More than 1,600 Sandwell volunteers helped out in this year’s Big Spring Clean campaign to collect a staggering amount of rubbish from sites across the borough.
Volunteers signed up to clean up their areas at 242 events across Sandwell’s six towns in the latest effort by the scheme run by Sandwell Council, its waste partner Serco and local charity Litter Watch.
The 1,665 volunteers came from a range of community groups, local companies and schools across the borough.
They collected huge quantities of litter and filled 2,249 bags of rubbish during more than 2,650 hours of volunteering.
Councillor Maria Crompton, Sandwell Council’s cabinet member for safer communities, said: “The Big Spring Clean has once again done a magnificent job for the borough and its residents and I would like to personally thank each and everyone of the volunteers.
“It is really heart-warming to see the huge number of volunteers and I was particularly pleased that so many schoolchildren were involved in these activities.
“At the same time it is important to remember that it is very sad that we and the volunteers have to spend so much time cleaning up rubbish, which should not have been dropped in the first place.
“I would like to think that we could learn from this campaign and urge everyone to be more responsible and take home their packages and cans instead of dropping them in the streets.”
John Mason, contract general manager for Serco, said: “We’re very pleased to be able to support this long-running community campaign which has, yet again, received fantastic participation by local volunteers.
“In addition to the main litter picking effort, it’s been positive to see the campaign contribute towards another important objective – recycling, with volunteers collecting a staggering amount of cans throughout their events.”
