The 2007 ‘Clean up the World Weekend’ will be taking place this weekend (14-16 September). The initiative which is being held for the 15th year in a row aims to inspire communities across the world to “clean up, fix up and conserve their local environment“. Activities such as litter picking are extremely important in creating an healthy environment for people and wildlife - becuase not only does litter look ugly to us - it also affects wildlife, for example:
Small mammals such as hedgehogs can be attracted to left over food in plastic containers and cans, however they can get their head stuck and are unable to reverse due to their prickles - thus if left with no help they can die of starvation.
Animals such as foxes and gulls that scavenge for food amongst our rubbish can eat leftover food which is potentially harmful for their digestive system. By allowing them access to this waste, they are not learning how to naturally hunt for their own more nutritional food.
Floating plastic bags look like jelly fish to some marine life and if swallowed they can die.
Broken glass can cut the feet of mammals such foxes and badgers.
Discarded fishing lines can kill wetland and sea birds.
What you can do:
Reduce your waste. Consider the amount of packaging on the items that you purchase. Use your purchase power and don’t buy over packaged items.
Reuse your waste. Be creative and think about what else you could use that item for, for example many containers can be reused as storage. Other items which you think may be rubbish could be another person treasure –even glass jars which are useful if you make your own jams or chutneys (or give them to someone who does)
Recycle. If you can’t reuse the item then consider if you can recycle it, make sure that items such as cans are crushed before you put them in recycling bins.
Cut it up. When you have finished with your 6 pack of beer or fizzy drinks, cut up the holders so that animals can not get caught in them.
Take it home. If you are out in public and have consumed food products either put the rubbish in a provided bin or take it home with you instead.
Put a lid on it. Make sure that you properly close the lid on outdoor bins and even put them in a place where scavenging animals can not knock them over.
Clean it up. If you do visit a nature reserve or green space and see rubbish then why not help out and put it in a provided bin or suitable refuse bag. Please always use gloves or other suitable hand protection and if you suspect the rubbish is dangerous (broken glass, syringes, chemicals) do not touch it but report it immediatly to the correct authorities.
Community clean up. Get involved with a clean up the world day event. For GGG readers who live in Nottingham why don’t you help to clean up Attenborough Nature Reserve Saturday 15th September for more information please click here.
If you know about any Clean up the World events in your area then why not leave a comment on the blog.
Thanks
Anna-Lisa
September 14th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Plastic bags are a big one for me, they cause so much damage if discarded and take so long to degrade, we need to take extra care in disposing of them if we do use them. If you have spare carrier bags in your home there are other ways to re-use them. Alternatively some supermarkets are now offering a plastic bag recycling bin for you to dispose of them safely if you can’t make use of them. Best of all though is to take your own re-usable bag to the shop so you don’t have to get a plastic one at all.
The Clean up the World website provides a fact sheet about plastic bags http://cleanup.org.au/PDF/en/plastic_bags.pdf with some handy advice on how to reduce & reuse them.
Thank you for sharing Anna-Lisa
October 4th, 2007 at 5:35 am
this is very energetic and good work for clean the every place where we live and work