Keep Britain Tidy and Eco Schools have teamed together to start their next big clean – ‘Clean for the Queen’ in 2016.
The ‘Clean for the Queen’ campaigned was launched in September’s issue of the Country Life magazine, outlining the aim to tidy and clean up the UK in time for the Queen’s 90th Birthday.
What’s the Plan?
The campaign is hoped to bring together an army of volunteers across the UK who will clean up their local areas over the next 9 months. There will also be a dedicated clean up weekend on the 4-6th March 2016 where everyone involved will be asked to take to the streets and clean up our much loved country.
The campaign has already received great support from well-known national organisations such as the WI and the RSPB and individual ambassadors.
Whether you are an individual, friend or community group, school, business, council or housing association all are welcome to take part!
To take part in ‘Clean for the Queen’ please register here.
Why is ‘Clean for the Queen’ needed?
So many of us love our country and love the place we live, yet occasionally it can be spoilt by those who drop or dispose of their rubbish in public places. The Clean for the Queen campaign will provide an opportunity for those who wouldn’t normally take part in such a scheme to take up their litter picker and bin bag and clean up their local area! It’s hoped that tidying our streets and public areas will help to protect our wildlife and improve quality of life in the area – leaving a lasting legacy for all.
How much rubbish on our streets is there?
Shockingly there is about 2.25 million pieces of litter dropped on the streets of the UK every day! This was surprising for me to find out. I thought my local area didn’t really suffer too much from littering. The streets are often clean with only a few unwanted articles in the gutters. However, I think I may now know why! It wasn’t until last weekend I saw my own local area’s litter picking group cleaning up the streets of my community. They obviously do such a good job and more often than not it goes without notice or recognition. So, perhaps the Clean for Queen Campaign will also bring some recognition for those who work hard throughout the year to keep our communities clean and pleasant in their spare time.
If every adult in the UK picked up at least one piece of litter a day for the next nine months then that would be more than 50 million pieces of rubbish correctly disposed of.
- 30 million tonnes of rubbish are collected from England’s streets each year. Did you know that that’s enough to fill Wembley Stadium four times over!
- The Highways Agency work hard to clear about 180,000 sacks of rubbish from our motorways and A roads
- The RSPCA receives 7,000 calls a year about animals who have been injured by litter
- In, 2013 8.3 billion single-use plastic bags were handed out in the UK. As of the 5th of this month there is now a 5p charge for single-use plastic bags. The initiative that has been implemented in Wales for a number of years now has seen a massive 70% reduction in the use of plastic bags since it was introduced.
- It is a really sad fact that the amount of litter on UK beaches has almost doubled over the past 15 years.
What about if my rubbish is biodegradable?
You may think that dropping fruit peel isn’t so bad for the environment – after all it’s part of nature. But it can actually take up to 2 years for orange peel or banana skin to bio-degrade. Here is how long it takes for other popular forms of litter to bio-degrade.
- A paper bag takes up to one month
- Plastic bag up to 10-20 years
- Cigarette butt up to 12 years
- Plastic bottle up to 450 years
- Glass bottles and chewing gum are NOT bio-degradable
How much does cleaning up cost?
Cleaning the streets of the UK is a costly affair. It can stretch the budgets of local councils, so keeping our streets clean relies heavily on volunteers and campaigns like ‘Clean for the Queen’.
- Taxpayers are already paying £1 billion every year to tackle the litter plight
- Many council budgets are stretched by the £60,000 that it costs to clear a town centre of chewing gum – taking money away from other much needed local resources
- Fly-tipping costs the Network Rail more than £2.3 million each year