October2016 pickupday

Meet at Dove Cottage Saturday 15th October 2016 Pizza, cake and drinks provided ! Debenham Litter Pick October 15th 2016. The weather was perfect for the 4th Debenham litter pick day. We shared pizza and a delicious cake (thanks again Em!) for lunch and we knew we’d made a difference. The turnout at Dove Cottage was encouraging - 25 people in total - and we collected over 60kg of litter. This amount suggests several things - we did a thorough job on the first pickup (130 kgs in May 2015) and the 2 pickup days since then; the people who pick up litter throughout the year are helping to keep it down (and many thanks to those people), and just maybe, less is being dropped - ‘Stop the drop’ being our aim - 60kgs is still too much. We know the source of this litter- drivers throwing waste from the car and pedestrians dropping litter. Certain routes and pattern of littering mean we know the source.

It is a minority of people, of course, who have these habits - but we urge those people to think and act with more respect for both their community and the environment. Martin Loveridge, parish councillor, and I will continue to look at ways in which these habits (which are against the law) can be challenged with education, resources - which allow no excuse, (e.g. bins) and legislation if necessary. Thank you to all smokers who have stub tidies and have reduced the drop of cigarette stubs. They are made of plastic and take 12 years to decompose and are small enough to be very damaging. Stub tidies (portable, washable ashtray) are free, from the Japanese tobacco industry, via the ‘Campaign to Protect Rural England’ and are available in the Angel, Woolpack, Co-op, Abbotts Hardware, Websters, the Fish and Chip shop, Vanilla Bake ,Debenham Garage and the Leisure Centre. Thank you to those businesses, to Alan Cushion and Richard Blackwell (parish councillors) who support the pickup and Sarah Carter (Public Realm Officer for Mid Suffolk) who works with us to help fulfil our aims. Next year, ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ will promote ‘street2sea’ and our 5th Litter picking day will be held then. I very much hope you will join us. Please spread the word to discourage littering, so we will see a reduction in littering. If you have any ideas how we might address this issue in Debenham, would like to adopt an area and need equipment, or are aware of fly tipping or a ‘grot spot’ - please let us know. Every piece of litter picked up, reduces the impact – ‘we can do our small part, to tackle something big’ .