Harlow Greens (part of Harrogate District Green Party) held their Summer Spruce-up on Harlow Hill last Saturday morning. The 11-strong group cleared the playing field of rubbish, and collected a total of 10 bin-bags, mainly beer bottles, cans, sweet wrappers and dog poo.
Rebecca Maunder, Green Party Campaigner for Harlow, said:
I don’t understand why people bag up their dog’s poo, and then throw it in the hedge bottom. Most poo bags are not even biodegradable, so it could sit there for a hundred years. We’re asking local people – what else can we do to incentivise people to deal with their litter responsibly?
Many of the glass bottles we found were cracked, and lots of sweet wrappers had been shredded by the mower, making picking up the bits a slow process. Luckily we had Daisy the Assistance Dog to help, who very willingly got to work putting the plastic fragments into our collecting sacks.
However to our dismay when we took the bags to Harrogate Waste Centre, the only option for plastic bottles was to put them to the Waste to Energy Recovery skip, rather than recycling them. This makes a mockery of well-meaning residents separating plastic from the rest of their rubbish, if it all ends up in the incinerator with the general waste. Harlow Greens will be asking the County Council for clarification on the processing of recyclable plastic at their Waste Centres.
Rebecca finished with a plea to those who drop litter:
We’re so grateful for the brilliant residents who go unnoticed because they DO take their litter home and recycle it. Unfortunately there remains a few that for whatever reason don’t consider the longer term impacts of littering on wildlife and other residents. It’s to them that Harlow Greens says ‘Please try to keep this planet clean & safe – because it’s the only one we’ve got! Do get in touch on 07584 119252 r.maunder@yahoo.co.uk if you have any suggestions as to how we can achieve this together!
