If We All Picked up One Piece of Litter a Day.....

What can we do about litter? It spoils our streets and countryside and ends up being washed out to sea, polluting our oceans. It frustrates and saddens many of us, and no one seems to know what to do about it. As soon as it is cleared up it reappears in a never-ending cycle. So here’s an idea: how about launching a positive-spirited national network to link together people who undertake to pick up just one piece of litter every time they go out.

So went a letter published in The Guardian last month.

New research by Keep Britain Tidy has found that the presence of large, brightly-coloured items of litter – crisp packets, bottles, chicken boxes and sandwich boxes – act as a ‘beacon’, giving others permission to drop their rubbish and that keeping areas free from these ‘beacons of litter’ reduces overall littering. 

In an experiment in two areas, one of which was Stoke Newington, Keep Britain Tidy found that by removing these 'beacons' littering was cut by 50% (see attached journal article for more). This suggest that we can all do our bit and make an impact!

Happy-clappy nonsense or a good idea in the making?