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One of the businesses Tackling Plastic in N. Ireland is the Ionad Fíona Wine Centre (www.AbsoluteOrganicWine.com ) in Draperstown. Established in 1984 the company began specialising in organic and vegan wine in 2009 for those also on a journey of sustainability and accountability.

The Ionad Fíona Wine Centre is certainly doing its bit as it tries to make the business more environmentally friendly by removing single use plastic from deliveries and balancing its carbon footprint by planting trees and re-wilding land on their estate.

The team Eugene McKenna and Brigid McKenna Moore, from the Wine Centre are both wine and environmental enthusiasts as Eugene explains, “Our mission is to provide responsible quality products so removing single use plastics from our deliveries was a deliberate and conscious decision. We want to encourage consumers to reflect on the journey, delivery and origin of products as we believe that every business and person can make a difference when it comes to being environmentally responsible”.

Eugene continues, “We are trying to engage with organisations like Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful so that we can communicate our mission with authority and integrity. We are mostly an online delivery company but we have already completed our Carbon Literacy Training and are now tackling single use plastic throughout the business.”

Future plans

Next year they are planning the first Organic and Vegan Wine Festival for November 2023. Brigid explains, “We are passionate about the mission of vegan wines and food- we would like to help enlighten people and provide products that take care of the environment and preserves it for future generations. We are proud to be a wine company that focuses on organic, biodynamic, vegan wine, we will always try to keep things real. Our philosophy is to provide all our products and services in a sustainable manner”.

If you would like to get involved in Tackling Plastic in your business please get in touch info@keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.com

#TacklingPlasticNI #PlasticFree #CarbonLiterate #EUWWR22

Environmental charity, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful has released its annual Cleaner Neighbourhoods report, which reveals a snapshot of the local environmental quality of all eleven council areas across Northern Ireland. While the overall picture of the streets has slightly improved after a worrying spike during the lockdowns of 2020, drinks packaging, including plastic bottles and disposable coffee cups, continues to be a major problem, with rural roads being disproportionately affected.

The report also recommends the use of nudge behaviour from councils to encourage the public to use bins where available. The number of areas surveyed that failed to meet acceptable standards of cleanliness is revealed within the report, down 3% from last year’s results with 15% of the areas surveyed now below standard. Dog fouling has also returned to pre-pandemic levels, following a dramatic increase in 2020, with instances of dog fouling recorded down 7% from last year to 6%.

Commenting on the report, Charmaine Beer from the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said, “Whilst payments for ground litter by producers of packaging are not currently planned for Northern Ireland, they will pay costs for the management of packaging in street bins and will also pay for prevention activity for littered packaging such as communication campaigns targeting litterers. Under the new Extended Producer Responsibility scheme payments will be made by packaging producers to NI councils for management of household packaging waste from 2024, which will amount to £35million per year in NI. There will be clearer binary labelling on all packaging from 2026 to help consumers recycle correctly and plastic flexibles and film will have household collection for recycling from 2027. All of these will provide a great incentive to do the right thing.”

The findings from this year’s survey took a close analysis of litter related to food packaging, particularly drinks, with plastic bottle, hot drinks cups, lids and straws found in 50% of the areas surveyed. Most surprisingly, 90% of rural roads featured littered drinks packaging and cigarette butts remained the top item of litter found in NI, with 65% of all areas surveyed having so form of cigarette litter present.

Dr Ian Humphreys, CEO of Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, said, “With the environment once again on the top of the agenda as COP27 is underway, we are reminded that action is required globally and here in Northern Ireland.

“The amount of litter we are now having to deal with is extremely concerning – it’s not only unsightly but it has a real impact on council budgets, wasting money that could be spent on other public services and helping deal with the cost-of-living crisis. There’s no evidence to suggest that human nature has fundamentally changed over the past number of decades, but what has changed is the amount of plastic packaging being produced, which grown exponentially over the past 15 years, which is why it’s misleading to lay the problem entirely at the feet of the public. We need to have an honest conversation about this issue and that is why manufacturers and retailers need to step up and take their share of the cost of cleaning up the mess on our streets.”

Although the report reflects the army of litter-picking volunteers across Northern Ireland doing their best to keep our streets free from litter and a safe place for the public to come together, Charity CEO says more needs to be done to try and stop litter at the source.

Ian added, “We are very disappointed in the recent announcement that litter will not be retained in UK wide Extended Producer Responsibility legislation. This means the loss of millions of pounds annually which would have funded clean-up operations and alleviated the pressure on ratepayers. We believe this is a missed opportunity to ensure that packaging producers take on their share of the responsibility for this societal problem.”

For more information and to read the full Cleaner Neighbourhoods report visit: Cleaner Neighbourhoods Report (keepnorthernirelandbeautiful.org)

Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful supports the principle of COP. We want to see rapid global action to tackle the climate emergency, and believe that through a mix of legislation compelling new innovative approaches and behaviour change, we can make meaningful progress. It is, therefore, essential that governments and relevant sectors meet under one roof to understand and discuss the challenges of the crisis.

At a local level, we also want to see maximum engagement from Northern Ireland at COP27, so that we can play our necessary part. Specifically, we need to progress the plans to make the Climate Change Act a reality, and this will require bringing forward the Environment Strategy. The climate emergency must be a top priority for a new Executive.

We strongly embrace the theme of this year’s conference, which emphasises collective and urgent action. Hope exists and is possible, but global action must empathically deliver on the targets set for our climate, nature and environment.