Litter Award given to school litter pickers!

Wiltshire Council’s Don’t Mess With Wiltshire campaign focuses on reducing litter in towns and parishes, plus litter hotspots around the county such as resorts and on main roads including the A36 and A303.

In total, 51 schools across the county signed up to the Great Big School Clean and each organized their students to take part in litter picking in their local area. Eight winning schools were selected to receive a novelty basket once the events took place. All participating schools received a school litter pick-up kit containing litter, vests and gloves for children.

Cllr Nick Holder, Cabinet Member for Highways, visited one of the participating schools, along with idverde representatives, to thank the children involved and present them with their new playpen. Around 200 pupils from Bishops Cannings CofE Primary School took part in the collections, donating over 100 hours of time and between them collected 25 bags of rubbish from the area.

Cllr Holder said: I would like to thank all the schools who supported this campaign and donated lesson time or breaks and organized litter picks in their local areas. The amount of litter collected and the number of hours that have been donated to this cause is fantastic, not just from the schools but also from the involvement of local community groups – we thank them too.

Litter is not only a blight on Wiltshire’s beautiful landscapes, it can also be harmful to wildlife and the environment, and of course it would be better if the litter wasn’t there to collect it in the first place.

Encouraging behavior change and reducing incidents of littering are key priorities for us, with the Don’t Mess with Wiltshire campaign also being about educating the public to dispose of litter responsibly.

If we can get more people to help us fight litter, we can spend the money we spend on litter cleaning, currently around £2 million a year, on other essential services.

We will continue to carry out regular litter picks on the roads and kerbs of the county, but we want to continue to encourage others who want to get involved and do their part to improve their local landscapes to take part in or organize community litter collections.

There are a number of community litter collection groups in Wiltshire who together with the schools involved in the Great Big School Clean have collectively collected over 9,860kg of litter since February 2023. This equates to around 1,650 bags of litter collected by volunteers, who have donated approximately 1,100 hours to help the campaign.

Litter picking could take place as part of a daily walk or as part of a larger community clean-up group. Anyone wanting information or assistance with community litter picking should contact the Streetscene Community Engagement Manager at [email protected] (opens a new window)

To report litter in Wiltshire, people can go to www.wiltshire.gov.uk/mywilts