Lurgan, Craigavon and Portadown retailers bag up rubbish to keep communities clean

Eurospar Lurgan alongside Vivo Loughview concentrated on the busy Gilpinstown Road and surrounding areas along with the town centre, while the team from P&G Eurospar in Portadown took away 27 bags of rubbish from their local residential area.

Willis’ Spar, also in Portadown, cleaned up 40 bags of rubbish from the Annaghmore area, while Spar Tandragee focused on The Oaks Park and Tandragee Recreation Centre and playpark, taking away 14 bags to be disposed of properly.

The teams were from six of 175 stores that have completed a clean-up of their local areas in recent months. Litter picks have been taking place in almost every town and neighbourhood in Northern Ireland, from Kilkeel to Linaskea, and Limavady to Donaghadee after Henderson Group, which owns the Spar, Eurospar and Vivo brands in Northern Ireland, invested in kits for each store.

The kits include large bin bags, pickers, high visibility vests and gloves, as well as in-store signage to encourage shoppers to use the bins provided both inside and outside stores. The signage is dotted throughout stores, but prominently displayed beside high litter generating products such as plastic bottles, to continue to remind shoppers to dispose of their waste appropriately.

The early success of the campaign, which has seen retail teams returning 1,626 bags to be disposed of correctly, will see stores continue to help clean up their communities regularly, with focus events taking place annually.

Bronagh Luke, head of corporate marketing at Hendersons commented; “Unfortunately, littering continues to be a plight within every community in Northern Ireland, and there has been little evidence of behavioural change in those who are the serial offenders.

"Operating over 100 stores and supplying to over 400 more in every city, town and village in Northern Ireland, we are committed to making those neighbourhoods great places to live and are delighted to have the resource and volunteers to implement this initiative.

"Littering simply should not be as big a problem as it is. We are very proud of the communities within which our stores operate, and we hope this initiative will encourage a change of behaviour when it comes to disposing of waste, particularly from purchases made at our stores.”

Barista Bar, the retail coffee brand which is available in more than 400 Spar, Eurospar and Vivo branded stores in Northern Ireland has committed to numerous litter picks throughout Northern Ireland, in efforts to reduce the number of single use cups that are not disposed of correctly.

In 2019, the brand launched their own reusable cups and has reached sales of 20,000 drinks per month with shoppers using the Barista Bar reusable cup – an increase of 12 per cent from 2022, to date.

Keavy O’Mahony-Truesdale, brand manager at Barista Bar added; “We all have a responsibility help address the issues around litter and we have dedicated a huge amount of time and investment in encouraging our shoppers to invest in a reusable cup to try and make a positive social impact in the communities in which we operate.