Dear Editor,
Your readers may like to know that Saturday 13th September was “World Litter Pick Day” and it coincided with the restart of Heighington Parish Litter pick Group’s (HPLG) monthly pick. This movement initiated by Estonia three years ago is now made up of about 30 countries. Volunteers regularly pick up litter and clean up beauty spots and last year over 10,000 tons of rubbish was collected.
Discarded rubbish is a major environment and health hazard around the world and we the HLPG have been doing our bit towards reducing the accumulation by our monthly picks on the verges of roads around Redworth, School Aycliffe and Heighington since 2005. This Saturday a dozen members, some are pictured, joined in the pick and in the two hours picked 28 bags of rubbish. A few of our Heighington WI members were unable join us as they were on duty manning the produce sale stalls in the village hall foyer.
We were not able to pick during July and August as the grass on the verges was rather tall and posed a hazard. As a result there was a lot more rubbish; cans, plastic bottles, fast food packaging and broken car parts to list just a few elements. The quantity was so great that we had to use “giant bags” for the collections.
We found fly tipping in several places. Some of the dumped rubbish was in black bags. I wonder if these were dumped on the roadside because the culprits found the local household waste collection centre closed and they were reluctant to take it back home. Also, we found many discarded banana skins on the road sides. I wonder if people chucking these out of their cars realise that banana skins take many decades to decompose and they are not eaten by any wild creatures in this country.
But what I find even more disgusting is the actions of some dog walkers. They take the trouble to bag the dog mess but then tie it onto low branches of the trees along station road footpath from Heighington to Newton Aycliffe. These bags are an eyesore, dangerous to people walking past and difficult to take down. I hope this rather unpleasant practice stops soon as darkness comes on earlier each day and walkers cannot see these bags.
Of course our life would be much more pleasant if people took their rubbish home to bin it. After all we have regular free refuse collections from every home. But miracles are unlikely to happen so the HPLG will continue its monthly litter pick on the second Saturday of each month. I hope you agree that our modest efforts make a difference in keeping our outdoor environment clean and tidy. We welcome more participants.
Our next pick will be on the 11th October 2014 between 10.00 and 12.00 noon. We have meeting points, where help and tools are handed out, at Heighington Village Hall, at 2 Main Road in Redworth and at Old Farm Cottage in School Aycliffe and at noon refreshments will be served in Heighington Village Hall.
Lou Bedocs