Belturbet a poster-free zone

Belturbet has been declared a 'poster-free' zone ahead of this year's Local and European Election campaigns.

The local Tidy Towns group has contacted all candidates to inform them of the decision.
"In keeping with establishing Belturbet as a 'Zero Waste' community, we have asked that no electoral posters be put up in Belturbet within 50km zone,” said Belturbet Tidy Towns chairman, Barry Wilson. This is a voluntary ban, relying on goodwill and self-compliance by the declared candidates.
“We are in the midst of a climate crisis of disastrous proportions. A change of behaviour is needed, and it would be great if our candidates could lead by example,” said Mr Wilson.
He further pointed to online polls, which show 90% of the electorate in favour of such a ban.
Corriboard is the material of choice for election posters. Like other single use plastics, they take over 400 years to biodegrade. 
In the 2014 local elections, 2038 candidates ran for 949 seats. An estimated 611,000 posters were erected with a combined cost of €3M with posters covering the equivalent area of 23 Croke Parks.
After 30 days of canvassing, the majority of these posters were sent to landfill. To date, there are 158 poster free towns/areas across Ireland.