A sustainable summer in Bundoran!
The Discover Bundoran tourism partnership has been working closely with Donegal County Council, the Bundoran Tidy Towns group and the new Sustainable Bundoran team over the winter months to introduce some new sustainable initiatives for the summer season in the town.
Bundoran Tourism Officer Shane Smyth explains ‘there is a huge desire amongst business people in the town, residents and visitors to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly. With this in mind we have developed a new “Sustainable Bundoran” team which will oversee the town’s efforts to become more aware of the actions that can be carried out by everyone to do their bit to save the planet – this will include the businesses, residents and ultimately the visitors – whether that is ditching the plastic, being more aware of what they are dumping, saving energy and more.‘
Together with the environment section of Donegal County Council we have made sure that the potable water tap at Main Beach is fit for purpose and can be used by beachgoers to fill their reusable water bottles and save on plastic. Through new signage, we are also encouraging beach goers to pick “3 for the sea” whereby they lift at least 3 plastic items from the beach and throw them in the bin rather than have the tide catch them and take them back to the ocean.
A number of our local businesses recently participated in an online workshop hosted by local sustainability advocate Finn Van Der Aar of Saltwater Stories where she spoke about various simple initiatives that can be undertaken at low cost to start a journey towards sustainability.
In the new online Discover Bundoran brochure which will be launched soon, visitors can also read about the top ten ways that they can be more sustainable when they travel to Bundoran and as part of the education element, the bird mural at Main Beach has been updated in association with Clean Coasts which will be supplemented by online resources outlining the abundance of nature along our coastline.
Visitors to town this summer will also notice some areas of uncut grass around town which have been classified for biodiversity.
Gina Witherow from Bundoran Tidy Towns adds ‘we have made a start and we are well aware that this will be a massive ongoing project as the years go by. We have had great interest from the local community including the businesses and hopefully our visitors will see and appreciate that we are making the effort to become more sustainable into the future.
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