I get by with a litter help from my friends

As part of GoodGym’s RED January partnership, I set up today’s litter picking community mission in which 22 GoodGymmers from all over the country signed up to litter pick in their local communities.

To try and make this report a bit more manageable, I’ve split it up into different areas. Camden are listed first because, well, I'm just biased. The remaining area follow in alphabetical order (I’m simplifying to A-B-C, as I hear it’s both as easy as 1, 2 3, and as simple as do, re, mi).

Thanks to everyone for taking part – I loved hearing from/about GoodGymmers that I don’t meet regularly :) The below should get updated as I get more photos and emails from everyone, and the pictures will be updated once I've had time to label them properly :)

Camden John, Jackie, Sally, Beth, Abi, and I were litter picking for Camden today.

Abi, Beth and I met up to litter pick around King’s Cross with Haringey’s Latoya (it was surprising exactly how much was found on just a single street).

Sally, being a teacher, managed to persuade some of the younger generation to join her as she litter picked around the yard with one of her school’s grabber. She most definitely did not flout any child labour laws 😄👍🏻

John and Jackie litter picked around around St James's park (whispers in a neighbouring borough). They found more cigarette ends than you could shake a stick at, and focused on clearing away the ones that the council machines would find difficult to reach. Most importantly, they used the correct nomenclature of "ends" rather than "butts", which is something I feel very strongly about.

Barnet Paul litter picked along the Brook and Windsor Open Space in Finchley as he went for a 7.8km run with his adorable dog Gus! There is unfortunately only one picture of Gus, compared to two of the litter picking, a ratio which I believe is not what our readers want!

Birmingham John litter picked in and around his local parkrun park of Perry Hall. With discoveries including some E45 cream and a “Congratulations” balloon, you have to wonder exactly how they celebrate in the Midlands ;)

Derby Tracey litter picked near her workplace for just over half an hour during her lunchtime. During this time, she managed to find over two bags worth of rubbish (super impressive for solo-plogging), and some rather bizarre yellow insulation piping (where do these things come from?!). Her top tip from today's pick was to empty cans pre-bagging to avoid soggy bottoms. I can almost hear Mary Berry saying this on the next series of GBBO.

Hammersmith and Fulham

Beth litter picked for Hammersmith and Fulham around Camden today. In fact, she was probably plogging within a mere whistle's distance of some of the Camden crew. Aside from the usual fast food and drink packets, Beth also found lots of face wipes and a condom wrapper; she also had a conversation with a curious passing pedestrian about GoodGym, and recycling Christmas Trees.

Haringey Latoya, and Julie were litter pickers for Haringey today.

Latoya crossed a couple of boroughs to join us in Camden (Sshh! It’s a secret), while Julie stayed local to Wood Green. She couldn’t do much about the fly-tipped furniture (I mean, if furniture-moving maestro Latoya had been there and not being Billy-everybody-mates in Camden...), but cleaned up some cans and bottles from the area anyway.

Kingston upon Thames Samia, and Rob were signed up to litter pick in Kingston today.

Rob litter picked along his local streets, finding what appears to be the remains of several meal deals in the process. Given that not all of the packaging of the meal deals was found, the question remains as to whether at least some of the packaging was binned, or whether the people eating them were just. that. hungry.

Samia litter picked to and from her regular train station. Aside from the usual suspects, there was also a sad umbrella and a sole children's dinosaur glove. Hopefully they won't be too much of a "saur" loser about it 😉

Lambeth Elena was signed up to litter pick for Lambeth today.

Liverpool Jo, Tim, Pauline, Matthew, and Roz formed the Liverpudlian litter pick contingent.

Tim fitted his litter pick in earlier this week instead of this lunchtime. I’m allowing it purely because the bag of rubbish he collected looks ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE, and definitely deserving of a good deed (I mean, he could just be holding it very close to the camera, but that grin says otherwise).

Roz fitted in some litter picking as she went for a 5km run around her local park. Either she separated recyclables and non-recyclables as she went, or her camera has some magic filter for making it look like this. Nice job!

Matthew managed to find an infinite amount of dog poo bags as he plogged along (almost certainly a health and safety hazard I maybe, probably, should have brought up in the initial listing). Despite conventional economic theory, I doubt that dog poo would be more valued if the supply were reduced. The broken umbrella and smashed plaster cornices he found were less infinite and consequently more interesting!

Pauline litter picked along her local dog walking route in Beaconsfield Wood. Perhaps foreseeing the future pets (Shadow and Domino), Pauline's daughter had helped to plant some trees in the wood 25 years previously so that they have would have lots of excellent sticks. However, with contrariness better suited to a cat, they instead prefer collecting plastic bottles 🙃 Oh well. At least it helps on the plog!

York Debs and Egg were signed up to litter pick in York today.