Are you a Waste Warrior? Rutland and Stamford Mercury launches its campaign to celebrate our litter-picking champions!
Today we are proud to launch a new Waste Warriors campaign.
Over the last few months we have featured several local champions who are giving up their time to rid our towns and villages of litter.
The Stamford Litter Pickers and Rutland Ploggers are just two of the groups which meet up to tackle grot spots in the area but we’re sure there are plenty of others whose efforts are going unnoticed.
Our new campaign aims to showcase their work in a bid to encourage everyone to take pride in our area and do their bit to keep it clean.
Neil McIvor, a volunteer litter picker from Stamford, is backing our campaign.
He picks up rubbish every morning while walking his dog and meets up with other volunteers every Saturday morning.
He said: “I’m out litter picking everyday. If I’m out walking the dog, I’m picking up litter. I just don’t like seeing it.
“I treat it as a treasure hunt and every time you go out, you find more treasure.
“You can’t be defeated when it keeps appearing. My attitude is to just keep going and keep picking it up.”
Neil and his fellow litter pickers share their efforts on the Facebook page The Pride of Stamford Litter Pickers.
A separate group also runs via Facebook and has just notched up its biggest success to date.
The Stamford Litter Pickers collected 300 bags of rubbish from the area behind Gwash Way Industrial Way over the last few weekends.
Group founder Kayleigh Nicolaou organised the clean up.
She said: “It was our biggest clean up to date - six hours across four weekends with over 300 bags worth of litter and countless trailers of large scale rubbish.
“It was an amazing effort from everyone involved.”
Brenda Jones, of Stephenson Way, Bourne, has been litter picking for years and would love to see other people get on board.
She said: “I despair when I see the state of our streets. Some days I can pick up three carrier bags of rubbish.
“I love this town even though I’m a Liverpudlian. I care about it and believe people should take pride in where they live.
“If only everyone would take responsibility for a little bit outside their house.”
Forty volunteers were also out in force in Deeping St James over the weekend to play their part in the Great British Spring Clean.
The Deepings Youth Group, parish council, Rotary Inner Wheel and Deeping Lions have all earned our Waste Warriors title.
This weekend youngsters from the 2nd Stamford Town Scouts will be out in force cleaning up the meadows and staff from Waitrose are also plannig a litter pick next week.
Staff from the Mercury will be joining in with some of the clean ups but we also want to hear what you’ve been doing to help the environment.
Mercury editor Kerry Coupe said: “I’m delighted to be launching our Waste Warriors campaign.
“We’re so lucky to live in such a beautiful area and we should all be grateful for the efforts people make to keep it that way. We’re looking forward to celebrating this in the coming weeks.”
Environmentally-concious children from English Martyrs School in Oakham have been inspired by Blue Planet to clamp down on single plastics use and keep their environment tidy.
The 137 children at the school are carrying out their Lent promises and one of them is considering their impact on the environment.
They have taken up litter picking around the school grounds, clamped down on single use plastics along with writing to Rutland MP Sir Alan Duncan about the issue.
They are also striving to recycle more.
Maddison, 10, head girl at English Martyrs, said: “It’s really fun to go litter picking and make a difference to our environment.
“We are also trying to recycle more and cut down on single plastics use.
“I watched Blue Planet and saw all the plastic and litter in the sea.”
Harvey, 10, head boy, added: “There’s so much rubbish and plastic in the ocean and we wanted to do something about it.”
William, 11, said: “Single use plastic is non-biodegradable and it will just stay around forever.
“A plastic bag is used for 12 minutes on average.”
Stamford has just been named by the Sunday Times as one of the best places to live in Britain in 2019. Check out the home page of our website for the full story.
