Friday 1 March 2019

Community Focus: Litter Ladies of Chichester




Have you heard of the Litter Ladies?

Just look around you and unfortunately, there doesn’t to be a single road, lane, park or any other area that appears to be litter free these days. So, with that in mind and having been inspired by #2minutebeachclean, Mandy Hine founded the Litter Ladies by litter picking whilst walking her dog, Twiggy.

Then, in April last year when four of Mandy’s friends went to her house for supper, Mandy arranged to pick her friends up but told them they had to wear old clothes as they’d be doing an “activity” before supper. One of the ladies thought they were going mud sliding, but in fact they were about to do their first litter pick at Fishbourne Creek! “We all enjoyed it so much that one of the Litter Ladies, Elizabeth Sawday, suggested we do it on a regular basis … and that’s how the Litter Ladies was formed!” Since then the Litter Ladies has grown in numbers and has its own Facebook Page, meeting up once a month (normally in the evening) to pick litter.

Mandy Hine said “We have a wonderful group of volunteers who give up their time to clear areas that are particularly covered in litter. We are not just ladies we have men too! We walk, talk, laugh and enjoy helping the community and hopefully it makes a better visual appearance of the beautiful city we live in”.

Mandy continued “sadly, litter is a constant issue in our towns, cities, beaches and rural areas. We need to educate people not to drop it, it’s not only irresponsible but it’s also a huge danger to our wildlife and sea life. The litter often ends up in rivers and washes into the sea. Some of the consequences of dropping litter is birds ingesting the plastic, sea life getting caught in plastic bottle rings or swallowing plastic thinking it’s food, ultimately causing death.”

One of the main items of litter found by the Litter Ladies are single use plastic bottles. Did you know it takes 450 years for a plastic bottle to break down? Mandy asks; “Please encourage everyone to have a reusable, refillable bottle, which will save yourselves huge amounts of money whilst doing something great for the planet!”

For more information or to help the Litter Ladies, contact Mandy on:
Facebook: Litter Ladies
Email: mandy@message-on-a-bottle.co.uk
Call: Mandy on 07788410233



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