Rubbish Roundup 17th February

Rubbish Roundup 17th February

Rubbish Roundup 17th February

A report published by the non-profit anti-litter organisation Plastic Patrol has found that people in Oxford are among the most avid litter pickers in the country.

London and Reading also top the list of the top litter picking locations, according to data uploaded by residents to the Plastic Patrol app. Over a period of 9 months, over 110,000 pieces of litter were recorded and over 64,000 were categorised according to type or brand. There is also a ‘litter map’ which shows trends in the amount and type of litter that is found. This data is then used by Plastic Patrol to determine which areas desperately need clean ups.

Oxford City Council supports the clean up groups by supplying volunteers with rubbish sacks and removing any rubbish that has been collected.

If you live in the Oxford area, OxClean, another of the city’s anti-litter non-profit groups, is holding its 2020 Spring Clean from Friday 28th February to Sunday 1st March. Head over to their website to register for an event and do your bit.

 

Now a sad story from Romney Marsh in Kent. Small animals are getting stuck in discarded litter and are being left to die a painful death.

Local anti-littering campaigner Eric Brown posted some shocking images of animals trapped in discarded bottles on the Litter Picking Watch Romney Marsh group's Facebook page. He hopes that the images will make people think twice before dropping litter.

Along with the images, the man posted a caption, explaining that the animals get inside of litter like bottles then starve or suffocate after hours and even sometimes days of suffering.

Mr. Brown is a Keep Britain Tidy Litter Heroes Ambassador and he says that he finds dead animals regularly on litter picks that have drowned in plastic bottles, crisp packets and other containers when they’ve gone in for a drink after it’s been raining.

The animal charity PETA has issued further advice on how to stop animals suffering because of litter, including:

- disposing of fishing lines and hooks properly so they don’t trap birds.

- never throwing gum on the ground as this can get matted in animals’ fur.

- crushing metal cans so that sharp edges don’t injure animals.

 

Paw Friendship

 

Staying with litter injuring animals, a woman in Cheltenham has spoken of the horrifying injury that her dog sustained on a discarded piece of sharp metal in the town’s Benhall park. She says she let her dog off the lead then when she called him back, she noticed he was limping and she could see blood pouring down the front of his leg. A vet told her that it was the worst injury he had seen and that the pet had come pretty close to having to have his foot amputated.

Since her pet’s injury, the women has reached out to a local litter picking group called the 'Cheltenham Litter Picksies'. She joined one of their litter picks and one is being planned for the area in which she lives. The woman said that she wants to join in with as many clean ups as she can because she would hate to see the same thing happen to someone else’s pet.

A youth group in Northampton carried out a one-hour long litter pick and collected a staggering 15 bags of rubbish. Among their haul, the youngsters, aged between 8 and 11, found nappies, a toilet brush, and deodorant cans in the Blackthorn area of the town.

The leader of the group said that the litter pick was carried out to raise funds for group activities and help their local community. The local council provided litter pickers to the group, who scoured alleyways, parks, and bushes for any litter they could find.

 

A man from Portadown in Northern Ireland has spent the last 7 months scouring the River Bann for litter in his Kayak. Jon Medlow first went out on to the water in August 2019 and was shocked at the amount of litter he saw. He then started to pick litter out of the water and since he started, he has collected almost 9,000 bottles, over 255 footballs, and around 67 bin bags of general rubbish.

Due to the huge amount of waste, he had to buy a dinghy to store what he collects, which he tows behind the kayak.

He contacted Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Council and swiftly became part of their Adopt-a-Street scheme. Now he is part of the scheme, the council provides him with bin bags and removes the waste he has collected.