SusWoT have just finished their most ambitious litter picking exercise ever. For the last four weekends, on Saturday and Sunday they have organised eight litter picks. The popularity of Litter Picking has grown and by the end SusWoT barely had enough equipment to cope with all the litter pickers who turned up.
Steve Tainton taking a rest of a chair found during litter pick 4. It was an exciting litter pick with the police involve regarding one piece of litter.
In all 153 sacks of rubbish were collected and 75 people took part.
For the final two litter picks that started by the Stoke Lane Shops there were more than 20 people who came along to help each time. Afterwards a dozen weary pickers celebrated their achievement over lunch in the Dirty Duck.
The first SusWoT Westbury Spring Clean was a great success. 16 people took part and spent a couple of hours litter picking the centre of the village. They collected about 20 bags of rubbish.
If you want to help Spring Clean Westbury there are 7 more litter picks you can help with. All picks start at 10 and aim to finish at 12 noon. Email suswot2050@gmail.com if you are interested. All equipment is provided.
About 16 SusWoT and Friend’s of Blaise litter pickers turned up at the entrance to Trimside of the Doncaster Road, opposite Badock’s Wood in Southmead to clear that section of the Trym.
The first challange was the large grate that stopped large debris flowing down the Trym, it was so blocked it stopped the water too. Dawn and Vanessa cleared a hole and the water started flowing. The Trym started to flow. Latter George finished the job to produce a beautiful cleared grate with lovely clear water flowing under Doncaster Road into Badock’s Wood.
The Trym itself was full of the usual waste. There were TVs, lots of metal cans, all sorts of plastic items, a vacuum cleaner, pogo stick and masses more. Unfortunately even 16 people working for a couple of hours were unable to get all the rubbbish and about a quarter of the river still needs to be cleaned.
Anthea from Team Southmead brought cakes. As part of the equipment we have there is hand cleaner always available so people were able to eat the cakes, and very good they were too. The dog is Erin, the humans (from the dog) Robert, Liz, Anthea. Ruth, Max, Pete and Alex. There were two piles of rubbish. Bristol Parks collected all the rubbish promptly on Monday morning.
It looks a lot better now!
But there is more to do. The pipe on the left above flows into the Trym and as you can see there is some pollution. This may be due to a misconnection. A misconnection is where a street drain has a sewage pipe from a house connected to it incorrectly. This may happen when a new toilet is added to a house and the plumber adds it to the nearest drain which unfortunately is a street drain and not a sewage drain, it is misconnected.
There were 13 SusWoT members cleaning up rubbish in Westbury on Sunday 25 November. They were divided into three groups and tackled the Fly-tipping in the woods by the Dingle near Grove Road, the fly-tipping in the woods above the Trym near Vintery Leys and in the nearby estate, and the alleyways and lanes off Canford Lane including all grass areas adjacent and the space by the enormous billboard in the village.
Rubbish collected from the woods near Grove Road, some residents thought we were fly tippers. But I think they are happy now.
In total about 36 sacks of rubbish were collected as well as clothes, tractor tyres, abandoned bikes, car parts, paint, lead acid batteries, full bottles of talc, garden waste, children’s toys, picnic tables, decorators waste and more.
SusWoT works with Bristol Waste who collect the rubbish and recycling SusWoT collect.
If you want to be part of the team trying to clean up Westbury please be in touch.
The weather was good on Sunday so a last go at cleaning the Trym took place. Next month it will be normal litter picking!
Ten people turned up to clear the Trym and 18 bags of rubbish were collected. But the triumph for the day was getting out the last motor bike. Congratulations to (L to R) Peter, Max, Pete and Andrew for their great work.
Liz with some of the rubbish collected on Sunday. Unfortunately this was not the stuff were were supposed to get! Apparently there is more recent stuff.