The Litter Free Dorset Challenge is back and bigger than ever! Litter Free Dorset have teamed up with the Preventing Plastic Pollution project to provide 250 budding Dorset litter heroes with litter picking equipment. In return for taking part in a litter picking challenge this May, participants will be able to keep hold of the equipment for future litter picks!
Get involved with this year’s challenge to have some fun exploring your local area. Take part to make a difference to how your local outdoor spaces look and feel – not only positively impacting people’s mental health but also benefiting our local wildlife.
Residents in Dorset can now sign up to take part in the Litter Free Dorset Challenge. Once all 250 spaces available for this year’s challenge have been taken, sign-up will close. Participants will be able to choose a challenge and in return receive a litter picker, high vis vest and weighing scales. Sign up here: www.dorsetcoasthaveyoursay.co.uk/the-litter-free-dorset-challenge
You will be able to choose from four different challenges to take part in this May so that your litter pick is at a time that suits you. The challenges to choose from are:
• The 10-hour challenge – litter pick for 10 hours in 1 whole day
• The 10-times challenge – take part in 10 litter picks throughout the month
• The 10-minute daily challenge – everyday litter pick for 10 minutes throughout the month
• The ‘create your own’ challenge – is there a particular challenge you have in mind?
You could also consider doing a sponsored challenge! Raising money for Litter Free Dorset means that we will be able to run the challenge again in 2023 and help fund some of our other projects and campaigns to reduce litter.
Alongside having some fun, you can also help provide litter data to the Preventing Plastic Pollution project to better inform solutions to tackle plastic pollution long term.
Sophie Colley, Coordinator of Litter Free Dorset, told KeeP 106: “We’re excited to be running the Litter Free Dorset Challenge again this year. 120 brilliant volunteers took part in last year’s challenge. In total they collected approximately 1 ton of litter – the equivalent weight of a baby humpback whale! With double the number of participant spaces available in this year’s challenge, we’re hoping we’ll be able to double the amount of litter collected!”
By extracting plastics and other materials from our local streets and greenspaces before wind and rain carry them into our waterways and out to sea, you’ll be making a difference to your local area, while also protecting and maintaining Dorset’s excellent bathing water quality and the marine life within it.
Amanda Arnold, Preventing Plastic Pollution Researcher said: “We are really pleased to be supporting the Litter Free Dorset Challenge again in 2022. The more information gathered by volunteers on the types and quantities of litter in our environment, the better our ability to identify where it is coming from and the more likely we can create lasting solutions to stem the flow of plastics entering our rivers and seas.”
Alongside the challenge, Litter Free Dorset is encouraging participants and challenge supporters to join the Litter Free Dorset Challenge Facebook group. This will be used for participants to share their challenge progress and to also receive support.
Mother and son, Sonja and Marley participated in last year’s Litter Free Dorset Challenge. Sonja said: “Myself and Marley took part in the Litter Free Dorset Challenge last year. Marley who is 7 years old took up litter picking during the pandemic and loved taking part in this challenge. He did 10 litter picks throughout June and collected a lot of rubbish. He had fun being part of a collective challenge and enjoyed keeping track of how much it all weighed.”
To get involved with the Litter Free Dorset Challenge:
• Sign up to the Litter Free Dorset Challenge by clicking: www.dorsetcoasthaveyoursay.co.uk/the-litter-free-dorset-challenge
• Record the amounts and/or types of litter found on your litter picks
• Share your litter finds on social media by using the hashtag #LFDChallenge and tagging in @litterfreedrst and @Plastic_EU
• Join the challenge Facebook group to share your litter picking stories and support others taking on the challenge
• Fundraise or donate funds to Litter Free Dorset to enable us to run this challenge again in 2023 by clicking here.
For more information and to follow the challenge, please see the Litter Free Dorset social media channels:
• Facebook: @LitterFreeDorset
• Instagram: @litterfreedorset
• Twitter: @LitterFreeDrst
This initiative is supported by Queen Mary University of London and co-financed by the Interreg France (Channel Manche) England programme through the Preventing Plastic Pollution (PPP) project.
