Well it was a rainy afternoon but a hugely productive one! We met and finished at the Youth Centre, and had a welcome cup of tea in there at the end, in the warm! Thank you to the 32 people who planet cleaned on the day, plus the Arboretum who removed hundreds of old plastic tree guards from the trees above Waitrose, and EDDC who are organising some cleans along the local busy roads over the next few months. Thanks also to Quinn from Young Devon who was an enormous help all afternoon and to Jonny from EDDC for picking up the haul.
I’m afraid, due to the driving rain for the second half, there aren’t many photographs, so you will have to put up with me describing what we did. Several of the warriors worked their way round the back of the basketball court, and several more did the pathway behind the youth centre. Some of us also went down to Lidl and did the car park and the riverside on Lidl’s side (I think it is technically their responsibility so it would be nice for them to get some professionals in to do the bank regularly, where we can’t reach, or even better put some netting around the car park?)
Next we did the other side of the river, behind the skate park, which was a right old mess. So many plastic bottles – how do we get the petrol station to sell only tins? Or do we wait patiently for the Deposit Recycling Scheme in 2025?
Finds this time – no shoes unfortunately, but plenty of bottles, polystyrene, plastic matting, bases of traffic cones, barbecues, lots of old bags from the roots of the trees next to the driver which had been driving us all mad, plus all the rubbish that had been on the other side of the bridge. Oh and a fair few vapes.
This is the haul:
and these are the ridiculous photos that my lovely friend Cheryl took while I was bridge-cleaning…
Thanks again to all for what actually was a very enjoyable few hours 💚