GREAT PLASTIC PICK UP
Ten years ago the Mail declared war on plastic — and changed the world. Now, we want your help as we launch our ...
TODAY the Daily Mail is proud to announce a national campaign to get Britain picking up plastic litter. The campaign — organised in conjunction with Keep Britain Tidy — has been endorsed by Prime Minister Theresa May and Sir David Attenborough. Our streets, beaches and countryside are suffering from a plague of litter. As Sir David has warned, plastic pollution is turning our seas into a ‘toxic soup’ that’s lethal to wildlife.
So on Friday, May 11; Saturday, May 12; and Sunday, May 13, the Mail urges readers to take part in The Great Plastic Pick Up, joining their friends, family, colleagues, schools and communities to tackle this blight.
Endorsing The Great Plastic Pick Up, the Prime Minister said yesterday: ‘Plastic waste is one of the great environmental scourges of our time, and this will help communities to make a real difference by encouraging everyone to do their bit to pick up litter in their area.’
Sir David Attenborough, whose Blue Planet II series did so much to highlight the threat of plastic, said yesterday: ‘I wish you all the best with the campaign. Good luck to you.’
Here’s how you can play your own part in tackling this blight on Britain, by joining the Great Plastic Pick Up...
TEN years ago, the Daily Mail launched a trail-blazing campaign to end the scourge of plastic bags clogging the oceans, choking turtles, killing sea birds, poisoning fish and threatening human health.
Today, there’s been an astonishing 85 per cent reduction in the number of plastic bags used.
Now the Mail’s stepping up its war on plastic with The Great Plastic Pick Up — a weekend where we’re helping communities, schools, families and individuals across the UK come together to clear plastic and litter from our beaches, beauty spots and streets.
Wherever you live, you can make a difference by sparing just a few hours to pick up plastic bottles, cans and general litter and dispose of it safely. We’re also calling for schools nationwide to do their part.
It’s so simple to sign up — and you could win amazing prizes worth thousands of pounds that could make a huge difference to your community.
What’s more, if you are one of the first 3,000 people or schools to join, we’ll send you a special pack of recyclable litter bags to get you started — so act today. WHAT’S HAPPENING? ThE Mail’s Great Plastic Pick Up will run from the beginning of Friday, May 11, to the end of Sunday, May 13. It is a weekend when communities across the country will get together in small groups to pick up rubbish — with a specific mission to remove the plastic that poisons our streets, parks and public areas. Of course we’ll be getting rid of other litter, too — giving the whole country a spring clean in time for the Royal Wedding weekend. WIN A SPRING CLEAN FOR YOUR AREA ThINK your area could do with a proper spring clean — be it removing graffiti, planting flowers or power-washing the pavements? Then sign up and you could be one of three winners who will get this incredible prize for your community — worth £10,000.
A Daily Mail team will check the photos taken by the Great Plastic Pick Up teams and sent to us, and select three winning teams. If you win, we’re going to send a team of professional cleaners to your area to transform it — and
you can tell them what you want them to do.
Depending on what you decide, they may power- wash your streets, plant flowers, provide benches or whatever else you feel needs to be done. HOW DO I SIGN UP? GO towww. great plastic pickup. org where you’ll find all the information you need. You can either sign up to organise a pick-up or join one already going on in your area. You just need to provide your name, address and email.
Anyone can get involved — no matter how old or young (though children should be accompanied by a responsible adult).
You can also choose to pick up litter on your own if you don’t want to join a group. HOW DO I ORGANISE A PICK UP? IT couldn’t be easier. Just sign up on www.greatplasticpickup.org by entering your email address and creating a password.
You don’t need any experience of doing this sort of thing before. You just need to work out which area you want to target: it might be a park, a stretch of riverside or beach, a notoriously littered beauty spot or just the street on which you live. Now pick an hour or two at some point over The Great Plastic Pick Up weekend — and you’re ready to go!
When you sign up on the website, you get the option of choosing whether you’d prefer your pick up to be a private affair (just you and your family, or a gang of friends, or neighbours) or whether you are happy to gather as many people as possible to join in.
A public pick up will appear as a pin on an interactive map on the
greatplasticpickup.org page, so as we get closer to the Great Plastic Pick Up weekend, people can click on your pin to find out where and when your pick up is going to happen — and join in. WHAT IF I WANT TO TALK TO SOMEONE? FOR any more queries, ring 01942 612660 to talk to someone. Lines are manned today and Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I SIGN UP?
SIGNING up allows you to download a comprehensive guide that tells you everything you need to know, with step-by-step information on how to get started.
THE first 3,000 sign-ups will be sent a free pack of recycled bags. In each pack there will be 30 separate bags, ten blue bags for any plastic bottles you find during your litter pick, ten white bags for general waste and ten red bags for aluminium cans.
If you’re not one of the first 3,000, don’t worry, we have 450,000 bags to give away and will distribute them to councils across the country, so you can collect them from there. DO I NEED SPECIAL EQUIPMENT? IF you are organising a group pick up, it is worth calling your local council and asking to speak to the environment team.
Many will let you borrow litterpicking equipment for the weekend. Just say: ‘I am planning to take part in a community litterpick, can I ask about borrowing some litter-pickers please?’
Gloves: you’ll need a sturdy pair to protect your hands, ideally gardening gloves
Hi-viz tabard: if you’re litterpicking near roadsides, a hi-viz top is useful
Litter-picker/grabber: these clever devices cut out the bend and stretch, making litter-picking a breeze (available online from £2).
Bag hoop: this flexible ring wraps around the mouth of the rubbish sack holding it open, making filling and carrying the bags easy (around £10 online).
Appropriate clothing and sturdy shoes: think waterproofs if showers are forecast, sunscreen if summer arrives — but no flip-flops! HOW CAN I STAY INFORMED? FOLLOW the #Great-PlasticPickup hashtag on Twitter to keep tabs on what’s happening in your area, watch out for our reports, and keep an eye on developments in the Mail as the big weekend approaches. You can also visit the website www.greatp-lasticpickup. org or call the number below. WHAT HAPPENS ON THE DAY? GATHER at the allocated point at the set time, check in with the organiser and . . . get picking!
Grab any litter you see and simply put it in the correct bag:
Plastic bottles and plastic lids in the blue bag (caps and labels included). Metal drink cans in the red bag. Everything else in the white bag, including other plastic — only plastic bottles and metal cans are recycled everywhere, so we cannot contaminate the other bags with potentially nonrecyclable plastics. WHAT CAN’T I PICK UP? NEVER touch syringes, broken glass or large fly-tipped items such as furniture — instead, inform your local council.
Do not attempt to do a pick up anywhere near busy roads and fast-moving traffic. WHAT HAPPENS AFTERWARDS? WHEN your plastic pick up comes to an end, give yourself a great big pat on the back for a job well done. Then count up and photograph the bags you collect — keeping a tally of how many full bags of plastic you gather.
You can proudly post your pictures on Twitter with the #Great-PlasticPickup hashtag and group organisers can go back to the www.greatplasticpickup.org website to log the number of bags of each type, the number of volunteers who joined the group, and to upload photos so they can be entered into the competition. WHAT HAPPENS TO THE BAGS? EVERY council is telling us how they’d like the bags to be disposed of and what help they can offer. We will update the website www. greatplasticpickup.org regularly with details for each council.
The plastic bottles you collect will be recycled and made into new plastic items.
The metal cans will be recycled and made into new metal cans.
The rubbish will most likely be incinerated in a facility that generates electricity from waste (depending on your area, some might go to landfill).