Cotswold Litter Heroes is an ongoing project to set up a volunteer litter picking scheme covering the whole of the Cotswolds.
Objectives
The objectives of the scheme are to:
make the Cotswolds the most litter free rural area in the country;
recruit 500 volunteers from across the region to do some litter picking on a regular basis;
promote a culture where picking up litter is seen as normal behaviour
reduce littering by keeping areas clean through regular picking;
About the problem
If you have read the rest of the site, you'll know what the problems are, but here's a quick summary:
The Cotswolds are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty but it is almost impossible to find a beauty spot, view point, mile of winding lane, parking spot or footpath, that isn't blighted by litter.
While Local Authorities undertake litter picking on some main roads, little is done about litter on rural lanes.
Local Authorities will struggle to fund any significant increase in litter picking activity.
To prevent littering it is important to keep areas clean, this requires regular, light litter picking. At present, most volunteer activity is focused on infrequent, intensive “spring cleans
Picking up litter is considered socially unacceptable activity, something normal people don’t do.
What stops people picking up litter
Most people feel stongly about litter, but only a small minority will actually pick any up. Some of the factors stopping people picking up litter include:
Fear of looking stupid - "nobody else picks it up, so I'm not going to stick my neck out"
Concern about getting rid of the rubbish - "no space in my wheelie bin"
Not having the right equipment, e.g. gloves, litter picker and sacks
A perception that it is a dirty and unpleasant activity (it's not)
To get more people litter picking we need to remove these hurdles.
The concept
The idea of Cotswold Litter Heroes is to promote litter picking as a safe, enjoyable activity and make it really easy for people to go out and do some litter picking.
People who are prepared to do some litter picking, become "Cotswold Litter Heroes" by registering with the scheme, by phone or via a website.
Each Hero will be issued with free protective gloves, a litter-picker, some refuse sacks and a Hi-Vis waistcoat
Heroes will be able to go to the website and using an interactive map. "adopt" a location anywhere in the Cotswolds that they are willing to litter pick on a regular basis
Heroes will also be able to use the website to report flytipping and large volumes of litter to the appropriate Local Authority
Local Authorities commit to take any rubbish in Litter Heroes sack in addition to Heroes' domestic refuse, and to clear promptly any heavy littering and flytipping reported by Heroes.
Heroes will be covered by Public Liability and Personal Injury insurance while litter picking
One of the aims of the scheme is to help Litter Heroes feel they are part of a wider community of litterpickers.
