Important: Litter can be contaminated, so we have put together some information to help you handle it safely. Please click on this link to have a read through our Health and Safety Guidance before you go out litter-picking.
For our last quarter Environment event we are going to do a “Beach Blitz†along the seafront at Bournemouth/Boscombe. Why a Beach Blitz? I have been working with Peter Ryan from a voluntary group in Dorset called “The Dorset Devils†and after watching a presentation that he did to a community group in Bournemouth I was staggered at the effect dropping rubbish on beaches has on our wildlife and ecosystem. What is Marine Litter? Marine Litter is a term used for solid particles of “waste†found in our seas. It includes a wide range of items such as plastic bags, bottles, cigarette butts, abandoned fishing gear, metal pieces, wood & glass. 10 million tonnes of litter ends up in the earth’s oceans & seas each year. 80% of this is plastic, which equates to around 8.8 million metric tons. According to one estimate there are more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the world’s oceans.
What happens to this marine litter? The oceans currents together with the earth’s rotation gather these pieces where they create large patches in areas called “gyresâ€. Depending on the size of these pieces they can appear as a transparent plastic “soupâ€. The largest of these gyres is in the North Pacific and contains an estimated 3.5 million tons of rubbish, affecting an area TWICE the size of Texas. What effect does this have on us? There is growing research that micro plastics will eventually enter the human food chain when they are ingested by fish or shellfish which then can be eaten by us. Researchers are currently looking into this emerging potential health risk. What effect does this have on wildlife? Many marine species can get entangled in larger pieces of marine litter and as a result will get injured by it and eventually die from those injuries. They can also mistake it for food and swallow it. Many sea birds & mammals as well as other animals are found with plastic in their stomachs, preventing them from digesting normal food or even slowing suffocating them. Plastic pollution harms an estimated 100,000 sea turtles and 1 million sea creatures each year. What is â€Ghost Fishingâ€? Fishing nets left or lost at sea & fishing lines left or lost in rivers by fishermen can entangle fish, dolphins, seaturtles, sharks, seabirds to name a few. These nets & lines restrict movemnet and cause starvation, laceration, infection, suffocation and loss of life. 43% of aquatic marine mammals, all marine turtles, approximately 36% of the worlds seabird species as well as many species of fish have been reported to have injested marine litter. But surely litter dropped in the UK can’t affect marine species not found in the UK, can it? In January 1992, 15 years later, a ship travelling from Hong Kong to the USA lost some of its cargo overboard in a storm. One of these containers contained 28,800 rubber ducks. Some of these landed in Australia & the east coast of the USA. Others crossed the Bering Strait & the Arctic Ocean to end up in Greenland, the UK & Nova Scotia. In 2007 the last reported ones washed up in northern France. We met at Boscombe Pier in the afternoon along with some of the Dorset Devils. We started walking along the beach and quickly split into smaller groups hitting the majority of the beach from the shore line to the cliffs. We didn't collect a large volume of rubbish but managed to collect a lot of the smaller plastic items and bits of fishing tackle, rope etc which are the things that make the biggest impact on the sea, being swallowed by wildlife and forming parts of the gyres that blight our sea's and oceans. We also managed to find an old BBQ, a rubber mallet and a Jewish prayer hat among other items!.
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View eventNB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2017.
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View eventNB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2011.
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View eventNB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2011.
NB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2011.
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View eventNB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2011.
NB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2011.
NB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2011.
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View eventNB - These events are retrospective. We have had to add these events back to our page after the site was redesigned and all of our previous events were deleted. These events took place over 2011.
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View eventDie to Covid, we had to put a lot of our community events on hold as we had to concentrate on keeping our business afloat. Now that things are returning to the \"new normal\" we are getting back into ...
We started operating in Dorset in 2011 when we took over Bournemouth, Boscombe & Christchurch. Immediately we started forging links in the local communities by working with homeless in Boscombe/Bourne...
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View eventWe will be joining with the Bournemouth BID again in September 2019 to do another big litter pick in the town centre. Watch this space for the date and more details!!
We are meeting at Andrews Mare car park at 10am and will then be following our usual routes. Litter pickers, hoops, Hi-Viz and bags will be provided. Please wear suitable clothes and footwear for the ...
The Antiques Roadshow is coming to Salisbury!! On 14th May 2019 the famous TV show will be coming to the grounds of Salisbury Cathedral and we are going to be around to make sure that the area stays l...
We will be joining with the Bournemouth BID and the council to take part in the Great British Spring Clean on 3rd April. We are meeting at 11am at Turtle Bay and starting at Horseshoe common. We met ...
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View eventWe will be joining with the rangers from the Eastleigh BID on 27th February to have a big clean up of Eastleigh town centre. We will be meeting at McDonald's at 9.30am. We will provide litter pickers,...
We met at 10am at the Andrews Mare car park. We had a nice team this time: Jas & Holly from Ower, James from Picket Post, myself as well as Tessa and Marion from the village. We split into two teams,...
We will be meeting at 10am at the Andrews Mare car park in Minstead for our regular litter pick along and around the main road from the A31 towards the village. We met up at 10am as usual. Present we...
We will be meeting up on 9th October 2018 to do a litter pick in and around the playing fields in Brighton Hill. We all met in the car park near the changing rooms for the playing fields at 10am. The ...
