Buckinghamshire Council shortlisted for the Keep Britain Tidy Network Awards
Buckinghamshire Council’s entry for the Great British September Clean Award has been selected as a shortlisted finalist at the Keep Britain Tidy Network Awards 2021, which will take place virtually on 3 February. The entry was from the Southern Waste Team and focussed on the clean-up efforts of residents in the south of the county.
In response to government COVID-19 guidelines, Keep Britain Tidy postponed their Spring Clean campaign and it was relaunched as the September Clean 2020, which Buckinghamshire Council – along with local volunteer groups and residents – got actively involved with.
Due to the amount of people using Buckinghamshire’s parks and open spaces for exercise during lockdown, unfortunately there was a significant increase in the amount of litter being discarded by some of the visitors. This litter not only looked unsightly, but it also had the potential to damage the environment and be harmful to wildlife.
To help with this, 30 volunteer litter-picking groups took part in the September Clean 2020 across three areas in South Buckinghamshire. Some of these groups were local community or environmental groups, other helpers included town and parish councils.
In total, the council’s waste team delivered 235 litter pickers and 920 bags for litter pick events during the September clean. Almost 42% of groups taking part did not require litter pickers as they had them from previous events or had their own.
To make the collections COVID-secure, a new online form was developed where organisers could request contactless pick-up or delivery of equipment and request the waste to be collected after the event. Groups were also encouraged to keep the litter pickers for future events to minimize the amount of litter pickers being returned to the council. Any litter pickers that were returned were then kept in storage for at least 72 hours before being cleaned and distributed again.
Totals across Chiltern, Wycombe & South Bucks areas:
- Total volunteers: 458
- Total bags collected: 551
- Total hours spent litter picking by groups: 77
- Total person-hours spent litter picking during September clean: 1,034
Bill Chapple OBE, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said:
“I’m very pleased and proud that we’ve been shortlisted for the Keep Britain Tidy Network Awards 2021. We ran the campaign across Buckinghamshire but were particularly successful in southern areas.
“Our Southern Waste Team did a fantastic job of helping and supporting local groups and residents to litter pick in parks and open spaces during the September Clean 2020, and I look forward to the virtual awards ceremony in February.
“Hopefully, in the future, with more education to stop littering and the help of more communities coming together to assist us, we can all continue to enjoy clean and safe parks and open spaces in Buckinghamshire.”
Further information on Keep Britain Tidy Network Awards 2021 can be found here: www.keepbritaintidy.org/network-conference-awards/awards
