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.

 

The Green Army

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The Green Army has been founded to tackle litter along rural routes around the villages of Harrold, Odell and Carlton in Bedfordshire. Roadside verges leading in and out of these villages will be targeted in a bid to keep our surrounding countryside clean and beautiful, and to provide safe habitats for local wildlife. Any public footpaths or bridleways will also be freed of litter as the need arises. If you are a local resident interested in joining this group please get in touch!

The Green Army
112

Bags collected so far

2

Members

7

Years

11

Total number of events

upcoming Events

No upcoming events

past Events

New year 2020 litterpick

Meet at Harrold Country Park in car park near to cafe. 1pm. Clearing litter from here overHarrold Bridge and onto Pavenham Road as far as bridleway on right hand side. Return to Harrold country park. ...

The Turvey Road Re-do!

Covering the Turvey Rd Event meet at Carlton usual place 1.30pm for no more than 2 hours duration. Six litter pickers tackled the Turvey Road yesterday for which we had lovely cool weather just right ...

Forty Foot Lane

Clearing litter from Forty Foot Lane byway. Meet 1pm car park to byway off Dungee Road, Odell. Seven volunteers cleared heaps of accumulated litter from the byway car park and the Byway itself. It ...

Turvey Road litter pick

Meet 1pm by Carlton war memorial garden. 2 hour event clearing litter from Turvey Road. Equipment provided. If interested please email the event coordinator Renee Allen in advance. Lovely spring like...

New Year Litter Pick

The next litter pick will be held from mid to late January depending on weather and members' availability. The Turvey Road and School Lane in Carlton are the likely areas to be litter picked. Will ...

A Rambling litter pick

1pm meeting in Harrold Country Park car park area, Harrold. A 3.5 mile circular walk picking any litter along the way. Attended by 5 members, walking through Country Park, up the bridleway behind The...

CPRE bottle deposit scheme support pick

1.30pm meeting in Carlton village (exact location in village to be confirmed). An Approx. Two hour litter picking event clearing along one of the rural roads our from this village. Collected litter wi...

The Booze Run clearup

So called because I have it on good authority that a few 'certain types' of people frequent this route depositing their empties along the way! Do not fear though this is a popular and very pretty wal...

Dungee Road cleanup

This event will clear litter from vergeside along the approach road into Little Odell. We will be meeting at 1.45pm in the car park of the Forty Foot Lane Byway in Little Odell for a short briefing be...

Carlton to Turvey road

Meet at 1.45pm war memorial gardens in Carlton. Event to last approx. 1.5 to 2 hours. Litter to be collected from verges and hedgerows along this road, starting from Carlton and returning in opposite...

Bridleway clear up - Hay Lane, Kempston Rural

I cleared the entranceway and a bridleway path today at the top of Hay Lane in Kempston Rural. In just a short distance I had filled a full sack of litter and also found 5 wine bottles! During a lo...

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.

Debenhamlitterpickers
This group is in a picturesque Suffolk village, with excellent contractors coming here frequently collecting 4 binfuls of litter a week - but still the litter comes!! Time for a Spring clean and community action!
217
10 years
View
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
View
Fringe dwellers
Cleaning up our local area and implementing measures to prevent further littering / fly tipping.
96
9 years
View
CID Clean-up Team
Helping to keep litter in check in Richmond Hill, Leeds. We will support as many local litter picks as possible but also national events such as The Great British Spring Clean and Love Parks Week, or even global ones like World Rivers Day and World Cleanup Day. If you’d like to get involved or find out more please message the co-ordinators with a way we can contact you. The Climate Innovation District (CID) is a modern development of low carbon housing on the banks of the river Aire in Leeds.
24
4 years
View
Bells Yew Green Clean Team
Tidy our community while building our community!
0
6 years
View
Newbiggin Litter Pickers
A community based group passionate about reducing the litter in Newbiggin for the benefit of marine and wildlife, residents and visitors.
14
7 years
View
Tidy Tavi
Tidy Tavi volunteers meet on the first Saturday each month to pick up litter from the streets and public spaces of the lovely town of Tavistock in Devon. We have been operating since October 2012 and attendance varies from about 18-30 local residents. We do not operate any sort of membership scheme or register. Volunteers simply come along when they can spare some time. This is important because we do not want anyone to feel committed to join in every month, or even for the full 2 hours. We work from 10 AM to midday and frequently fill 30-40 sacks of rubbish that are disposed of by West Devon District Council. Litter pickers, high visibility jackets, rubbish bags and hoops are provided. The group is supported by many local businesses including Tesco, who send some of their staff to help, and the Meadowlands Leisure Centre, where the group meets, who store our equipment for us. Several cafés in Tavistock supply free teas and coffees to volunteers. Critical support is also provided by our local newspaper, the Tavistock Times Gazette, who publish reports and print recruiting posters for the group.
1420
13 years
View
Winsford Community Cleanup
We aim to increase social responsibility within the town. We hope that by showing pride in the town it will inspire other people and residents to take ownership of the area in which they live. We are sick of fly tipping and litter and hope to make a positive impact on the town by becoming more action orientated!
2
14 years
View
RAYS (Reading Adopt Your Street)
RAYS has been funded by a grant from TESCO to provide equipment and by Reading Borough Council (RBC) to provide equipment storage, promotion of the RAYS project, support in building groups and insurance for RAYS volunteers. The RAYS project covers the whole of the RBC area and will support groups, individuals and schools/uniformed groups to adopt a part of Reading.
0
8 years
View
Keep Fleet Tidy
I started picking litter in the Fleet area in December 2017 So far I have collected 110 bags. Sole trader at present but would appreciate company.
110
7 years
View

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