Paying tribute to litter initiatives in the community

Litter is a frustrating and expensive issue that blights many of our public spaces. As manufacturers of litter bins for both indoor and outdoor spaces, we are always interested to hear about schemes to tackle litter within public places. Two successful community initiatives which have achieved great results recently caught our eye.

Remember you can be a Womble

Some of you may be too young to remember the 1960s novels about fictional creatures called the Wombles who collected and recycled litter from Wimbledon Common. The books later became a popular BBC TV series in the 1970s, and the Womble characters are now synonymous in many people’s minds with litter picking.

The Leicestershire Litter Wombles is a group of litter picking volunteers who aim to make the county a cleaner and more pleasant place to live. Since they started counting the bags collected in January 2020, the group has gathered over 100,000 bags of litter.

Making positive changes

Bob Lee, who leads the group commented: “It is horrific, but we’re very proud of the changes we’re making. It’s not one person, there are hundreds of people involved in what we do. Some go out once a month, some go out every day. They’re giving up their time to clean up their communities and the environment. It’s not our rubbish, but it’s our county and our country. We just want to have our children and grandchildren grow up in an environment that is clean.”

The group also believes that it’s important to educate the next generation and the community in general. They have an education section which goes out into schools across the county to show the students the sorts of items they find and to help illustrate the importance of disposing of litter responsibly.

Taking it to the government

Furthermore, over 70 representatives from the group recently travelled to the Houses of Parliament in Westminster at the invitation of Harborough, Oadby and Wigston MP Neil O’Brien to discuss ways in which the government could do more to protect the environment. The group was able to share their experiences and suggest ways in which they felt more could be done through education and initiatives such as the deposit return scheme which is currently in the pipeline.

Love your environment

Over in the West Midlands, Birmingham City Council has developed a Love Your Environment scheme (LYE) which sees teams from different council departments join up with partner organisations to focus on hotspots where there are environmental issues such as litter or graffiti. The first stage of the project focused on six locations around the region and resulted in the collection of 750 bags of litter and the removal of 500 graffiti tags. All in all, an estimated 57 tonnes of waste was removed from the targeted streets.

All 69 council wards are set to be blitzed over the next few months as part of the LYE initiative. There are also plans to involve local Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) outside the city centre by holding LYE BID days.

Providing inspiration

Councillor Majid Mahmood, Cabinet Member for Environment at Birmingham City Council, commented: “Once residents, businesses and visitors can see what an area looks like when it is clean and green, we hope it will encourage everyone to support the activities of our own staff and play their part in maintaining the new standards established.”

A litter bin for every location and occasion

Amberol’s range of litter bins are suitable for a variety of locations, from busy city centres to roadside lay-bys. Many of our litter bins offer the facility to separate rubbish at source to improve recycling rates. They also come in different sizes to suit different spaces and can be used to create banks of bins.

For more information about the range of Amberol litter bins for indoor and outdoor spaces, call 01773 830 930 or email sales@amberol.co.uk. You can also request a free bespoke virtual demonstration of some of our bestselling bins.