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.

 

Litter Free Lewes Day

Spences Lane, Lewes BN7 2HQ, UK

14 Aug 2021

16:00

All local groups invited to take part in mass litter pick around town. Afterwards all met at Malling Community Centre for tea, sandwhiches and cakes, compliments of Town Council and Mayor..

upcoming Events

No upcoming events

past Events

July pick

Very hot morning, but a good turnout.

Easing of lockdown pick

Invitation to restart our activities after another period of lockdown. A good turn-out with several new recruits resulting in 25 bags of litter collected!

Post Lockdown 2 litter pick

A Sunday morning litter pick of our local area. After a brief period of no litter picks, due to Covid 19 restrictions, we resumed (once again) our activities this morning. Needless to say that after a...

Resumption of litter picking

Following the easing of Covid 19 lockdown measures our group have resumed its activities (with social distancing). Our next scheduled pick is on Sunday 19th July starting at 10 a.m.

February clean-up x 2

Our usual pick is Sunday 16th., but there will be a further opportunity to join our Litter Free Lewes colleagues on Saturday 29th., when they intend clearing the Malling Industrial Estate (meet at Kin...

What's Happening?

Our usual monthly litter pick. Have any other groups noticed that, more and more, we appear to be collecting a lot of Fly-tipped stuff as well as the usual 'litter'. This morning's pick was an exampl...

Environment Agency land...

Our next scheduled litter pick is on Sunday 19th May 2019 from 10 a.m. We have long wanted to tackle the area of land owned by the Environment Agency (behind Tesco), as this is particularly unsightly...

New recruits and new regime.

Early Spring sunshine brings out the best in us, but the worst in the litter-bugs! Today we welcomed Michele and Jim, our two newest recruits. As from the start of the year, we now recycle as we pick...

Picking through the snow!

The usual monthly pick will go ahead, weather permitting. Despite a bitterly cold wind and an overnight dusting of snow, a few hardy volunteers ventured out and did a fine job, collecting 11 sack-full...

Winter blues...

Report about January's and February's monthly picks. January's litter pick was something of a damp affair, with a small number of volunteers, so we have made up for that with today's pick. Well attend...

Pre-Christmas pick

Wow, what a turn-out! All 17 of us (including some very young, willing, helpers). Eleven sacks of litter collected. The whole estate looking pristine.

New recruits swell numbers

A usual pick; an unusually high number of new recruits. At today's regular litter pick, we met 6 people wanting to join as new volunteers. We welcome them all. As a small group, we have always had fa...

The Great Malling Spring Clean!

Apparently there is to be a Great British Spring Clean during the month of March. Well, we here in South Malling have been doing our regular monthly litter picks for the past 9 years. (August 2017 is ...

Great Spring clean-up....UPDATE

For our small group, this was to be just another of our regular monthly picks. However, due to the UK wide publicity about The Great British Spring Clean, I decided to publicise our forthcoming event...

Blake's Walk clear-up.

Usual clear-up, but with the emphasis on a particular footpath. A recent, successful campaign by local residents to 'save' the trees alongside a footpath from being cut down (by a developer), was foll...

Xmas clear-up!

Things looking pretty grim. Hoping for a good turnout. Can't let all this litter hang around during Christmas week. (What is the matter with some people? Litter bins in sight, yet oh, so much litter s...

Spotlight on Malling Litter Pickers

Another regular pick, but this time our local District Council requested photographs of us in action so that our group could be featured in their forthcoming Newsletter. Filled the usual black sacks ...

Where were you...?

I felt very alone on Sunday because no-one else turned up. Maybe it's because of the holiday season and everyone else was away. I hope to have all of you back next month. The Council didn't turn up t...

New Hi-Viz vests bring Hi-Viz recognition.

April's litter pick was blessed with warm sunshine, however, despite a request for more volunteers, we only managed 5 (our trustworthy regulars). At least I was able to distribute our new Hi-Viz vests...

You never know what you are going to find!

The usual monthly pick around our delightful 'home turf'. 6 of us managed to fill 9 sacks in an hour but we also found a huge TV which had been dumped behind the recycling area. How convenient and tho...

Welcome to 2015

OK, so it's been another 2 years since the last update. How time flies. (New Year resolution: must update more often.) The first pick of the new year saw 6 of our regulars out clearing the usual path...

2 years and no events!

