Bodmin litter pick uncovers bottles of chips and a headless doll

A toaster, a tent and a walking frame chair are not the sort of thing you expect to find tucked into a hedge. Nor is a headless doll. But all of them, along with eight dumped vapes and a set of plastic bottles crammed with chips and screwed firmly shut, came out of the undergrowth around Bodmin in a single morning.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy it Team

The haul from hedges, verges and the woods

The Bodmin Tidy it Team found the whole area in a state. Rubbish was strung along the hedges, spread over the grass verges and pathways, and scattered across the play area near the Beacon pathway and up into the woods. The mess ran from the top of Trelawney Road and Burden Close and on into the estates. By the time the group had finished, they had filled 18 bags of general rubbish and 16 bags of recycling, then stacked up a separate pile of everything too big or too strange to bag.

A running total of 890

That pile read like a car boot sale gone wrong. A toaster, a tent, a parasol base, a tyre, a walking frame chair, a car bumper, wire mesh, scrap metal, cardboard, shoes, a bag, a fluorescent light strip, plastic pots, a bucket, wood and broken bottles all came out of the hedges. Eight vapes were counted among it. And then there were the bottles packed with chips, filled and sealed, which nobody could explain. Every clear-up adds to a tally the team keeps, and this one pushed the running total to 890 bags.

New faces and the next clean-up

Several people joined for the first time. Nathaniel came along with his children Ezra, Penelope and Willow, and Theresa and Mandy also turned out with the group for the first time. The team thanked everyone who gave up their morning: Anne, Lin, Mandy, Nathaniel, Ezra, Penelope, Willow, Theresa, Andy D, Steve, Debs, Andy V, Sue, Gary, Ash, Paul, Steve, Trish, Jo, Lindsay, Tom, Sue and Max.

The next clean-up meets at 9.45am on Wednesday 12 August along Berry Lane, near the entrance to Berryfields Estate, and anyone who wants to help keep Bodmin tidy is welcome to come along.

Why someone would fill plastic bottles with chips, screw the lids down and leave them in a Bodmin hedge is a question the team is still asking.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy it Team