Litter a horror show for our wildlife, says Steve
LITTER puts people off living in an area, injures animals and raises concerns about anti-social behaviour, campaigners said as they launched plans for a “Great British Spring Clean”.
Keep Britain Tidy is hoping that half a million people will take part in the national litter pick in March, to clean up their communities in a campaign backed by TV naturalist and writer Steve Backshall.
A survey by the anti-litter charity revealed that six out of 10 people would be put off buying a house in an area which was littered, while a third said it might even make them think about moving out of a neighbourhood.
Some 57% said they thought anti-social behaviour might increase in littered areas.
Keep Britain Tidy said it cost £1 billion a year to clean Britain’s streets, and that the RSPCA received reports of 5,000 animals injured by dropped rubbish every year, including swans, gulls and foxes.
The spring clean will take place from March 3 to 5, 2017, and is backed by chari- ties including the RSPCA, Marine Conservation Society and Keep Wales Tidy and businesses including McDonald’s, Greggs and Costa.
Backshall said: “Litter dropped in a British h street is a horror show for wildlife, so many animals are injured and even die from the e things we throw away.
“This is such an importantmportant issue and I’m proudd to be supporting Keep Britain ain Tidy and their campaignn – the Great British Spring Clean.”
The scheme follows ws 2016’s clean-up which involvednvolved 250,000 people including ncluding school children, com- munity groups and local authorities. Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: “The Great British Springp g Clean is about getting all those people who care about their environment to take action. “We know that more than 50% of people are concerned about the a appearance of their local area and so we want them to feel that they can do something ab about it and they are not alone in caring. “If 500,000500,0 people help us pick litterlitte for just two hours each th that means that our count country will benefit from one million h hours of cleanup care.”