It has been nearly two years since I posted an 'event'. Where has the time gone? Needless to say we volunteers have still been out there doing our bit, it's just that I haven't written anything about ...

New Year clear-up

The first litter pick of the year and what a lot we got! Jackie & I put in a stirling effort following all the snow and ice. We collected another 10 bags of litter and cleared a wide area. All members...

New Year Clear-up.

After the festive break, let's get together for a good clear-up. Usual time (10 a.m.), usual circumstances (weather permitting) and usual place (outside shop). For this year I propose we meet once a ...

Pre-Xmas

Let's keep up the momentum!

Jackie & Chris managed 5 sacks and cleared the usual pathways.

Regular Sweep

Things are going well. There has been a noticeable reduction in the amount and spread of what we pick up. Well done everyone.

Unfortunately, the foul weather stopped play!

More picking!

I have decided to list some future dates here. 2nd November, 23rd November, 14th December. Meet 10 a.m. outside the shop, depending on the weather. Hope to see you all there.

Old Railway Track

John has suggested we tackle the Recreation Ground end of the old railway track. How about doing the whole lot? See you outside the Shop at 10 a.m. - WEATHER PERMITTING! John & Jackie joined me on a s...

End of season clear-up

Meet at usual place, usual time. 5 of us tackled the end of season (summer) clear-up along the usual woods & paths route. We managed a dozen or so bags in around 90 minutes + car wh...

Nearby Groups

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.

Rawmarsh and Parkgate friends of green spaces
We aim to improve the local environment and work in conjunction with the local councillors. 2700 bags collected in 2018
0
55 years
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Christchurch in action
Christchurch in Action is a group supported by Sovereign Housing Association. The aims of the group are to lmprove the lives and environment of Christchurch, we hope to tackle social isolation by holding regular social events, and to improve the look of our community, hence regular litter picks.
0
6 years
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Leadenham Litterpickers
Small Lincolnshire Village adjacent to two A class roads.
0
3 years
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Keep Stoke Tidy
Welcome to the Keep Stoke Tidy group. We are a small group of volunteers with an increasing concern about the litter across the city. It seems difficult to walk more than a few yards lately without coming across at least one discarded face mask, food wrapper or empty plastic bottle. Rather than choose to live with this we have decided to improve the situation by making a city-wide litter-picking network that we are calling ‘Keep Stoke Tidy’. Our aim is to make sure that every area of this wonderful city has an active litter picking group and through the wonder of social media we would like to support those groups in advertising litter picking events. For those areas that don’t have a litter picking group it would be great to see new ones start up. Throughout the year each group will continue to have their usual local litter picking days but with a larger network it would be brilliant to think that each month of the year we could vote for an area to focus on. We could then arrange an event with a larger group of volunteers, with as many people as possible from all of the other groups coming to work together to focus on that area. We will be arranging events throughout the coming year and posting them on here as well as on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1101046337300192 If you are arranging an event in Stoke-on-Trent and would like more pickers please get in touch.
12
3 years
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The Rudloe Mob
We are not really a group! We are a loose alliance! We started as dog walkers and photographers back in the 70s. I would be walking with our hound and stop to take a picture only to find that foreground rubbish had to be removed. This led to always taking bags for rubbish whenever I went out. For larger items (fly-tips etc) I would move them to a suitable roadside location and call the council who were (and are) very obliging. My “comrades” would do the same. This has been going on ever since (our last dog departed some years ago but the walking and photography continue).

My current (well actually for many years) “bete noire” is bagged dog crap. Twas quite funny, some years ago we had a serial crap flinger - it was everywhere: undergrowth, behind walls, brambles, trees etc. So, one weekend we decided to have a blitz on the stuff. We found about 250 bags in the undergrowth along Leafy Lane, over 100 in one location behind a dry stone wall and so on - a total of around 700 bags altogether. I was walking down my road with a bin bag of bagged dog crap over each shoulder when a neighbour stopped me and asked what I had in the bags! Since that time he and his wife have been inveterate litter pickers. The bagged dog crap problem continues. I have picked up about 30 in various locations over the past couple of weeks (this statement will be approximately true whenever you are reading this!). I used to think that this was just one halfwit on the loose, but it appears that this extraordinary behaviour is common practice. I believe (and I have written to Wilts CC about this) that the socially-acceptable practice of bagging dog crap, binning it and dumping it into landfill is an aberration. We have programmes on TV where ologists of various kinds look at ancient middens to find out how people lived. What will future ologists think of our society?

