A €2.5 million cross-Border media campaign aimed at raising awareness among consumers about the benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling waste was launched yesterday.
The start of the campaign was marked at a joint meeting in Co Fermanagh between the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr Cullen, and Ms Angela Smith, parliamentary undersecretary of state for Northern Ireland.
Aimed at the Border area in particular, the campaign follows and complements the North's Wake Up To Waste and the South's Race Against Waste awareness campaigns. It includes a series of six separate TV advertisements featuring celebrity gardener Diarmuid Gavin and radio and press advertisements.
Mr Cullen said: "I see North-South and cross-Border co-operation as not only desirable but in fact necessary. This is so particularly in areas like waste management if we are to halt and reverse certain trends, and meet the obligations imposed by the implementation of EU directives."
Producing too much waste and consigning it all to landfill was unsustainable.
"If we are to protect our environment for this and future generations, and continue to attract vital foreign investment to the island of Ireland, we must satisfy potential investors that we have a credible waste management approach," the Minister said.
The campaign has been endorsed by the Taoiseach, who in a statement yesterday said the campaign was "a tremendous practical illustration of the benefits of North-South co-operation".
The campaign has been funded by the Special European Union Programmes Body, and supported by the Environment and Heritage Service in Northern Ireland and the Department of the Environment in the Republic.