A Deal Litter Diary #23 May 2021

One of my fellow pickers at the Station/Sainsbury's is bemused to see me on hands & knees in the bushy area at the front of the supermarket. 

I assure him that where there's a hedge, there's litter, & it'll be small fragments in a state of decomposition. 

Sure enough, as I rake out the undergrowth with my gloved hands, I pull out 100s...no, more likely 1000s of tiny pieces, mainly plastic.

Do you notice this kind of fine litter when you cast your eyes downwards?

#PickDealClean

cleanupcrew@dealwithit.org.uk

A Deal Litter Diary - #21 March 2021 #PICKDEALCLEAN

I have a keen assistant at North Deal Community Park. 

A year 4 pupil who brought her gloves with her after school because she knew her small hands could reach under the slats of the wooden wall at the adventure playground. "There's all kinds of stuff down there!" 

At least the act of stuffing it where only junior pickers can reach means it won't be carried by the wind to join the swamp of plastic waste under the perimeter hedging that needed picking

#DealLitterDiary #PICKDealClean

CleanupCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

A Deal Litter diary - #17 - 5th February 2021

Can I walk to my friend's house WITHOUT litter picking on the way?

Impossible!

It's a collection route I don't ever frequent so I prepare for the worst. 

Halfway to my chums, I have to halt the pick - the bag is so heavy I'm struggling to carry it. 

I am granted permission to empty & photo on my friend's driveway, then I manage to stuff the dirty, smelly mass of muck in the litter bin at the top of Middle Deal Rd. 

Experience tells me most of the load had been blown from bins, for months, & ignored. 

Why can't I turn a blind eye as easily as others apparently do?

A Deal Litter Diary #16 - 26th January 2021

Today, the coldness & rain really do force me to cling to home territory. But no matter - there's still plenty to pick!

It's Tuesday, & there is a suspicious amount of "clean" litter. Recently dropped? By whom? We're in lockdown - there's been hardly anyone around, & the weather's keeping wanderers at home too. I picked these streets no longer than a week ago.... What has happened in the meantime?

I work it out. Can you?


Helen C
#DealLitterDiary
cleanupcrew@dealwithit.org.uk

A Deal Litter Diary #15 - 17th January 2021

It's been a while since I've been up Golf Road - weeks in fact. Cold, dark, windy rainy days really aren't conducive to the picking of litter!

Experience tells me that there has been some collecting during my absence - I am not picking weeks' worth of waste. Interestingly what I do find is a lot of very light, transparent items which become camouflaged & easily missed. 

A pitfall of this pastime is that you see all. Today's collection is a mucky mass of mainly plastic mess: this photo isn't one to linger on!

Helen C

#DealLitterDiary

CleanupCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

A Deal Litter Diary - #14 6th Jan 2021

 

 It's a sunny afternoon. I venture down  an alley unvisited before on foot - I have, rather naughtily already been through on my bike a week or two earlier. 

What a site I have missed when I pedalled at speed to avoid being caught! But surely, my misdemeanor pales into insignificance compared with this collection, fenced off from the path? There's a primary school nearby: no doubt children use that footpath. 

What kind of message about our environment is this mind-boggling collection giving our young people? 

A Deal Litter Diary - #13 - 2nd January 2021

 

Christmas. A storm. Veolia operatives almost overwhelmed with the stacks of recycling to be collected. 

Upending boxes at dusk, thousands of paper and plastic scraps float and land in the vegetation-clogged gutters of our town. 

The mashup of debris becomes part of the landscape. Do we even notice anymore, as we get our daily exercise, walking the sad streets? 

Where does the environment that we all care about so deeply start and finish? Does it include that mucky gutter? 

A Deal Litter Diary #12 24th November 2020

 

I'm learning a lot about plastic: its versatility, durability, pliability, transparency, lightness - how many more abstract nouns can I apply to this awesome material?!

Aldi's patriotic bag fails to burst as I cram in 100s of bits of litter - over 90% of which are plastic - picked from just some of North Deal's streets last week.

Just as I think it's impossible to squeeze another wafer-thin fragment of film into the Union Jack carrier, I manage to slide the sliver in.

Emptying it is almost an act of artistic beauty: the colours - bright, shiny, twinkly. The sound - crisp, crackly, tinkly. Seasons Greetings. There will be tons more to pick up after the 25th.

Helen C

CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

#DealLitterDiary

A Deal Litter Diary #11

How far does litter travel? 

 

The feather-light packaging that has dramatically reduced costs for manufacturers is swiftly transported considerable distances from the unlidded recycling boxes where it is put out for collection.

A moderate wind speed can transform our streets into an unseasonal snowstorm of wrappers, boxes, blister packs, receipts, scratch cards, transparent film...

But when I find a label from a pack of Indian sandstone in a gutter in Ethelbert Road, that really sets me thinking.

What is the true cost of convenience & desire?

Helen C

CleanupCrew@DealWithit.org.uk

#DealLitterDiary
 

A Deal Litter Diary #10 21st November 2020

 

Today, West St and Beach St leading on to The Marina provide the most "bends" - I find gloved hands to pick up are faster than the gadget, but bending down to gather

from the gutters doesn't make you many friends! 

West St car park has been the picnic spot for McDonald's munchers. 

