AFTER hearing about the good work being undertaken by Droitwich Spa Litter Squad, Standard reporter Charlotte Albutt was up bright and early at 8am on Sunday morning, putting on a bright yellow high-vis jacket and joining six volunteers for their latest purge on the rubbish blighting the town’s roadsides.
Our reporter Charlotte Albutt on the litter pick.
Sunday’s target area was the A38 and the Berry Hill Estate.
With a bright blue bin bag in one hand and a litter picker in the other, a retired paramedic, a receptionist, an engineer and others united in their goal to keep Droitwich clean.
The Droitwich Spa Litter Squad was set up in 2018 after founder Clive Shearman was fed up with seeing the collection of multicoloured packets of rubbish down the A38 instead of green grass.
Since then, the group has accumulated more than 450 members on Facebook and jointly collected 3,000 bags of rubbish.
After speaking to Clive, I was intrigued to get an inside look at what the litter squad did.
The day began with a talk through the group’s safety guidelines, and Clive geared me up with my jacket, gloves and equipment, most of which is given to the group by Wychavon District Council.
“We are investing our time, but others certainly have to invest their money to make the area clean,” said Clive during the briefing.
“We are passionate about Droitwich looking tidy and people not driving through thinking it’s a mess like it was before we started doing this.”
As we began our walk, Clive spoke to me about some of the realities the group faced, adding hygiene was their number one priority, recalling how members had slipped on human excrement found on the embankments.
One of the tasks was sometimes fishing bags of human waste out of trees and bushes.
But he had spoken too soon.
Just in line with our eyesight was a large black bin bag hanging from a bush – full of human poo.
The bag was collected, placed in our blue waste bag, tied and placed on the side of the road, ready for Wychavon Council to collect later in the day.
In just two hours, we collected one Aldi shopping trolley, 20 bags of rubbish, 12 bottles of urine, eight bags of human excrement and a used nappy.
Some items picked up during collection days can be valuable. When that happens, the squad sells the item and donates all the proceeds to local charities.
While we stood with our cups of tea and biscuits at the end of the litter pick, the friendships made since the group began became clear.
The group often has to go down embankments to collect rubbish.
Sue Brazier, often called the ‘spiritual heart of the group’, said: “One of the best things is that we can all depend and rely on each other.”
Another volunteer, Sandra Pomeroy added everyone chipped in together and related this to her own experiences of litter picking.
“It is about having pride in Droitwich, and I will go that extra mile to make it that.
“The thing is, you cannot unsee litter.”
In the past, one of the group’s successes was making sure bins were aligned with the A38 to reduce the amount of rubbish they had to collect down embankments which could sometimes take them hours.
The new bins were installed by Wychavon Council in the hope of reducing littering down the A38.
Looking to the future, the group is not too optimistic the vast pollution of rubbish will ever disappear.
So each Sunday, they will continue to be armed with blue bin bags and litter pickers, spreading the message of how to dispose of rubbish correctly.
Most importantly, they will continue their pledge to make sure Droitwich stays clean.
Check out ‘The Droitwich Spa Litter Squad’ on Facebook for more on the group and to get involved.
