North Coast retailers clean up 101 bags of rubbish to keep communities clean

In Ballycastle, both the SPAR and EUROPSAR teams concentrated on Ballycastle Beach, while EUROSPAR Hillcrest in Portrush lifted 22 bags of litter from the popular East Strand.

SPAR Castlerock and SPAR Millburn concentrated on the river path along the Bann in Coleraine, filling 32 bags full of locals’ and visitors’ rubbish, while SPAR Mountsandel cleaned up further down the Bann in the residential area of Mountsandel Road, just a minute from their store. In Ballymoney, SPAR Route Service Station took home 10 bags from around Riverside Park, and McKillop’s EUROSPAR in Cushendall cleaned up 16 bags around the town.

The teams were from eight of 175 stores that have completed a clean-up of their local areas in recent months 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, with focus events taking place annually.