Litter picking station campaign

Project: Litter campaign

Department: Parks, Recycling and Waste, Streets

Date of completion: 01/09/22

Budget: £1,000

Background 

Litter in the City’s parks is an ongoing problem, and during the summer when footfall increases, litter increases too. In partnership with Oxford City Council, we launched a new litter campaign in conjunction with Keep Britain Tidy’s Love Where You Live campaign, to help combat litter in Oxford’s parks and green spaces.

We put in place two litter picking stations at Cutteslowe Park and Wolvercote Bathing Place to encourage park users to take part in short, two minute litter picks, as well as some informational signage and stickers.

We hosted two educational roadshows to provide information to residents and visitors on waste management.

Challenge

During this campaign, we came across issues with the litter picking stations themselves - as a result of misuse, we have lost several litter pickers. As well as this, bags supplied at the stations are being used up fairly quickly, and not replaced. These two factors mean that others visitors are unable to take part in litter picks, where the equipment (litter picks and bags) are not available for them to use.

The location of the stations was also a challenge. We needed to ensure the stations were located near a bin, one that is emptied frequently, for the waste to be dropped off at.

Solution

We have staff members from our Parks and Streets Teams who monitor the stations regularly throughout the day. This means that they can easily top up the stations with new bags, and they can monitor and deter misuse of the litter pickers, replacing them if necessary.

In terms of location, we have only put litter picking stations in places where there are waste facilities nearby, which are monitored and emptied regularly.

Feedback

Following the implementation of this scheme, we have received various feedback from members of the public and local groups:

“Brilliant idea. We’ll do some picking next time we’re there.”

“This is great! Keep #doinggood.”

“Thanks for raising awareness.”

“Thank you for helping to improve the environment on your doorstep.”