250,000 GET WOMBLING! ...with help from 100,000 Girl Guides joining our big Spring Clean. So what’s stopping YOU?
THE Great British Spring Clean has had another huge boost after 100,000 Girl Guides and Brownies pledged to take part.
The incredible show of support for the litter-picking initiative by Keep Britain Tidy, backed by the Daily Mail, brings the number of people promising to contribute so far to more than 262,000.
Girlguiding is the leading organisation for girls and young women in the UK with almost half a million members. It includes Brownies, Girl Guides and Rangers, who are aged 14-18.
Their support comes as all parts of the UK, young and old, come together to tackle the scourge of litter between March 20 and April 13. So far 6,199 clean-up events have been registered.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has backed the campaign as have Britain’s biggest banks Lloyds and HSBC, the National Trust, the Women’s Institute and Friends of the Earth.
In the world of sport, the England rugby and cricket teams are championing it. So too are the Co-op supermarket, Wilko, the People’s Postcode Lottery, Red Bull and Mars Wrigley.
Girlguiding’s backing was announced by the Second Wimbledon Guides in south west London this week – with a little help from furry fictional character Orinoco from local litter-picking crusaders The Wombles.
Member Elizabeth Ormrod, ten, who has to walk with crutches after a ski accident, said: ‘Sometimes I can’t even walk down the street without getting litter stuck to my crutches.
‘When I’ve used my wheelchair I’ve often had to take a different route because there is so much rubbish on the floor that it would clog up my wheels if I went through it.’
Leader of Second Wimbledon Guides Victoria Archer, 27, added: ‘I am continually amazed at the level at which our girls think about the world they live in. When we talk to them about recycling they are incredibly astute at how important it is to reduce their plastic.’ Last year’s Great British Spring Clean resulted in an incredible 563,163 people rolling up their sleeves to spruce up their communities.
It was the biggest mass environmental action seen in the UK.
A total of 4,308 tonnes of rubbish were removed in nearly one million bags of litter, of which 39 per cent was recycled.
This year we are aiming for up to one million volunteers to get involved to remove litter from beaches, the countryside, streets, rivers and lakes.
Angela Salt, CEO of Girlguiding, said that a deposit return scheme (DRS) for plastic bottles, as proposed by the government and supported by this newspaper, would help reduce litter if it was easy for children to use.
Denise Spence, CEO of Girlguiding Scotland, said: ‘I’m delighted we’re supporting the 2020 Great British Spring Clean. Social action is at right at the centre of what makes Girlguiding unique and something we know girls and young women are passionate about. We were encouraged to see the Scottish Government’s commitment to a DRS but we want to see the voices of young people at the centre of its design.’
Allison Ogden-Newton OBE, chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, said: ‘We are delighted to have the support of the Girl Guides. I’m looking forward to working alongside them as we get outdoors to create the cleaner, healthier environment we all want to see.’
Comment – Page 16
‘Incredibly astute about recycling’