Great British Spring Clean 2021: Get involved in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire

The Great British Spring Clean 2021 is upon us – and with more outdoor time available to us following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions, keeping the nation tidy is more pressing than ever.

Between May 28 and June 13, volunteers from all over Britain will be getting their hands dirty to rid the streets of unwanted litter (figuratively speaking, hygiene is still super important!)

Now in its sixth year, the 2021 edition of the Keep Britain Tidy initiative will see volunteers pledging to trawl miles of British roads. The #MillionMileMission campaign is already racking up the pledges, with the ultimate goal of cleaning up one million miles of rubbish.

In 2019, the Great British Spring Clean saw volunteers collect almost a million bags of litter – that’s the equivalent of 16,666 eight-yard builders’ skips of rubbish.

If you put those skips back to back in a line, they would stretch from our new site in Cottenham all the way to Luton Airport!

So, with that in mind, the Great British Spring Clean 2021 needs all hands on deck to get our country looking spick and span.

Local Great British Spring Clean 2021 efforts

Looking to get involved in the Great British Spring Clean 2021? If you’d rather not save the world on your own, there are several litter-picking groups in the Suffolk and Cambridgeshire area (where SunSkips operates) that can always use an extra pair of hands.

On June 12, Ely Litter Pickers in Cambridge will be doing what they do best, keeping the streets clean for a special Great British Spring Clean event.

Litter-Free Felixstowe, which recently received a letter commending their efforts from David Attenborough himself, holds regular group litter picks, meeting at Felixstowe Pier.

Pickerel Project in Stowmarket is also on the lookout for new members to help clean up Gipping Valley River Path. They usually meet on the first Sunday of every month.

So, what are you waiting for? Local woman Elizabeth Harper has already started doing her bit and snapped a picture of her efforts to clean up the beach at Shingle Street in Suffolk.

Putting a stop to litter is more important now than ever

East Cambs Street Scene, a local waste and street cleansing service, told Ely Standard that as lockdown measures are easing, more and more rubbish is being discovered on our streets.

So, even if you don’t use the Great British Spring Clean 2021 as an opportunity to do your bit, you can still help keep the streets clean with a few basic changes in behaviour:

• Keep a litter bag in your car in case any passengers are tempted to dispose of their litter by throwing it out the window.
• If you struggle to find the time to get involved in a litter-picking session, just grab a few pieces of litter in your local area on your way home.
• When you put your bins and recycling out, make sure they’re secure to avoid loose pieces drifting into the road.
• If the nearest litter bin is full, don’t stuff more in and add to the problem; hold onto it until you reach the next empty one.
• Be vigilant when you take a picnic to the park or beach; even with the best intentions of taking your trash home, stray pieces can blow away in the wind and pose a danger to local wildlife.

Ready to commit a few miles for the Great British Spring Clean 2021? Visit the Keep Britain Tidy website and submit your pledge. And if you need a mini-skip to help out, you know where we are…