Staff from McDonald’s restaurants in Belfast volunteered for a clean-up operation to rid unsightly litter blighting the Lagan Towpath area recently.
Tying in with Tidy NI’s Big Spring Clean campaign and led by shift manager and Planet Champion Mateusz Wasielewski, the McDonald’s tidy crew of 15 volunteers filled 12 bags of litter.
Speaking at the event McDonald’s ‘Planet Champion’ Mateusz said, “The Big Spring Clean Campaign is an effective way of making a positive difference to the area. Unfortunately there are still a significant proportion of people who think it’s acceptable to drop litter – it’s everyone’s responsibility and through these events we wanted to generate awareness of the issue and educate those people on how to dispose of rubbish properly.
“As the ‘environmental voice’ in the restaurant I really want to encourage people to be more responsible for their own litter. In preparing for my role as Planet Champion I took part in a number of training courses which focused on the company’s current environmental activities and how small changes really can make a big difference.”
Now in its third year, Tidy NI’s Big Spring Clean campaign encourages the public to take action and help reduce the amount of litter in their local area.
This year McDonald’s will continue to offer ongoing support throughout 2012 by raising awareness of the anti-littering message through its 26 Northern Ireland restaurants. The event was just one of a number of McDonald’s clean-up events taking place to support the Big Spring Clean campaign.
Aside from larger scale litter events, staff at every McDonald’s restaurants patrol the streets regularly to collect all litter that has been discarded, regardless of its origin.
McDonald’s was the first restaurant to introduce daily litter patrols.
Ian Humphreys, Chief Executive of TIDY Northern Ireland said: “The BIG Spring Clean campaign has grown five fold in the past year highlighting that thousands of people across Northern Ireland really do love where they live. Most people don’t drop litter. It’s great to see the effort made by McDonald’s staff in raising long-term awareness of the issue and promoting the anti-littering message, ranging from large-scale events like this to their own regular litter patrols.”