Environment Department News

Cork GAA Community Clean Up Day

Involving 100 GAA, Camogie and LGFA clubs and thousands of volunteers

Naomh Abán GAA Club supporting the GAA Community Clean Up Day

In September, Cork County Council supported Cork GAA in their very first Community Clean-Up Day. The GAA including Cork Camogie and Cork Ladies Gaelic Football Associations were delighted with the overwhelming success of this inaugural event, which saw the association mobilise thousands of club members across the county come together to enhance their local communities. 

Throughout Saturday September 21st, volunteers from all corners of Cork donned gloves, grabbed litter pickers, and set about cleaning up parks, streets, beaches, and public spaces.  The event was a true testament to the strength of GAA clubs at a grassroots level, with players, coaches, families, and supporters working side by side to clean up their localities working in tandem with the Tidy Towns Committees, Garda Siochana and local support groups.

Clean-Up Day saw participation from almost 100 GAA clubs, 75 of which are county based, with thousands of volunteers covering many kilometres of streets, parks, and other communal areas. The effort yielded hundreds of bags of litter, ensuring that these spaces are cleaner and more enjoyable for all Cork residents.

With the success of this year’s event, Cork GAA has indicated it plans to make Clean-Up Day an annual initiative.

Fast Fashion Workshops

For secondary schools taking part in the

Relove Fashion Competition

Cork County Council are delighted to offer a free workshop to a limited number of secondary schools who are registered to take part in the Relove Fashion competition. 

The workshops are available to help students prepare for their Relove Fashion competition applications, which are due on 17 January 2025. The workshop will be delivered by Circular Fashion Ireland.

Please note that places are limited, and only schools taking part in the Relove Fashion competition may apply.

The Relove Fashion Competition is open to schools, youth groups and individuals and entries are still being accepted at www.relovefashion.ie.

“Take a minute before you bin it”

And improve waste segregation at home, at work or at play!

A new awareness campaign by MyWaste.ie ‘Take a minute, before you bin it!’ aims to increase awareness and knowledge to improve waste segregation. Statistics from the EPA reveals that two-thirds of what ends up in our general waste bins could have been recycled or composted with food waste being the most misplaced item, followed closely by soft plastics.

The message from MyWaste is that whether at home, at work or at play, we can all play our part and we should take that bit of extra time to think about what waste goes in what bin. As Ireland transitions to a more circular economy, this national initiative highlights how simple individual actions, can collectively boost Ireland’s recycling rate.

Reverse the Trend

Buy less, re-wear and share clothes

A new campaign “Reverse the Trend” by The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications was launched recently. The campaign aims to raise awareness of alternatives to frequent purchasing of clothing and some of the environmental impacts of over-consumption of textiles.

Over 100 billion new items of clothing are made every year.  Textiles, which includes clothing, has the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change, after food, housing and transport.

The campaign asks people to embrace circular fashion through the simple actions of ‘Buy Less, Re-wear, Share’.

WEEE Ireland Battery Competition

Help make 2024-2025 the

best battery recycling school year yet!

The WEEE Ireland Schools Battery Recycling Competition is back for the 2024-2025 school year from this October, and they are challenging students around the country to recycle as many batteries as possible!

The challenge is simple, collect as many batteries as you can to be in with a chance to win one of the six €2,000 sports equipment voucher for your school and be crowned a climate champions!!

Batteries can be found in so many different items such as remotes, toothbrushes, games console controllers, old toys, Halloween and Christmas lights/jumpers etc. Get students, teachers, staff and the community involved, and you would be surprised how many batteries you could collect.

Water Action Plan 2024

Ireland’s 3^rd River Basin Management Plan

The Water Action Plan 2024 which covers the period 2023 – 2027, sets out a roadmap to restore Ireland’s waterbodies to ‘good’ status or better, and protect against further deterioration, through an integrated catchment management approach.

Key actions in the Plan include:

- the use of fertilisers that impact water quality

- a greater focus on compliance and enforcement

- a target of 4,500 farm inspections nationally per year

- continued investment in wastewater infrastructure

- a new national River Barriers Mitigation Programme

- a review of arterial drainage requirements

The Plan aims to see an additional 300 waterbodies achieve ‘good’ status by 2027, with targeted measures to improve over 500 more. A Community Water Development Fund is to be provided for 2025, which will provide financial supports to local projects and initiatives.

Closed Period for Slurry Spreading    

1st October 2024 to 12th January 2025

A reminder to all farmers that no slurry spreading is permitted between 1st October 2024 and 12th January 2025.  

Anyone wishing to report illegal spreading can do so via YourCouncil.ie, by email to environ@corkcoco.ie or by phone to 021 4532700.

Air Quality in Ireland

Solid Fuel Regulations and car travel among the key priorities

In their recently published Air Quality in Ireland Report 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has called on Local Authorities to facilitate proactive choices on both home heating and travel, through strong application of the Solid Fuel Regulations and supporting alternatives to car travel.  The report again highlights that air pollution can be a major environmental risk to people’s health, with approximately 1,600 premature deaths annually in Ireland due to poor air quality.  

Ireland’s latest monitoring shows we are in compliance with current EU standards, and Air Quality in Ireland is generally moving in a positive direction. However, Ireland has committed under the national Clean Air Strategy to achieving the more stringent World Health Organisation (WHO) guideline values by 2040 which will be a challenge.  

The main pollutants of concern are fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from solid fuel combustion and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from vehicle emissions/traffic.

Smooth Newt & Common Frog Survey Techniques Workshop

Saturday 9th November, Gallanes Lough, Clonakilty

1.30pm to 4.30pm

Cork County Council, in conjunction with Rob Gandola of the Herpetological Society of Ireland, will be running a workshop specifically aimed at community groups who have an interest in their local amphibian populations.

The aim of this workshop is to improve their knowledge base on native amphibians, particularly Smooth Newts, while also providing a capacity building opportunity for local community groups to obtain the skills and confidence necessary to help monitor their important and protected amphibian species into the future.

This is a fully outdoor learning event at Gallanes Lough involving both a taught element along with the opportunity to put the newly acquired knowledge immediately into practice.

For more information or to book a place contact Michelle or Petra at

Tel: 021 4285900 Email: PlanningPolicyUnit@CorkCoco.ie.

Community Climate Action Programme

An update on the programme to date

The Community Climate Action Programme (CCAP), was developed by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) to address climate change at a local level and support the delivery of low carbon and climate resilient communities. The programme is administered at a local level by Cork County Council with funding of €1,241,000 to deliver Strand 1 .

Strand 1 of the CCAP focuses on empowering communities, large and small, rural and urban, to address climate change and build low carbon communities in a considered and structured way.

All 31 of Cork County Council’s recommended projects for a total of €1,000,265.28 were approved for projects focusing on energy upgrades (deep retrofit and insulation, installation of solar PV), active travel supports (cycling routes and infrastructure), community gardens, recycling initiatives, water filling stations, local planting etc.

Cork County Council have received approval from DECC to proceed with a supplementary call under Strand 1 to use the surplus of allocated funding to Cork County Council. This CCAP Call 1 (Part B) will likely open for applications in December 2024 (details will be confirmed on www.corkcoco.ie).

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