Litter is bad for humans, animals, and the environment. It is unhygienic, dangerous if ingested by children, and can trap or be mistaken as food by wildlife. Several campaigns have tried to address the litter problem through education and community involvement. One campaign used interactive bins that let people vote on topics to engage them. Another campaign combined warnings about fines with regular clean-ups and saw a reduction in fast food litter and overall litter. Thornhill school children also helped with local clean-ups as part of Green Day. More efforts are still needed to address litter in Islington.

1. Wednesday 1st July 2020
Year 5 litter campaign.

2. Litter
Litter is rubbish that has been left in public either by mistake
or on purpose instead of being disposed of in a bin. Litter is
bad for our world. It doesn’t look very nice and it can be very
harmful to humans, animals and the environment.

3. Why is litter bad for humans?
Litter in public spaces looks horrible and is very unhygienic. Litter left in
playgrounds can easily be touched by small children and they could
hurt themselves.

4. Why is litter bad for animals?
Although we live in a city, there is still lots of wildlife living around us in
parks and places like Barnsbury Wood. Litter can be potentially life
threatening for these animals as they can become trapped or think that
it is food.

5. What can be done about this problem?
The best campaigns make people
stop, and think. In Edinburgh and
London, an organisation called
the Hubbub Foundation installed
double slot ‘ballot’ bins for general
waste and cigarette butts. The
bins gave people the chance to
vote with their rubbish. Light-
hearted questions kept them
engaged. Messi or Ronaldo?
Batman or Superman? Just pop
your litter in the slot to register
your vote.

6. What can be done about this problem?
In London, the Hubub campaign focused on one busy
street. Here’s what they found:
Cigarette butt littering reduced by 8% during the campaign,
at one point dipping by 18%
Ballot bins collected 29% of a street’s correctly disposed-of
waste
Voting-by-bin went viral on social media
The campaign buzz drew 80 enquiries asking to use ballot
bins in other areas.

7. What can be done about this problem?
A recent anti litter campaign in Essex started when it was
discovered that £17 million was being spent each year on dealing
with litter in Essex was the annual cost of dealing with litter in
Essex. The Love Essex campaign united the whole community to
tackle the litter problem. All district and borough councils
supported Love Essex, as well as Essex County Council,
McDonald’s, KFC, Dominos, and around 300 local businesses.
How did it work? By combining education with enforcement
warnings. Messages highlighting the risk of a fine for littering were
displayed on posters, buses, fast-food packaging, and promoted
on social media.

8. What can be done about this problem?
There were also regular litter-picks with
local businesses and councils,
highlighting the extent of the problem. A
single clean-up along a six mile stretch
of the A120 motorway collected 120
tonnes of litter.
In its third year, from August to October
2016, Keep Britain Tidy reported a two-
fifths reduction in fast-food litter and a
41% reduction in litter overall.

9. What can be done about this problem?
Recycling
Recycling is good because it means that we have
less rubbish littering our world. This helps to
protect animals and their homes by making sure
less rubbish ends up in places like forests and
seas. Most of the litter on the street is recyclable!

11. Thornhill got involved too!
Last year, several
children from
Thornhill helped
to pick up litter in
the local area as
part of Green Day.

12. Over to you.
Although a lot has been done to try and solve the
problem of litter in Islington, more needs to be
done. You now need to return to DB Primary to
plan your letter about litter.