An Taisce is a charity that works to preserve and protect Ireland’s natural and built heritage. We are an independent charitable voice for the environment and for heritage issues. We are not a government body, semi-state or agency.
No, the only requirement for receiving a clean up kit is that you register with us, and that you provide a locatable address for delivery.
Register your event with An Taisce online by clicking here and filling out our online registration form, call 01 4002219 to give the details of your event over the phone, or if you received an application form (previous years registers will automatically receive these in the post, or your local council may have some) please send it toNational Spring Clean, Environmental Educational Unit, An Taisce, Unit 5a, Swift’s Alley, Francis Street, Dublin 8.
Because of the high demand for kits, we cannot automatically designate kits to people who may or may not want to participate again. Instead, we give a kit to each person who registers that year until we run out, and the exact same process will be required to get a kit next year. This way we never reach a point where all the packs for the year are designated before registration even begins.
The only information from registration we ever hold on to is email addresses or postal addresses, which goes in a separate file and is used to send out an application form once registration opens the following year. Many people like to know as soon as registration opens, as items for the packs can run out in early April.
If you do not want to receive this prompt via email, please call 01 400 2219 , or email nsc@antaisce.org
When you register with An Taisce, you register on our system acknowledging you are doing the clean up, and for a kit to be sent out to you. While we will send the list of clean ups to your council, you also need to contact them to arrange a method of free disposal of the rubbish. If you do not, the council will assume you are disposing of the rubbish in your own bins or already have another arrangement. Some councils are strict in the ways and time-frame they will dispose of the rubbish for free within, so please contact them as soon as you know the date which you are doing your clean up on.
Yes. If you register for a national spring clean event you will automatically be covered under An Taisce’s public liability insurance policy. Public liability covers the organiser(s) of a clean up in the event of an accident occurring to a volunteer or a member of the public or their proerty that may be attributed to the organiser’s negligence, or to that of one of their volunteers.
The clean up kits are completely free, as is the rubbish disposal once the Local Council has been contacted.
The kit An Taisce supplies will contain bags (unless you are under Sligo or Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown’s council), an information booklet with A3 poster (optional), high vis vests, and a representative amount of gloves.
If you are under either Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council or Sligo County Council, then your pack will not contain bags. This is because both of these councils choose to send out their own bags to be used for the clean up instead. Anything else in your pack will still be sent out by us.
Litter pickers, also referred to by people as pick-up sticks, pickers, grabbers, or sticks, are in incredibly limited supply and are generally reserved for the physically disabled or for special schools. They will never be included in a clean-up kit unless asked for, and there is never enough to give one per person due to financial restraints. Please be considerate that not everyone will get one, and help make sure there is enough left for those who truly need them by only asking for one if there is a genuine need for one.
We will deliver to any address specified once it is detailed enough for the courier to find the location. However, please make sure that the delivery address is both aware that your pack is being delivered there, and that the person at the location who is accepting it on your behalf is okay with this arrangement.
Using a courier is more cost efficient for An Taisce, meaning we have more money to use on more kits for everyone.
Yes. Please send any information you would like promoted about your event to our Facebook page here and we will try our best to make as many posts as possible without overcrowding people’s notifications.
After registering with us, you should contact your local council (contact list here) and let them know you are participating in the National Spring Clean. They will arrange with you beforehand how you can dispose of the rubbish for free. This will vary from council to council. Some councils will collect the rubbish for you, others will provide you with a pass to your local dump.
The average turnaround for a pack is normally 5-10 working days. This can be substantially longer in March when all of the packing begins and there is a large number of orders to fill, or around public holidays when the distribution company may not be operating. Please always order you kit as soon as possible to ensure you will have your pack by your clean up date.
Unfortunately, due to financial contraints, we do not have enough of each item for every registration. We get over 5000 registrations every year, just one of which could be a school of over 700 children. We will always send out the maximum number of items that we can, but we encourage anyone who may be running a large event to recommend each person bring in their own pair of gloves. Depending on your local authority, your council may also have some supplies it would be willing to share.
This may be due to 1 of 2 reasons. Either there has been a problem on our end with the registration/distribution, or, if it is April or after, the more likely scenario is that we have begun to run out of items. We will always send out whatever we can, but due to a high demand and limited resources, we always begin to run out of items such as gloves in April. If we have run out, we do not restock until the following year but we will still send out any items we do have left.
Blue Flag
IBAL (Irish Business Against Litter)
Clean Coasts
Green Schools
Green Home
Green Campus
Green Flag for Parks
Green Communities