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.

 

Spring Clean 2011

Oxford,OX27BJ

05 Mar 2011

00:00

Our annual Spring Clean took place on Friday 4th & Saturday 5th March 2011 • 118 community groups organised two hour litter picks at locations of their choice across the city – this matched the record turnout in 2010 • almost all Oxford’s primary and secondary state schools took part, as well as The Dragon & Headington Schools, Oxford High School Ecology Club, Oxford & Cherwell Valley College, The Oxford Hub of Community Volunteers, Oxford Brookes Student Union • Litter collected by community groups was over 7,000 kg (nearly 1,000 sacks) with a satisfactory ratio of recycling to landfill of 50:50 -- with a further large quantity of scrap and fly tip (347 items) • Further quantities were cleared up by primary and secondary schools • It is encouraging that the amount collected was significantly down on 2010 despite there being more individuals out litter picking.

Reports from community groups and our own observations, suggest that there are three good reasons for this – public awareness of the litter problem has led to an increase in responsible behavior, previous Spring Cleans have made major inroads into litter that had become embedded over the years and the City Council has improved its litter bin provision and street cleaning services. • Awareness of the litter problem was significantly heightened by the large numbers of people taking to our streets and public places - many wearing the 400 + OxClean hi–vis waistcoats • Coverage in the run up to the event and of the event itself by The Oxford Times, Oxford Mail and BBC Radio Oxford added to this awareness • Over 300 ‘Just Cleaned’ signs were displayed at newly picked locations across the city to further build awareness • Having donated 270 litter pickers to community groups in 2010, OxClean now holds a stockpile of 235 litter pickers and over 400 branded hi-vis vests for loan at Spring Cleans and throughout the year • OxClean is aware of a growing numbers of informal community litter picks taking place throughout the year • geographic coverage of the city was good with a pleasing increase in the Cowley area • in addition to local neighbourhoods specific locations tackled included – grotspots; stretches of the Thames and canal; parks; nature reserves; sports fields; play parks; paths along Ring Road and A40; cycle ways; schools; car parks; church yards .

upcoming Events

No upcoming events

past Events

Spring Clean 2012

Our Annual Spring Clean campaign is scheduled for Friday 2nd & Saturday 3rd March 2012. Many groups already registered. See our website for details

Spring Clean 2010

Our annual Spring Clean event, this year attracting registrations for over 110 groups

Spring Clean 09

Spring Clean 09 will take place on Friday 6th & Saturday 7th March 2009.

Please see website for details

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.

Bloomin' Bentham
A gathering of volunteers who meet in the painted bus shelter in High Bentham at 1pm on 13th of each month. We spend an hour or so litter-picking, weeding, planting or generally clearing up around our market town. We also put pressure on the Town Council or District Council when we come across something that we need to tackle in partnership with a larger, more official body.
72
18 years
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Benson Tidy Group
A group of local people concerned about our local village and are prepared to assist in tackling cleaning and tidy jobs that are not getting done by the local councils. We work is collaboration with our parish council.
10
8 years
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Friends Key Hill Cemetery & Warstone Lane Cemetery
Litter picks are held once a month for both Key Hill Cemetery & Warstone Lane Cemetery Est 2004 in Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, Hockley. Free places to book are via the website Eventbrite . Places are limited . Check out our new Hi Vis Vests our litter pickers are wearing , rocking the colour purple. You can book a place to volunteer or to book our guided tours the second Sunday of the month of both cemeteries here via website Eventbrite. The Friends of Key Hill Cemetery & Warstone Lane Cemetery are the only group to care for the cemeteries & raise funds for grave restoration
11
3 years
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Sandbach Clean Team
The group now has over 100 members. It organises monthly litter picks, and members also litter pick in their own local areas.

An important part of our work is with young people. We have met with Junior schools, Brownies and Cubs, and talked about the reduction of litter and recycling.

We liaise with other environmental groups in the area, particularly those with similar aims to ours and we work closely with the local Borough Council.

We have a website:- www.sandbach-cleanteam.co.uk

2505
20 years
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Newburgh Litter Pickers
Newburgh village
0
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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Triton Road cycle picker
I joined my friend Ryan's group Clean Lincoln Everywhere And Now and we picked the virge and copse along am 800m stretch of Triton Rd in Lincoln. Afterwards I decided to attempt to manage it by litter picking, by bike, on my daily commute to and from work. I also join in with the Sincil Bank River Care team, when I can. I enjoy working in and on the water.
0
55 years
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Hunslet Carr Wombles
This is a rolling monthly litter picks of different Hunslet Carr neighbourhoods. The Leeds City Council Litter Picking Kit will be supplied, so all you need to do is bring yourself.
0
4 years
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Thornby Pickers
At the moment I do some Ad-hoc litter clearance in Thornby and lend support to other intitatives such as CPRE Northants litter picks. I also support the Stop the Drop campaign and any action they take.
65
17 years
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Marske Litter Action
Local people working to keep Marske-by-the-sea litter free. We organise regular beach clean ups and litter picking around our area. We have cabinets where you can borrow equipment to do your own litter pick at a time that suits you. Get in touch or join us at our next event if you want to help out! Events are advertised on our Facebook page - just search for Marske Litter Action or email us at marskelitteraction@hotmail.com
1878
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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