De-clogging De-streets Of De-tritus

Tonight we trotted off to treasure hunt rubbish on the backstreets of southwestern Barnsley. The weather had been drizzly all day, but between our window of 1845 and 2000 the rain held off. After running for a few minutes we stopped our run at Clarendon St and unpacked all of the litterpicking equipment from our rucksacks. Along Blenheim Road we bobbed and weaved inbetween cars, nimbly plucking sweet wrappers, cigarettes and drinks containers from betwixt.

There was rather a lot of smashed glass down some of the gennels (jitties, snickets, jennels etc) in tiny fragments which required both patience and precision to pick.

A notable hiding place for litter that we stumbled upon continually throughout the evening was behind electricity junction boxes on the corners of streets. There is a gap of 4-5 inches behind these which is a great size for collecting cans, bottles, mud, moss and grit. There were layers of these items and the <5 inch gap also made it very awkward to fit a litterpicker into to grip around the items at appropriate angles, even for the most experienced handlers of pickers. Rubbish retrieval in these seldom cleared trash canyons turned out to be akin to archeology, digging through the dirt to find ancient rusted up cans of New Coke- lots of work for little pay off! At least we'll know they are clear and the rubbish now won't get a chance to dislodge during future storms.

We also cleared the vegetation islands at the end of no-through roads on residential backstreets. These little islands of greenare bursting with greenery, which in turn hides all of the rubbish thrown into them. With a bit of prodding and prying with pickers the rubbish in the undergrowth is soon exposed and removed. We've been plogging well long enough to know the tricks of the trade by now! All gathered plog info is always passed on to those new to it who wish to have tips. Another tip, on the subject of crushing and picking up cans is thus; when a can is stepped on to reduce it's size for bagging it often makes it more challenging to pry up from the ground; similarly, cans crushed by cars on the road are some of the flattest you will encounter. These can be picked up by wedging the can between both feet and slightly moving them together, bringing the can up enough from the ground so that the picker can is able to get a grasp of it. Another method, though requiring more precision, is to delicately grip the rim of the can with the tips of the picker. Both of these methods can be finessed with us on a monthly basis! You can also make up your own techniques to share with others too!

Join us on a pick soon!