A project in Co Antrim has been launched in an attempt to offset the impact of loyalist "11th Night" and Halloween bonfires on global warming.
Ballymoney Community Safety Partnership have developed the Carbon Sink project to help counter carbon emissions produced by the bonfires in the area. Trees have been planted at Riverside Park, Ballymoney.
Dozens of huge bonfires are built across Northern Ireland to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne and Halloween bonfires are also popular.
Many of the piles are built in the Ballymoney area.
Under the auspices of the project, trees will be planted to combat the adverse affects of the carbon dioxide that are produced by the traditional bonfires held in July and October.
Five trees absorb one tonne of CO2, but if the CO2 is produced annually, five trees need to be planted annually.
Ballymoney Council runs a competition that offers prize money to bonfire builders who don not burn tyres and who help run the events properly. Now any prize monies from the Safer Bonfire Competition not awarded will be used to fund tree planting throughout the borough on an annual basis.
DUP councillor Evelyne Robinson, who is chairwoman of Ballymoney Council's Health and Environmental Services Committee, commented: "This is a commendable project and one of the first of its kind in Northern Ireland. The project offsets the pollutants caused by the local bonfires."
Pupils from Ballymoney Model Primary School P7 Class and a gardening club bared the cold, wet weather yesterday to plant the first trees in Riverside Park as part of the project.
Bryan Edgar, chairman of the Community Safety Partnership, said: "I hope that local people will participate in this forward-thinking initiative, not only in the planting of trees within the borough but also in gaining a greater understanding of the importance of reducing carbon emissions and how that may reduce the effects of global warming."