We are working with the volunteers that run the community centre in Swaythling, Southampton to fix things around their building. We met up at 9am on the morning of 14th August. We had staff from near...
We have always worked very closely with the local community in Swaythling, where our Black Cat restaurant is. The restaurant is in the middle of a big estate that incorporates a lot of student accommo...
We are really excited about this, our first event in Jersey! It will take place on 27th June and we will be meeting at the restaurant at Halkett Street at 10am. We will then be walking to four local p...
We will be doing our usual quarterly litter pick with the local residents of Minstead on Friday 25th May 2018. Meeting at 10am at Andrews Mare Car Park. We will supply bags, litter hoops, litter picke...
We will be joining forces with the Somerford ARC in Christchurch and members of the local community to do a litter pick around the estate and also Watermans Park. We are meeting at the ARC at 11am and...
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View eventWe will be joining together with a group of locals in Ellingham, Ringwood to do a litter pick for the Great British Spring Clean. We have had to reschedule this as it snowed when the last one was orga...
We will be completing our first litter pick in Minstead on 2nd February 2018. We were supposed to do this litter pick on 24th January but had to rearrange due to an absolutely horrendous downpour. Thi...
On 21st November we will be meeting at Swaythling railway station at 9.30am to do a big clean up of the railway station prior to the winter. We will be leaf collecting, litter picking, tidying the gar...
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View eventWe will be joined by Burley Parish councillor Jane Kendall to do a litter pick from our restaurant at Picket Post walking towards the village at Burley. Meeting at the Picket Post restaurant at 10am. ...
We will be doing our usual quarterly litter pick in the forest around Minstead and will be meeting at 10am at the Andrew Mare car park. Please bring your own litter picking equipment and hi-viz, bags ...
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View eventFor the first time we will be working with the Marine Conservation Society to take part in the Great British Beach Clean which is taking place on the weekend of 15th-17th September. As we like to be d...
We decided to run an anti-litter poster competition across our area to try and help persuade people not to drop rubbish in the first place, rather than have to pick up rubbish after the event. We want...
We will be meeting up at the Andrews Mare car park at 10am on 9th May to do our regular litter pick from the A31 to the crossroads heading to Minstead village. All are welcome, we will supply litter p...
We will be joining up with the Daily Echo from Southampton to clean a local "grot spot" that their readers pick as the most needy from the following three: Swaythling Railway Station High Road leading...
We will be going along to help the New Forest District Council to launch their campaign for the "Great British Spring Clean" on Monday 27th February. We are meeting at Picket Post car park(NOT McDonal...
We will be meeting at the Picket Post McDonald's at 10am for a 10.30am start. we will be heading on the road towards Burley shopping at all of the car parks on the way. I will attach a map of our prop...
We are delighted to be able to be do our first big "clean up" of 2017 at the Ronald McDonald House Southampton which is at Southampton General Hospital. We will be sprucing up their roof-top garden, ...
We will be meeting as usual in the Andrew Mare car park at 10am We were again, so lucky with the weather. The night before it was pouring down and it was the next day as well. But the morning if the l...
We decided to go along to Swaythling railway station on 15th November 2016 for our quarter 4 event for 2016 which involved helping the volunteers who usually keep the station spick & span. The railwa...
We will be going along and doing a litter pick along with local residents, organised by Tessa Keeley, to collect any on the surface litter left by summer tourists. We went along and were met by Tessa,...
On Wednesday 7th September we went back and had another go at tacking the very overgrown grounds of St Peter's Church. Staff from all across our business will come together again to do some more work....
We have found out about a very deserving cause in Bournemouth. St Peter's Church is a beautiful church right in the centre of Bournemouth. It has a lot of history there and is the burial place for Mar...
We are going to meet up with Tessa Keeley again to go over the area that we regularly litter pick to ensure that this is kept litter free as much as we possibly can. We have built a great relationship...
Sarah, our co-ordinator will be meeting with Tessa Keeley who lives in Minstead on the road to Emery Down to help out with their litter pick. Tessa first worked with Bennett's Community Crew after sen...
Bennett Community Crew are working with Dorset Devils to do a litter pick starting at Turtle Bay, picking in Horseshoe Common then walking down Old Christchurch Road, past McDonald's towards The Squar...
We are taking part in a joint clean up with the Bournemouth Litter Squad. Our Planet Champion Kayleigh, from our Bournemouth Restaurant went along & joined in the litter pick with the Bournemouth Lit...
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View eventWe will be meeting at the Andrew Mare car park at 10am on 13th January 2016. We will be picking up rubbish from the car park and up & around the lake and then follow the fence by the A31(forest side)...
Who are Bennett's Community Crew and what do we do. As a franchisee, Tony Bennett loves to give back to the communities that his restaurants are part of. He has always ensured that his restaurants hav...
As our third quarter individual litter pick we decided to target local litter “hot spots†that get bad when the kids are off of school. This meant for most of our restaurants their local p...
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View eventWe are working in conjunction with Angela Peters from the New Forest Rangers from the New Forest National Park Authority & The Blackwater Conservation Group. The plan is to pull out a plant called H...
These groups are near to you in case you want to contact them for advice, to offer them support or, for example, to share equipment with them.
Here at CleanupUK, we want to help you to take LitterAction! Wherever you live in the UK, forming your own community litter-picking group will help to keep your community safer, more friendly and free of litter. It’s lots of fun too. Why not muck in and join us?
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