Beach St & The Marina is mainly wind-blown scraps & builders' debris - so many plastic ties! 

I guess putting the bag of empties by the Angling Club is marginally better than leaving it on the beach. 

Pity those picnickers didn't make it as far as a bin. 

Helen C

CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

#DealLitterDiary

CleanUp Crew Deal Station Clean up 18th Nov 2020

Thank you to our clean up crew who did a mega litter and tidy up at and around Deal Rail Station today .... Helen, Nick, Patience, Bob and Steve.

Our next one will be 1.30pm to 3pm on 2nd Dec.

Please email cleanupcrew@dealwithit.org.uk as we need to manage numbers etc with LD2

Deal Litter Diary #9 19th Nov 2020

I decide to go to Stanhope Rd to post a card. Shall I wear my stinky gloves & take a dirty carrier bag - JUST IN CASE I see litter that needs picking?

Good decision. It's 0.3 miles to the Sorting Office - that's 482 metres. I collect nearly 200 items.

Surely I'm not the only person who notices so much litter on our town centre streets?

I may well be the only one with stinky gloves & a dirty carrier at the ready for my short strolls to the High Street.

Helen C

CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

#DealLitterDiary

Deal Litter Diary #8 - Nov 2020

 

The start of November, and there is no detectable let up in the amount of litter on the streets of our town. Polystyrene, one of the world's most widely-used plastics, is abundant - pale green nuggets blowing & bobbing in puddles and today, partially smashed sheets of it with a painted skin binding it, adding weight. It becomes a temporary material for a creepy creation. 

The strange beauty of dirty, household waste.

Inspired to pick up!

Helen c

CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

#DealLitter Diary

A Deal Litter Diary - #7 5th November 2020

I haven't fancied picking sopping, dirty litter from my regular patch in this weeks downpours, so, against form, I step out to the beach. At least the plastic brought in on the tide will be clean!

What? No waste? Have the beach cleans & the regular pickers stripped the shingle of its debris?

Well, it depends where and what you're looking for.

Embedded in each and every clump of vegetation are dozens - hundreds - of pickable pieces. I shouldn't sound excited. 

 

Seek and you will find. I recommend knee pads.

Helen c

CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

#DealLitter Diary

A Deal Litter Diary - #5 - 12th October 2020

My Sunday stroll doesn't take me far from home. I get to meet 2 locals: firstly a chap who is uneasy about litter picking, worried about what others may think. Don't be! People who stop to converse are kindred spirits in need of a nudge to join the battle to keep the gutters & pavements free of debris.

The second chats as I pick up 145 pieces of smashed hubcap - I had beaten him to it. The splatter of fragments had been irritating him so much he intended to bring out a broom. I saved this elderly gentleman the bother of clearing up neglect on his own doorstep.

#DealLitterDiary

Helen C

CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

A Deal Litter Diary -No4 12th October 2020

I get more toots and waves along the Ancient Highway now - regular users recognize me as they slow down to pass. "Get yourself a litter picker and gloves! Join my mucky club!" 


Bottles, cans, scratch cards, sweet wrappers, cigarette packets, wipes. Petrol station purchases. All freshly deposited in the verges, hedges and laybys. Swept out of footwells and tossed from windows. 


Fast food packaging and receipts: the yellow arches at Minster have featured more than once. 


How can the habit of ejecting waste from one's vehicle be broken?

A Deal Litter Diary - Two - 21th September 2020 #DealLitterDiary

 

It’s the start of the Autumn Term and afternoon picking is a shrewd move as I get seen by children from the local primary and they ask their parents what I’m doing. 

After 8 weeks of serious collecting, I experience a first. Someone sees me, takes a step back, bends down and picks up a piece of litter they’ve just spied amongst the weeds against a hedge. The item is proferred at a distance, and I meet it with my sack. I begin chatting with this environmentally-conscious 10-year old, who helps his Nan pick cans and other stuff when they are out together. He tells me it’s his birthday on Friday. 

I head for the primary school and as luck has it, meet the Year 6 teacher, so I can hope that this young lad gets recognized for the best bit of public spirit I’ve seen in a while. Let’s hope his generation re-kindles the attitude to KEEP BRITAIN TIDY and be more responsible for their surroundings.

#DealLitterDiary is written by Helen C 

email: CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk

Deal Litter Diary - One 10th September #DealLitterDiary

Welcome to my world! September 10th, 8 weeks in of my new outdoor hobby, and I scour the Ancient Highway – again. As time passes and the vegetation changes, I find bottles, cans, packets, wrappers that I’ve missed – they reveal themselves. Quick! Pick them up before the wind claims them and they get carried to the sea!

Today I’m on foot – my bike’s being serviced. Bags 1 and 3 get sorted at Chequers, and agreed by the Manager, I tip my load into their recycling bins. 

But bag 2, filled by the time I get to Restharrow, is an issue. It’s too heavy. I hitchhike – not for me, for the rubbish. Within minutes a van stops and my knight in shining armour happily takes the nearly overflowing bag onto his passenger seat. I tell him where to drop it off so I can sort its contents. When I get to North Deal Community Park, there it is at the entrance.

Every little helps.

#DealLitterDiary

Helen C

email: CleanUpCrew@dealwithit.org.uk