Lovely weather to be out in the woods! But that meant that there were fewer litterpickers than we’d have hoped for. Nevertheless we had three of the most experienced of our volunteers in fine form and ready to deal with the usual assortment of detritus that can spoil the area for many.
As usual we started off together, aiming in the same general direction but ensuring maximum efficiency by dealing with our own preferred areas and not getting in each other’s way.
Thanks to the efforts of a few OWLs who also do their own litterpicking sessions, along with the increasing numbers of considerate users of the woods who put their litter in the rubbish sacks provided, there was less litter than usual for our volunteers to deal with.
We noticed a lot more condoms than usual (Viagra available over the counter? Spring? Longer days?), but less lube sachets than we would usually see (and a lot more shitty tissues – are the two connected?!).
Not everyone is considerate. Surely it’s as easy to throw tissues in the rubbish sack as it is to throw them on the ground? Maybe this is an indicator of those who advertise for ‘dirty sex’?! Maybe it’s a way of marking territory?
Whatever we come across we deal with. We’ve seen it all before and have probably dealt with it all before.
As if it was planned we all converged back at the car park for refreshments at about the same time.
Then on for more, working our way through the woods to the east of the car park.
We’ve experimented with a new technique of putting a second rubbish sack inside the sacks we staple to trees in ‘hot spots’. It’s working well as it is much easier to lift out a complete sack than to try to invert a fixed one to empty it!
We reckon we covered most of the hot spots. We had to leave one undealt with because it was in use for some ‘action’. We try not to be nosey, but a quick glance showed some very athletic action going on – all credit to the guys!
Finally (well, not quite finally!) back to the car park to staple and tie the bags, put them beside the road ready for collection and take the obligatory picture of today’s lineup of sacks.
But one of our number needed to do the subsequent quality control cruise around the woods, and especially to check on the nude sunbathing area. (for directions click here.). There were two more sacksful of general and recyclable rubbish there to add to today’s tally. So overall, the equivalent of 6 sacks of recycling and 11 of general rubbish.
(Please note, we respect everyone’s right to anonymity and only show pics of those willing to have them posted. No inferences should be drawn from anyone’s participation in an OWL litterpicking session)