One of the biggest contributors of litter is people throwing rubbish from moving vehicles. We see this in the extreme on major motorways, but the problem is everywhere and on busy roads is it unsafe to regularly clear it up.
Did you know that local councils have to close the motorway to clean it? In total, removing litter from motorways is estimated to cost £6m every year, with an average of 111 bin bags collected from each mile of motorway.
There is a small stretch of road in Abinger Hammer which is heavily littered by passing traffic and we tackled this area in April 2018.
Getting volunteers was surprisingly easy. As it turns out, lots of people in the community are annoyed by the sight of litter and are only too happy to help clean up!
We put up posters, circulated a post on local Facebook pages (buy and sell, mother and parenting groups etc.) and advertised in the local Parish magazine. In total 15 people turned out to help.
The council provided all the equipment we needed, bags, litter pickers, gloves and high-vis vests and we arranged for them to collected all the filled bags from a central collection point the following week.
Two hours of litter picking by our dedicated community resulted in all of this litter being collected.
We also took the opportunity to clear a stretch of the pathway (main image) which had become covered by leaf litter and mud. Lots of work, but well worth the effort.
Are bothered by the amount of litter you see in your home town? If you are feeling inspired to do something about it, please get in touch.
To see how we have helped clear litter from other locations, see our other articles in The Journal.
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