Action Against Litter – Newsletter Issue 6

A round up of Action Against Litter activity in 2022

• We collected over 1,800 tonnes of litter
• The 1100 litre beach side bins were emptied approximately 20,000 times in July and August alone
• Smaller street bins were emptied 15,000 times
• Council staff completed 7,000 hours of litter picking on our eight most visited beaches
• Over 10,000 bags were taken from 38 dog/litter stations
• We installed seven cigarette ballot bins
• We launched the Kent Air Pollution teacher resource
• Young learners completed more than 60 AQA short course certificates in littering
• We delivered workshops in local schools
• Hundreds of individuals and groups registered for litter picks

Thanet Rotary Club installed recycling bins

This year we worked in partnership with Rotary Clubs in Thanet and Southern Water to provide 12 new 360-litre recycling bins along the main bathing beach promenades across the district.

School children from Garlinge, Newington and Haddon Dene schools took part in a competition to design the illustrations and the winning designs were featured on the bins.

Following the installation of the recycling stations, three tonnes of plastic, glass and metal waste was recycled from the first collection, and a further 20 extra recycling bins have now been installed in our high streets and town centres.

Big Green Week September 2022 – three days of activity

To celebrate Big Green Week 2022, we invited residents to events in Margate, Broadstairs and Ramsgate.

There were fun and engaging eco activities for children and adults throughout the day starting with a litter pick, a children’s tree walk, leaf rubbing/clay art activities and a bring your own plastic free picnic, to encourage people to think about how much plastic they use each day to day. The day finished with a workshop on how to make draft excluders from old clothes.

Alongside the activities, there were opportunities for residents to meet and talk to our Climate Change Officer and view our new Net Zero (Climate Change) Strategy. Our Home Energy Officer was on hand to give advice, alongside our Community Tree Planting Co-ordinator and Education and Birdwise officers as well as representatives from Monkton Nature Reserve and our local Police team.

Here are some of the photographs taken over the three days in Ramsgate, Margate and Broadstairs.

Our Community Tree Planting Co-ordinator organised planting days, with litter picks at each event

In October, we held three mini woodland creation days, engaging more than 250 children in planting 1,000 young trees. The events were held at three sites starting with Newington Green, Warre Recreation Ground then Nethercourt Park. Staff cleared the areas of litter before planting to make the area safe, leading by example as some of the children were learning a module entitled ‘Looking after your local area’.

During the year, we held a series of tree planting events for adults, and planted 85 trees of around two metres or more in height. We conducted litter picks during breaks in the planting, supporting the improvements to the parks.

We have 15 more large trees to plant in Warre recreation ground, which will make a total of 100 standard trees and 1,000 young trees planted from March 2022 to March 2023.

Well done and thank you to everyone that took part and planted a tree!