10 pieces update

I started this blog with the intention of picking up 10 pieces of litter at every site I visited or just every day, but more importantly of getting organisations (particularly tour companies) to take on the idea and get their travellers to sign up to picking up 10 pieces of litter per site or per day.

Evidently I have been on the road so the only part of this I have been able to attempt is picking up 10 pieces of litter on my own. And I have to admit I haven’t been doing it regularly – some countries I have missed entirely and in others I have done a bulk clean up. Nonetheless this has taught me some valuable lessons on how to make this work:

·         Any litter picked up is a good effort – some days you may feel like doing lots of litter picking and not on others, but every little bit helps

·         Many hands make light work – where I’ve been able to enlist the help of others, it has been much easier and more motivating to pick up rubbish (and if you have 24 passengers each picking up 10 pieces of litter every day – that’s a fair amount)

·         Have your gloves, hand sanitiser and a reusable bag handy – sounds simple but I’ve often left my gloves in a different bag to the one I’m using

·         If you can pick up a plastic bag as part of your litter collection, use it to put the group’s rubbish in

·         Ensure proper rubbish disposal where possible

·         Watch out for areas where you should not attempt to pick up rubbish e.g. landmine areas, police check points, etc.

·         Watch out for burrs, glass, spiky Acacias, etc.

·         Only pick up ‘safe’ items e.g. no sharps, broken glass, etc.

·         Take note of the types of rubbish in different areas e.g. endless plastic sachets for water in Ghana as it may be possible to propose a way to address the problem e.g. bio-degradable sachets?

·         Often have to be mindful in areas where they have designated rubbish collectors – don’t want to take jobs away from the locals and only help if they say it’s ok

I now want to put together a proper proposal of how this concept can work and talk to some tour companies about it when I get off the truck. In the meantime, I will keep attempting to pick up litter and enlist the help of others where I can. If anyone has any suggestions, please send them through!