On May 7th, our Beavers and Cubs had an exciting day picking up rubbish around the village with litter-pickers and a bingo card to collect certain rubbish and complete some fun challenges. We met at 10am in the Scout Hall and set off 10 minutes later with Ballincollig Credit Union hi-vis vests, gloves, and a litter-picker and bin bag between two. The Beavers were sent around the village, the Tuesday Cubs towards Colaiste Choilm and down towards the GAA club and the Monday Cubs through Muskerry, and in and around Tesco.
The Cubs and Beavers spent a few hours out in the sun picking up rubbish and were treated to some much-needed ice creams before returning to the Scout Hall for the next part of the event. They stopped to have a well-earned lunch when Colin from VOICE arrived and set up the Return for Change trailer. The Return for Change campaign has been developed by VOICE to raise awareness about the introduction of Ireland’s Deposit Return Scheme.
With the help of some of the Ventures and Rovers the night before, we had built a large bin to hold all the bin bags after the litter pick and placed some Return for Change flags next to it for pictures after. Once the Beavers and Cubs had finished their lunch, they rotated around games, using plastic bottles as bowling pins and cans as targets in a throwing game. They also had a talk with Colin where they learned about the work that VOICE does, as well as all about Ireland’s upcoming Deposit Return Scheme and how that will benefit them and the environment.
A big thank you to Colin for coming down to Cork and giving all our young Beavers and Cubs a great insight into the Deposit Return Scheme. This Scheme is a new initiative in which the public will play a vital part in increasing recycling rates of plastic beverage bottles and aluminium drinking cans whilst also driving down the amount of litter. Put simply, each plastic beverage bottle and aluminium drinking can will have deposits placed on them in shops. When the empty bottle or can is returned to a shop, the deposit can be reclaimed. In this way, empty bottles and cans are effectively worth money!