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.
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 pick - reeds/water pick PM Two litter picks in one day!!! This one was very frustrating and disheartening.. as i walked along the canal I spotted some over-enthusiastic (code for immature) magnet fishers. While it looked like they weren’t causing too much trouble, they were adding to the rubbish along the path as they had come up trumps with their ‘fishing’. My plan was to get to bridge 3 and do a soft easy pick of the 20 or 30 cans littered there. Lo and behold I spotted a whole disgusting heap of rubbish all matted with reeds and big branches and natural matter. The good thing is this is out of the water, the bad thing, since I walked past it this morning I spotted it had already encouraged more littering from the regulars who also use this spot to sit. It has a wall and the grass has worn away from people constantly walking all over it.
I just had to pick what I could, I couldn’t leave it like that! I filled two bags for life, one Sainsbury’s (my own) and an Aldi bag for life that some very clever individual had chucked away - brand new I might add with a plastic 4-pack can ring inside. The 4th cyclist who passed me stopped, removed his earplugs and said thank you and we chatted briefly, I told him he was welcome and invited his help should he want to, he told me he is a part of a church and they are always looking for things to do so I gave him the litter action details. I hope he took them down right and gets in contact! My favourite dog Mishka (and her owner) came along and interrupted us so I bid the cyclist farewell, got some cuddles from Mishka who seemed happy at me cleaning and helped by cleaning me (she licked me!). I grabbed what I could and walked to the end of bridge 3 with Mishka and her owner, who shared his frustration and told me of his own efforts to put bags at the roadside whenever he could to get them away from the canal where they are normally just thrown in :( I emptied the contents of both bags in the new bin I campaigned to get installed next to the bus stop by Shortridge Drive. The bin is definitely full now so I will now have to report it to the Council and ask for it to be emptied. This was a bad evening and reminded me how angry and sad I felt the very first time I picked. It is times like this when I don’t even want to walk along the Canal for how angry and upset it makes me, but I noticed a real difference in the water by the reeds where I have been picking and I am hopeful for what change is to come. Watch this space. .
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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?
