The Outdoor Guide have once again teamed up with Keep Britain Tidy for the annual Litter Hero Campaign, an initiative which aims to get people outside to clear up our much loved greenspaces.

Keep Britain Tidy is the country’s leading anti-litter charity. They are the experts on litter, fly-tipping and dog fouling. They also run the country’s awards programmes for parks and beaches and the biggest environmental education programme in schools. They have made it their mission to encourage people to keep parks and beaches tidy, as well as reduce the amount of waste produced in the first place.

Their work has been even more important in the Covid-era, the spike in searches for ‘when will parks reopen’ tells the story –  we all really missed parks!

Keep Britain Tidy Line Graph

According to Keep Britain Tidy’s research, littering costs the tax payer almost 1 Billion pounds per year to clear up. That’s a cost that we could do without in the current climate.

We have many more important things that money could be going towards. Things like the NHS, schools, hard-hit communities and people who’ve lost jobs and incomes due to the virus, so let’s do our bit to reduce the amount of money which needs to be spent on tidying up rubbish.

There are bins in most parks, and even if there aren’t there are bins at home. If you’re reading this it’s likely you already know all this, it’s those who aren’t aware or don’t care who cause the majority of the rubbish.

Whilst Keep Britain Tidy take on the issues of awareness, there is something we can do to help solve the more immediate problem – the litter in our parks and areas of natural beauty. You can become a Litter Hero.

A Litter Hero is a member of the public who goes out in their local area and clears up litter. It’s that simple. All you need is a resuable litter bag, peg and hand sanitiser to make sure you stay safe whilst litter picking.

The litter bags are light weight and can be washed if needed, so whilst you’re taking a break from your laptop, taking the dog for a walk or just getting out of the house for some fresh air, take along your litter bag and become a Litter Hero.

Blog Author: By Eleanor Gunn