Another opportunity for the OWLs to get busy picking up litter in the woods, making the place better for everyone and reducing the likelihood that other users of the area will complain about what they regard as offensive litter. Some of us might regard a dirty used condom hanging from a tree as normal, others might not.
Interestingly, today a number of passers-by asked if we were volunteers (which of course we are!), thanked us, and said how impressed they were with our efforts – and the amount of rubbish we collected.
The usual start, heading as a team off through the woods, taking in most of the hot spots where horny action takes place. And good to see that so many of the black bags we’ve left in place were being well-used. It’s a bit of a pain emptying some of them, but if used condoms, condom sachets, lube sachets, tissues and wipes end up in them, rather than being discarded in the area around, then we are happy OWLs!
One of the early OWLs put a bin in the middle of the woods to encourage guys to put their litter in it. It’s been well-used by lots of people, especially at weekends when the weather is good. Unfortunately, as it’s not an ‘official’ bin the litter doesn’t get collected from it. A kind Forest Warden used to empty it for us, but he’s now retired. So if we aren’t available to catch up with emptying it, it overflows and the foxes dig into it.
Much better once we’ve visited!
With skilled regulars taking part we can cover a lot of ground pretty quickly, visiting those areas which get most use.
Of course we don’t just confine ourselves to the hotspots, those little dens where guys go to have fun in private. We try to cover the whole area with, at this time of year, drink bottles and cans occupying our time in lots of places.
With about as many full bags as we could carry between us it was soon time to head back to base and enjoy a break, a chat and a catch up.
Then, back for more, and on the way time to do a bit of selective pruning in order to make it easier to get to popular areas.
Someone has been littering the place with green, domestic, Waltham Forest recycling bags. Far too many, so they look more like litter than any litter that gets put inside them. But worse still, hung pathetically from bushes beside the path where they get torn apart by the foxes and the litter gets strewn about. And they don’t get emptied! What’s the point of them? We really don’t get it. Nor do the Epping Forest Wardens who disapprove of them.
There’s never enough time to cover everywhere, but between us we’d had a good crack at it and the bag-count at the end showed how well we’d done! 12 sacks of recyclable rubbish and 18 of general rubbish (much of it being sexual debris).
Another good session in the woods!
(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)