Stow-on-the-Wold Walks
View all Walks full screen - The ‘Find My Location’ Icon is Top Right
Annual litter pick - fit for purpose?
Given that 80% of ocean plastic comes from the land, our beaches suggest not.
And a thoughtful AI Bot 🤖 seems to agree!
Littering is not annual - it’s 24/7. Every day, it washes into the waterways and onto our beaches from parishes however far inland they are.
Happily, the #PristineParish Program stops it.
By combining community service with their regular exercise, volunteers intercept litter before it can do harm.
A Question: How is it that ZERO litter gets washed into the rivers?
The Answer: Volunteers de-litter their entire parish twice a week.
The Result: Their parish is no longer part of the problem - it's part of the solution.
And that’s a weight off their shoulders.
How can you help? By de-littering a Stow Walk on your own on the same day every week, give or take a day, at a time you choose.
Until when? Until you want a break! We’ll find a replacement volunteer.
Just a handful of volunteers is enough to make Stow-on-the-Wold a #PristineParish.*
* A #PRISTINEPARISH = THE ENTIRE PARISH WAS DE-LITTERED DURING THE PREVIOUS 3-DAY WINDOW.
What if we can’t see much litter?
We still do our pik. Residents and visitors come to understand that…
The acceptable amount of litter is none.
The Big Picture
There are 10,464 parishes in England alone. If every parish lets a little litter escape every day into the waterways, that adds up to a whole lot of litter.
This is our opportunity to change the UK’s litter-picking culture by example. What could be more thrilling than seeing the twice-weekly habit spread nationwide, especially at a time the country could do with a morale boost?
How else can we achieve a #pristineplanet?
What we do
We set up an online rota, enrol and equip volunteers, upload every haul to the parish gallery and keep twice-weekly parish piks going… forever!
We also establish and moderate a WhatsApp group for each parish, where volunteers can ask for cover when away or indisposed.
We’re able to do all this for free because we are funded by Parish Patrons whose branding we wear on our hi-vis.
* Some cities, with paid employees, remove litter on a daily basis. That’s ideal but volunteers, with busy unpredictable lives, need the flexibility that a 3-day window offers. Therefore, the most that is manageable by volunteers is twice a week.
That said, a twice-weekly regime is enough to transform the landscape and people’s morale too!
Like to join us?
Your mission will be to de-litter a Walk on your own once a week, at a time within a 3-day window that suits you to allow for weather and other contingencies.