“Look - they used to wrap up their dog crap and bury it - how weird!”

Talking of weird, an odd incident occurred during my 23 Jan 2012 pick-up. I had a good bin-bag full of rubbish which I was attempting to stuff into the waste bin at Northleaze Mobile Home Park when one of a posse of locals shouted over “Oi - what do you think you’re doing?”. A small exchange ensued during which I explained that this was at least a weekly occurrence and I was tidying-up THEIR environment. But they were having none of it - “You can’t do that”, one said. I should say that this lady did offer to put the rubbish in her own bin but by this time the bin-bag was ripped and taking it out again would have seen the rubbish spilled on the ground. Anyway, their objection seemed to be one of possession - it was their bin! This would be fair enough if the bin was ever used but every time I deposit rubbish in that bin, it is empty (as it was on this occasion). It seems that they want theoretical of the bin without ever using it! Anyway my bin-bag was stuffed into the bin; the bin was emptied by the council the next morning and I stuffed a further bag of rubbish into it later that day. It is odd that no account is taken of rubbish lying in the street but clearance of that same rubbish invokes local disapproval!

Another anecdote - for many years, on Sunday mornings when out walking the dog, I would find an empty bottle of South African white wine (always South African) and an empty (70cl) bottle of vodka tightly knotted into a Tescos plastic bag in the lay-by in White Ennox Lane. What a wild time they must have had and what an interesting drive home.

The bizarre things you find when out collecting rubbish! Today, 25 Nov 2012, it was the “Bath & Wells Diocesan News”, No 264, December 1980 (see pic)! This was by the bus stop at the top of Box Hill. I can imagine the Bishop of Bath & Wells waiting for the bus in his vestments with his mitre and crosier (or is that Catholic bishops?) and unfortunately dropping his News on boarding the bus. One of the News items was the 1980 General Synod at which a major issue would be the ordination of women! Now, thirty-two years on, the Synod has been voting on women bishops. What a slow-moving organisation the C of E is!

By the way, the 20,000 or so bags picked up is an estimate, but probably a conservative one. My weekly pick-up is about 8 bags - 8x52x32(years) is about 13,000. I am, no doubt, doing a great disservice to the rest of the Mob in estimating their input as only 7,000 bags - watch out for the update.

The following table started in 2012, which I will try to update regularly, gives an idea of the scale of the ‘problem’.

1 Jan 2012: B3109, Skynet Drive, field edge 4+bags+mattress - called Wilts CC
2 Jan 2012: Leafy Lane, woods and playing fields, 5 bags
3 Jan 2012: Boxfields Road, Box Hill Common 3 bags+ fly tip - called Wilts CC
4 Jan 2012: Quarry Hill, 3 bags + bagged dog crap (BDC)
5 Jan 2012: B3109, A4 to Hare & Hounds 5 bags+ BDC (7 bags)
6 Jan 2012: Leafy Lane & A4 towards Corsham, 5 bags
7 Jan 2012: B3109, Skynet Drive, Park Lane, 4 bags+ BDC
8 Jan 2012: A4 towards Box, 2 bags
9 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 4 bags
12 Jan 2012: Boxfields Road 1 bag+ small fly tip - called Wilts CC
16 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 4 bags
17 Jan 2012: B3109, Skynet Drive, The Carriage Drive, Pound Mead, 7 bags
23 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 3 bags + BDC
24 Jan 2012: B3109 & A4 towards Corsham, 2 bags
28 Jan 2012: Leafy Lane & B3109 from small Fiveways towards Corsham, 1 bag
7 Feb 2012: B3109 and A4 towards Corsham, 1 bag
8 Feb 2012: Leafy Lane and woodland, 2 bags
12 Feb 2012: A4 towards Box, 4 bags
13 Feb 2012: Rudloe Firs and A4 towards Corsham 10 bags (and still stuff remaining)
13 Feb 2012: (later) B3109, 2 bags
21 Feb 2012: B3109, 1 bag
23 Feb 2012: B3109, Leafy Lane, Leafy Lane Playing Fields, 14 bags

