Let’s clean a million miles of Britain!
Two years ago, you transformed the nation. Now, after a fallow year due to Covid, KIRSTIE ALLSOPP urges you to take up your litter pickers once more... and help the country bounce back to its beautiful best
ONE afternoon we were walking near our home in Devon when my sons Bay, Oscar and stepson Hal spotted something in the bushes. They scampered over to retrieve it and returned triumphant, brandishing a pale brown handbag. The boys were beside themselves. They considered it a real coup. Thankfully, we were able to get it back to the owner via her driving licence; it turned out it had been stolen and dumped.
Admittedly, it was one of our better finds — and perhaps it doesn’t strictly qualify as rubbish — but it illustrates how much fun litter-picking can be.
Clearing up after other people may not sound like entertainment but I genuinely recommend it as a family activity. Not only is it a hugely satisfying and worthwhile thing to do but, with younger children, it becomes a sort of reverse treasure hunt. They love spotting things — the more unusual the better.
As a family, wherever we are in the world, we don’t leave the house without taking a bag to collect litter. Sadly, there is never a dearth of items to pick up — whether we’re in cities, on beaches, up mountains or strolling in the countryside. It’s a national disgrace.
That’s why I’m backing this year’s Great British Spring Clean to encourage each and every one of you to get out there and do your bit to tidy up your community.
We might not be able to meet in large groups at the moment, but it’s incredible what can be achieved on your own or on a family walk. Why not start today?
AS A long-term ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy, I’m a passionate litter-picker. And I’m increasingly concerned that the pandemic is spawning more litter louts than ever before.
Then there’s the fear that everything is covered in germs, which I suspect is impacting on people’s instinct to pick up rubbish. We are understandably more germ-phobic but Covid has done nothing to affect my own regular litterpicking. After all, you can wear gloves and use litter-picker devices; we’ve got quite a collection.
Every day, we come across that new scourge — the discarded disposable mask. They’re everywhere; blowing around like leaves in the gutter, trampled into the mud on country paths.
Three million face masks are thrown away every minute around the world. Experts warn it could soon lead to environmental catastrophe. They pose a greater risk to the environment than carrier bags because of their ubiquity and the fact there is no way to safely decontaminate and recycle them.
In the UK alone, 53 million masks are ending up in landfill each day. The scariest part is all the others that don’t make it into the bin. Masks are being found in streams, rivers and oceans.
I believe the number one reason not to litter is to safeguard our oceans. There’s no filter — if you drop a cigarette butt in a gutter, it will end up in the sea. If we do not protect our oceans, we will die.
Another reason to pick up litter is that it makes people feel unsafe and encourages further littering. People should feel happy and secure within their community and having our streets litter-free is a very important part of that.
I live with a passionate pickerupper of litter. My partner Ben will screech the car to a halt to pick up something by the roadside. If ever I’m in a car crash, it will be because Ben slammed on the brakes to put something in the bin.
Joking aside, it means our children have been brought up to do it. And I think we do all need to teach our kids to take responsibility for litter from a young age.
On one level it helps them to connect with where they live. And there’s nothing more satisfying than coming back with bags of litter you’ve cleared. Or, in our case, it’s sometimes a rather rickety homemade trolley that the boys often take out with them.
There was a huge row between my two sons when they both spotted the same car mudguard.
Both wanted to claim it as their find and pick it up.
Fly-tipping is more difficult to help with — we are lucky because we have the trailer to collect things and take them to the council tip.
We’ve all done a lot of clearing out during lockdown. The key is to help each other dispose of larger items properly — a relative without a car, for example, or someone who has been shielding. There are so many ways in which we can help keep Britain tidy. Your support can change our world — and your little corner of it — for the better.