Picking up even just one bit of litter each time you are out and about will open your eyes to the scale of the plastic pollution problem. It will also make wherever you are picking litter a nicer place to be.
Once you see how much single use plastic (pop bottles, sweet wrappers, plastic cutlery, lolly sticks, crisp packets, sandwich boxes, disposable cups, wet wipes....) is discarded without a thought - or blows out of the bins on a windy day - you'll start to think about what you use and where it ends up. It made me start to change my wasteful ways.
Now, I am rather germ-phobic (as you will know if you have read my 52HOME blog posts) so I really struggled at first to find a hygenic, safe and fuss-free way to litter pick.
The answer is WOODEN SALAD TONGS. Yes, truly. Rather than carry round a long, bulky purpose-made litter grabber, I use small-ish wooden salad tongs, which fit in my bag (obviously in a washable pouch!) and so are ready for me to use anywhere, whilst keeping my hands clean.
The wooden tongs I use are these ones or these ones costing £2 from Amazon. I used them (almost daily) for 3 months before they broke, now they are fixed with wood glue and a couple of short nails/pins, and are still going strong! When they do finally break they will rot down eventually as they are made of beech wood.
What do I put the litter in? For big litter picks I use the plastic bags that come through the door as 'charity bags' (as I don't have enough charity-bound items to fill the onslaught of bags my letterbox receives!) For smaller litter picks I use whatever end-of-life bags I have to hand (e.g. pasta packets, online delivery plastic bags etc).
As well as encouraging you to walk further and get outside more, litter picking can help kids with their school work! Using the salad tongs is an excellent way to improve a child's 'pincer grip' which is needed for handwriting development.
Litter picking is a genuine way to help today's kids feel a little more in control of what is happening to the planet. Get them to follow these common sense guidelines and you are ready to start...
1. Go litter picking with an adult you trust.
2. Find a safe place to litter pick - avoid busy roads and car parks.
3. NEVER dart into the road to pick up litter.
4. Don't touch the litter with your bare hands.
5. Use a litter grabber, or salad tongs, or thick gardening gloves.
6. Ask your adult what a medical needle looks like and why to NEVER pick them up.
7. Let your adult deal with nappies, medical needles, glass shards, masks, dog poo bags or anything else dangerous.
8. Take extra bags to put the rubbish in - overfilled bags are tricky to handle.
9. Put the bag(s) of rubbish you have collected into a bin, don't leave them next to a bin to be torn.
10. Wash your hands really well with soap and hot water before eating or doing anything else.
Now, go and grab some salad tongs...just don't use them for salad once you have picked litter with them!