Okay, I guess you get the picture so with one month being very much like another I will discontinue the diary. This is a week-on-week, year-on-year occupation. The last pick-up listed above is instructive though - let me elaborate .. Leafy Lane Playing Fields is a 20 acre site at the south-eastern edge of the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Its users include football clubs, cricket clubs etc but the principal user is AFC Corsham who do an outstanding job in providing opportunities for young people to play football. AFC Corsham runs 15 teams for youngsters between the ages of around 5 to 15/16. You can imagine therefore the number of youngsters provided for and the scores of parents who ferry their charges back and forth from home to ground and back. All fine BUT it appears that not one of the committee, managers and coaches, parents or others gives a hoot about the enormous piles of litter which are left to accumulate week after week. Rather than an AONB, Leafy Lane Playing Fields resembles a rubbish tip. The Rudloe Mob has an onslaught on the accumulation every couple of months or so. Of the 14 bags collected on 23rd February 2012, 10 came from the playing fields and this was just the tip of the iceberg (see photographs of some of what still remains). The state of the playing fields is, I believe, representative of the state of Britain. A 20-acre site frequented by a community of users who deposit rubbish then cheerfully wander through that same rubbish without giving it a second thought. With regard to litter, whether it is at community or national level, in general “we” couldn’t care less.

In the eighties “that cow” (as described by our local MP at the time, the 6th Earl of Kilmorey or Sir Richard Needham) appointed Richard Branson as the uncrowned king of litter - see this 2005 Guardian article on the subject https://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/sep/24/comment - but his campaign along with all others, like the long-established Keep Britain Tidy, failed or is failing. It is not good enough to have high-profile personalities, photo-shoots and high-salaried executives with meaningless job descriptions - take a look at the job description for the £40k plus Head of Communications and Marketing at Keep Britain Tidy:

OUTCOMES TO BE DELIVERED
*Implementation and delivery of the five year communications strategy and annual action plan
*Enhanced reputation of Keep Britain Tidy and its sub-brands
*Senior management feel supported through provision of strategic advice and guidance
*New income streams developed, for example, from behaviour change campaigns
*Stakeholders strategically managed and influenced
*Resources managed effectively within budget to meet to customer demand
*Visible leadership to the relevant communications teams as well as across the wider organisation
*Enhanced profile of the organisation with the relevant audiences
*Public membership scheme developed and successfully implemented, when agreed

Talk about Nero fiddling while Rome burns! We are drowning in a sea of rubbish! You can see the outcome of almost 60 years of Keep Britain Tidy in the small community area covered by this Litteraction webpage. YOU ACTUALLY HAVE TO GET OUT THERE AND PICK UP RUBBISH -REGULARLY!
20750
55 years
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GARG
GARG is the Glencoe Avenue Residents Group in the LB of Redbridge. Founded to promote a sense of community by organising street events and to improve the environment.
0
10 years
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Tonbridge Litter Pickers
Recently I have been on a mission to clean up the litter in my local area and I need help from local people. The aim of the group is to tackle litter blackspots in Tonbridge and the surrounding area, especially around local woods, paths, parks and local playgrounds. Litter can be harmful to wildlife, and its not nice to see when walking in the local park with my son. I want to organise local litter picking/clean up days to improve the local environment for everyone. In times when the local councils are cutting funds for street cleaners the litter problem will be sure to get worse, we all have a responsibility to improve our local environment. If we all protected the environment from littering it would improve the area for everyone. If you have any questions please email me. Thanks. Sara
1
9 years
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LIVINGPRAISE
We are a faith-based charity group committed and dedicated to the Area we operate and in giving back to the Community, we created this group to pick Litters off the streets on every 3rd Saturday of every month by 11.00am. The Aim is to make our environment clean and to make Sunderland the cleanest city in the whole Northeast of England.
56
8 years
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Test Valley Clean Up
The A3057 and A3090 are usually full of litter and the verges are only cleared infrequently - and in many places never. In the Summer it does not look so bad because of the grass - but come the Winter! A number of more minor roads are also left with litter because it would seem that Test Valley Borough Council only cares, if at all, about Andover and Romsey. The aim is to get Test Valley BC to do what it is required to do under the EPA for the district as a whole and not just the main urban areas.
0
16 years
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Malling Litter Pickers
A few* stalwart volunteers meet once a month to TIDY UP the neighbourhood, much to the delight of some residents & Lewes District Council! *Now in our 15th year, we have welcomed more recruits, taking our total to 38.
1622
17 years
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Start a LitterAction group

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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