel good through practical environmental action.

This should link in with other strategies around sustainable development, mental Health and well-being. Research has shown the benefits that volunteering has for an individual’s general health.

Questions No.4 Response

Inform every young person about climate breakdown, the loss of our wildlife and marine plastic pollution and what it means for our future. Help us find ways to raise awareness and to take action together. Declare a

climate emergency.

Question No.5 Response

Invest more in public transport making our dependence on cars less necessary and improving air quality

Question No.7 Response

Plant more native trees. We have the lowest level of tree cover anywhere in Europe and want to see 20% of our land planted with trees; important for nature to thrive.

Create a waste free society where we use less, waste less and stop polluting our seas. And anything we use, including single use plastics,

needs to be part of a truly circular economy.

Help everyone learn how to grow more tasty local food and provide plants for our pollinating bees.

Question No.10 Response

All of the above.

Calling all teachers, principals, students, parents and members of the community. Is there a teacher that inspires you to grow, to build a better future and is truly passionate about the environment? Now is your chance to celebrate them by nominating them as the Eco-Teacher of the year.

How to enter:

Pupils are invited to explain why their Eco-Teacher should be awarded “Eco-Teacher of the Year 2020” in any format, whether that be in the form of a poem, letter, storyboard, essay, photos, video or whatever way best answers the question.

Written entries should be no more than 250 words and video entries should be no more than 5 minutes.

There will be two teachers selected; one primary school teacher and one post-primary school teacher. These teachers will be celebrated at this year's Eco-Schools Change Makers Youth Summit on 25th March 2020.

This competition is open to all schools. One entry per school. The deadline for the competition is the Friday 6th March 2020.

Email entries to: Eco-Schools or post them to Eco-Schools, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Bridge House, 2 Paulett Avenue, Belfast, BT5 4HD.

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful have been working with Culture Night & Day (CNB) to support them in their journey to reduce single-use plastic. To kick things off they added their Plastic Promise, making their commitment public and to encourage everyone to get on board. As they continue to reduce their use, they can revisit their Plastic Promise at any time and set new goals and targets and get higher up the leadership board.

This year CNB took a stand against plastic, they are committed to reducing on-site waste, meeting green objectives and developing more sustainable ways of producing their event. Focusing on proper recycling, encouraging festival goers to bring their own reusable bottles, cups and food containers, informing traders to easily accept and encourage reusable items and much more. Check out their green checklist for more information.

Simple things.. just by encouraging people to bring their reusables to events like this one and when out and about can make a big difference. Such as, polystyrene food containers and coffee cups used for only a matter of minutes to suit our convenient lifestyle are avoided and less overall waste clogging up our already over stretched collection systems. If we just take a moment to stop, think and prepare we can enjoy the events like this one, but not contribute to the aftermath of litter and bin waste.

Our Young Reporters for the Environment also got involved and one student, Maria Aaroy, from St Dominic’s High School, took the opportunity to interview Joe Nawaz, Marketing & Communications Manager at CNB. Joe shares with Maria why they decided to add their Plastic Promise, the importance of CNB being a sustainable, green event and what their aspirations are for the future. Watch it here.

We all need to play our part in reducing our use of pointless plastic. We need more events, organisations, individuals declaring their Plastic Promise and taking action. Sign your Plastic Promise now!

In October Northern Irish Young Reporters for the Environment students spent two days learning about our seas and oceans at two Green-Schools events in Meath and Dublin. Ireland’s first Ocean Assembly for secondary students was held in Ashbourne Community College on Tuesday 15th October, and on Wednesday, students from St. Colm’s High School, Belfast Royal Academy, Wallace High School and St. Dominic’s High School joined Green-Schools at Portmarnock for the launch of the Green-Schools ‘newest campaign ‘Sea Starts Here’ to combat litter pollution. With the permission of Fingal County Council, students and Green-Schools staff used stencils to spray paint the ‘sea starts here’ message at road drains, drawing attention to the link between land-based activities and marine pollution.

The YRE students met Google Science Fair winner Fionn Ferreira who had his presentation on micro-plastic at the event. During the 2-day event, the ambassador school advised participating schools on the seven steps of the Green-Schools programme, along with a tour of their school and a talk on social media and environmental campaigns.

Cathy Baxter, Green-Schools Manager said: “We have enjoyed two exceptional days of learning about our seas and oceans and what we can do to prevent further pollution. The enthusiasm of our secondary school students cannot be underestimated; they are so keen to learn more and more about their environment and climate change and what they can do to help”.

There are currently 16 secondary schools working on the Marine Environment theme in Ireland. Eco-Schools Northern Ireland has launched the Marine Topic this year wishing to reach the same encouraging number in the next couple of years!

This event and many others can be the opportunity for our schools to discover how their work on the Eco-Schools and YRE programmes has positively, influenced people and their local environment and how our young people can be game changers.

From banning single use plastic bottles to replacing plastic straws with paper ones, schools across the board are committing to a sustainable plastic pollution free future.

Make your Plastic Promise  

We live in a time of overconsumption. We all need to use less, borrow more, and be happy with what we have. But we have to do it in steps we can manage. We would always promote use what we have, reuse what others don’t want, buy better and buy local. There are times when this is not always possible and for whatever reason you need to buy from further afield.

Keep Northern Ireland has signed up to Amazon Smile. This means that if you make a purchase using Amazon Smile every purchase you make will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful.

In order to donate you need to buy through the Amazon Smile site but you can switch to it before paying if you have gone in through the normal amazon site. You can add it to you toolbar to help remind you.

When ordering from Amazon please look at the frustration free packaging option – which will ship you your products without additional packaging, designed to reduce waste in 100% recyclable packaging. Also at checkout choose the option of least number of parcels so items are sent as one rather than lots of separate packages.

Every little bit helps us to do more so please share our link widely and use it sparingly when needed.

Thank you

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful