CLEAN-UP OF BRITAIN TO MAKE YOU PROUD
We asked you to help rid Britain of its plastic scourge – and 554,729 answered the call. Here, in astonishing facts, is what you achieved... and why it matters
aS YOU bask in the sunshine this easter weekend, look around you. Are the streets, parks and beaches strewn with litter? Or are they as pristine as nature intended? If so, you’ve undoubtedly got a diligent local litter-picking community to thank.
When the Mail announced its partnership with Keep Britain Tidy in this year’s Great British Spring Clean, the task — galvanising half-amillion litter-picking volunteers — seemed frankly impossible.
But what a difference one month — and an incredibly successful national campaign — can make.
As the Great British Spring Clean 2019 draws to a close, it appears to have far exceeded all its objectives. It will go into the record books as the single biggest mass-participation environmental campaign ever. So far 554,729 volunteers have signed up for a whopping 17,097 litter picks. Viewing these astonishing figures, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive, Allison Ogden-Newton, says: ‘It really is incredible. We’ve been amazed by how many litter-picking events have been organised and how many people have turned out — no matter where you live in the UK, the Great British Spring Clean will have touched you. The response is astonishing and humbling.’
Not only has this fantastic initiative given more than half-amillion people the opportunity to do something to reduce the burden of waste plastic on the world, it also appears to have significantly shifted public consciousness.
The campaign has transformed the concept of clearing litter from a slightly embarrassing pastime, or even a punishment, to an empowering activity.
Stories have emerged of friendships forged as communities gathered to do their bit. Schoolchildren were joined by youth groups, families and colleagues gathered, and neighbours met neighbours for the first time. peOple
of all ages and backgrounds have been brought together to clear public spaces of litter and stop toxic plastic waste finding its way into our oceans.
Schools gave the campaign a flying start on March 22 with the official Great Big School Clean, which has seen more than 175,000 youngsters nationwide running around in search of litter — up from 126,651 in 2018.
‘There’s been such a palpable buzz of excitement this year,’ says lee Wray-Davis, the eco-Schools manager at Keep Britain Tidy. ‘We’ve recruited more than 4,000 new schools since the last Spring Clean, and a growing number are becoming actively involved.’
The response of young people to the plastic blight has been wise beyond their years.
One is elizabeth Gadson, eight, who has inspired more than 3,000 people by charting her litterpicking exploits on social media. Known as The litter Collector, Wirral, she has 932 Twitter followers, and 3,397 likes on Facebook.
Cheryl pickering, 39, a teacher at Alderman Richard Hallam School in leicester, says: ‘Campaigns like this are helping to change attitudes and behaviour — these children are the adults of the future and we hope they will inspire adults to pick up litter, too.’
This enthusiasm is echoed across the country.
When the campaign launched at the end of January with a burst of coverage in the Mail, the Keep Britain Tidy website was overwhelmed with people desperate to be among the first to sign up to events or register as a volunteer.
‘We had ten times more traffic than we were expecting,’ admits Julia George, KBT’s digital marketing manager. ‘At one point, there were 100 people per minute trying to sign up!’
Twitter activity has been unprecedented. On launch day, March 22, the #gbspringclean hashtag started ‘trending’ as social media followers clamoured to keep on top of who was picking up litter where, when and with whom.
It made ‘influencers’ of litterpicking heroes, such as 70-year-old pat Smith from Cornwall, now known as Action Nan, who posts her daily finds to 1,309 followers. Most important, it saw tonne upon tonne of litter collected from streets, green spaces, beaches and waterways — a total of 4,308 in fact.
One event saw 30 paddle boarders from the Canal & River Trust working with volunteers at Sheffield Canal to remove seven tonnes.
In separate GBSC events, 24 bags of rubbish were picked out of the Rochdale Canal and 49 bin bagsfull from the Wigan Flight of locks.
Amazingly, reports have surfaced on social media of less litter at
notorious spots. One GBSC volunteer, Gary Johns, who does weekly sweeps in the woodland near his Sheffield home, wrote on Facebook: ‘It’s a victory when there’s no rubbish to collect!’
This campaign has made it clear that individual action really can make a difference. every plastic straw or bottle you refuse and every balloon you untangle from a tree cuts the plastic burden on our environment.
Thanks, in part, to the GBSC, it’s
no longer unusual to collect rubbish while on a walk, or to stop your car to clean up a litter-strewn verge.
There can be no doubt that dropping litter is poisonous to our environment and picking it up is one of the best things you can do to protect your community and the planet.
To the Mail readers who have helped make this campaign such a success, we say well done — and thank you.
TO HELP Keep Britain Tidy to carry on its work, make a donation via the website at keepbritaintidy.org/donate