March sees the Great British Spring Clean, for which The Duckworth Worcestershire Trust is organising community litter picks. Also, Keep Britain Tidy have just launched a tidy app, called 'Love Clean Streets', so you can report litter direct to your local authority.
Plus spring is the time to litter pick before the hedges thicken up. All these things together mean that this month is the perfect month to think about LITTER.
Why is litter a problem?
The simple answer is that litter is unsightly. This is bad enough in urban spaces, but is much worse in the countryside or on beaches. Perhaps most importantly, though, litter can endanger wildlife, most of all in rivers and oceans – as Keep Britain Tidy Ambassador Steve Backshall explains in this video ...
So, what is The Great British Spring Clean?
The Great British Spring Clean aims to bring together volunteers from across the UK to clear up litter from cities, towns, villages, the countryside and the coastline. It was started by Melissa Murdoch in 2015, and in its first year, 2016, a quarter of a million volunteers got involved.
This second year, the aim is to double the number of volunteers, and collect even more rubbish. To get involved, you'll need to register, at the Spring Clean website.
And, as you'll see from the poster displayed here, our parent organisation, the DWT, is organising a local event, at Perry Wood. Why not come and help? But remember, litter is a year-round problem, and the best thing you can do is to make sure litter is binned in the first place.
Useful links ...
A few links if you want to find out more ...
• How long various things take to decompose (or 'degrade').
• Information about the 'ocean garbage patches' – huge collections of plastic items in the ocean gyres – and one very ambitious attempt to clean them up.
• And here's a great video with Bill Bryson showing us the increasing litter problem in our own great country: