We want posing to stop at election time, posing on plastic posters that is.
Who needs that mass of plastic waste and cable ties, that nobody wants, from the day the election is over? Re-cycling doesn’t cut it anymore as an excuse. Nowadays all posters can be put online. Check out www.candidates.ie and all those Facebook pages the candidates promote. All the info is there, so Plastic posters are superfluous.
Progress
We’re glad to see the voluntary ban on election posters has now reached over 150 towns across the country. The Poster Free campaign has grown in public support since March and over 100 Candidates agreeing to stay off poles. We want YOU to put pressure on your local representatives to widen this campaign. Get your Tidy Towns Committee involved, your friends, your kids, everyone and tell these politicians to clean up their act (and your locality).
Local & European Elections take place on 24 May next. The results are unpredictible except for one certainty , the mess afterwards. Over half a million posters on poles & lamp posts will end up littering the country. Back in 2014 over 600,000 posters needed a home. On May 25th they will all need to go somewhere else. That means landfill or recycling MRFs, if we are lucky, but probably Incinerators if they are dirty. It is estimated that 360 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) was produced in making this number of posters.
We want all voters to tell candidates they will get their ZERO vote if their face is seen on plastic posters. Posing on plastic posters is bad for their election prospects. Face on poster = NO VOTE, ZERO. If we all tell them this the message will be clear.
Dangers
As well as an environmental danger, plastic posters also pose a threat to public safety. They may be blown off the posts and cause injuries.
They conceal road signage leading to accidents. Low lying posters will impede Cyclists views and lead to accidents. To endanger public safety by inappropriately positioning promotional posters is an offence under the 1997 Litter Pollution Act.
Alternatives
Almost all EU countries instead limit posters to designated areas, administered by their local authorities, and dismantled quickly after election time. So we need to do the same. Start now and continue.
We recommend going online with www.candidates.ie. It’s a user-friendly online directory where candidates can set up profiles, give a little info about themselves and outline their policies and promises. Let’s hope they all promise to remain plastic poster free for the future.