Who doesn’t like a good old Spring clean? Not many it would seem if the success of the Great British Spring Clean is anything to go by.
This national initiative from Keep Britain Tidy aims to motivate people across the nation to do their bit for the environment and for wildlife by helping get rid of litter. This year the organisation celebrated its 70th anniversary by getting willing and able citizens to pledge to remove 400,000 bags of litter from our neighbourhoods, highways and byways.
Futures staff, customers and community groups were on hand to do their bit when teams hit the streets across Northamptonshire and Derbyshire during our week of activity from 18 March. Safely armed with hi-vis vests, gloves, pickers and black bags we helped reach the national target by clearing more than 100 bags of waste from places where our customers live. Alongside the expected crisp packets, bottles and cigarette butts, our team also retrieved more unusual items including a toaster, an exhaust pipe and even an item we won’t mention by name but that you might expect to find down the darker side streets of Soho rather than in the grass verges of a leafy village! Thankfully our volunteers took it all in their stride with everything we collected finding its way into one of our waste collection trucks and on to safe disposal.
The national event wasn’t our only effort to clean up the nation this year. Parts of Daventry got a double dose of dirt disposal thanks to a community clean-up day together with several community partner organisations back in November. The event was organised by West Northamptonshire Council as part of an ongoing project to tackle littering and fly-tipping. Other partners taking part alongside Futures included volunteers from the Southbrook Community Centre, Northamptonshire Police, engineering firm Cummins and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Find out more about the Daventry clean-up day here and the Great British Spring Clean here.
