There is coverage in the Daily Mail today (28 May) of the launch of the Great British Spring Clean campaign, run by Keep Britain Tidy, which encourages people to clear litter from our streets, parks and beaches.
As part of the coverage, Environment Minister Rebecca Pow outlined the impact of litter on our environment over the past year, with our nation’s favourite walks, beauty spots and green spaces suffering from plastic bottles or food wrappers, and pointed to the importance of the Spring Clean in getting our environment back on track.
Minister Pow attended her local litter-pick in Taunton on Friday. The event was held alongside KFC, an official partner of the GBSC, which is announcing a number of litter commitments including internal training for all restaurant staff to highlight the environmental impact of litter.
Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:
“It is incredibly important for us all to think about how we can build back greener and protect the UK’s beautiful countryside and oceans for future generations.
“We are taking action to tackle litter at its source. We want to make tobacco companies more responsible for cigarette waste, and we are putting in place a deposit return scheme to ensure that billions more drinks bottles and cans are safely returned to shops and recycled.
“I am pleased to see big businesses like KFC doing their bit to tackle litter, helping us all to enjoy the environment we live in.”
The annual Great British Spring Clean event calls on communities to clean up their local area through local litter picking events. Last year, over 563,163 volunteers cleared the land of 4,308 tonnes of litter, the equivalent of the contents of 239,344 wheelie bins.
The campaign runs from 28 May through to 13 June and encourages anyone to sign up to local litter picking events through the Keep Britain Tidy website.
The Government is taking action to tackle litter at its source. We have already launched consultations on deposit return schemes for drinks containers, extended producer responsibility for packaging, and consistent recycling collections which will transform the way we deal with our rubbish. Our Deposit Return Scheme will see consumers incentivised to recycle their bottles and cans; every year, UK consumers go through around 14 billion plastic drinks bottles, nine billion drinks cans and five billion glass bottles, many of which are littered.
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1 comment
Comment by John W. Baxter posted on
We have a couple who are real heroes in my opinion who clear up all the rubbish dumped in our hedges by the uneducated of our enlightened society. We really are a sorry lot when compared with the way some people overseas look after their roadside litter, like the Hutterite colonies in Montana, who on horseback, litterpick their sponsored stretch of roadside with long pickers.......and what a treat to drive on their roads unlike the blighted trash covered road verges we have managed to create.