ONE MILLION MILES OF SMILES THANKS TO YOU
As campaign finishes, we celebrate our litter heroes
THE Great British Spring Clean came to an end yesterday with praise for the hundreds of thousands of heroic volunteers who made it such a success.
The annual event, organised by Keep Britain Tidy and backed by the Daily Mail, took on the seemingly impossible task of trying to make the country look cleaner as Britain came out of lockdown.
Carol Vorderman, Michaela Strachan, Chris Tarrant, Julia Bradbury and Kirstie Allsopp were among those who supported the campaign, which ran from May 28 to June 13.
Meanwhile, ministers such as Rebecca Pow and Michael Gove both heeded the call and turned out to pick litter. In all, 217,465 volunteers pledged to clean more than 1,161,000 miles of the coast, countryside and streets – an incredible feat considering lockdown rules restricted people from gathering in large numbers for the event.
The campaign smashed its target of getting pledges to pick one million miles of the country.
Yesterday, Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive and Environment Secretary George Eustice both celebrated the efforts of the volunteers.
Allison Ogden- Newton said: ‘ The response to this year’s Great British Spring Clean call to action has been truly astonishing and I would like to say a million thank yous to all the litter heroes who have gone out there, shown their love for our environment and communities and cleared up the litter pollution that blights our country.
‘Their million miles of litter picking has not only cleared thousands of tons of rubbish from our streets, parks and beaches, it has shown that hundreds of thousands of people care enough to give up their time to create a better environment for everyone.
‘True Britons are litter heroes not litterbugs.’
Yesterday Mr Eustice said: ‘I want to thank the thousands of people and organisations who have supported this year’s Great British Spring Clean, and both the Daily Mail and Keep Britain Tidy for their unwavering commitment to creating a litter-free Britain.’
One of the litter heroes setting an impressive example was kayaker Roy Beal of Seaton, Devon. He is paddling 900 miles from John O’Groats to Land’s End – the length of Great Britain – and collecting litter from beaches en route. He set off on May 26.
Speaking from the Caledonian Canal in the Scottish Highlands, the 49-year-old said: ‘It is the first time anyone has kayaked the country from the top down. It has been completed three times in the other direction. The prevailing winds in this country come from the south-west, so that gives people a push up the coast. I am tackling the wind head on. I have always liked to be a bit different.’
Mr Beal, who works for Keep Britain Tidy, said that the scourge of litter on Britain’s beaches has become ‘ noticeably worse’ in recent years despite greater public awareness of the danger of plastics in marine environments.
He said: ‘On some of the beaches, it is down to tourists not taking their litter away with them.
‘The main culprit is the fishing industry leaving nets, lobster and crab pots and fake plastic and rubber fish that they use as lures.
‘They are closely followed by plastic water bottles. I have just done a beach clean and picked up lots of those, beer cans and lots of polystyrene pieces than can be ingested by animals.’ Mr Beal, who yesterday reached Ballantrae, Ayrshire, urged people to stop being ‘selfish’ and take their litter home after a visit to the beach.
‘These selfish acts are destroying our environment and putting wildlife and marine life in danger on a daily basis,’ he said.
‘Instead of being part of the problem, we can all be part of the solution by doing the right thing with our rubbish.’
YESTERDAY marked the end of one of the most important and inspirational missions in the Mail’s crusading history.
We asked you, our wonderful readers, to tidy litter from the equivalent of one million miles of the UK, scarcely daring to hope we could ever meet such a bold target.
Yet thanks to your incredible publicspiritedness, we not only hit that goal, but rocketed spectacularly past it.
That so many volunteered for the 2021 Great British Spring Clean, picking up rubbish discarded by people too idle, or too irresponsible to hold on to it until they can find a bin, is a source of enormous pride.
But such is your selfless determination to stem the sluice of filth that fouls our precious isles and smothers wildlife, it is no longer any surprise.
To every one of you, our heartfelt thanks.