Bodmin volunteers hit four figures in litter clear-up

A run of garages, a verge behind a housing estate, and a play park hedge that keeps giving up rubbish however often it is cleared. That was the patch Bodmin‘s regular litter pickers worked through on their latest outing, and by the time the bags were counted they had also gone quietly past a four-figure milestone for the year.

Eighteen bags, and a landmark passed

The group, known locally as the Bodmin Tidy it Team, covered a wide area spreading out from Fair Park and came away with 18 bags of rubbish and 7 bags of recycling. Fly-tipped items were thin on the ground again, though four tyres, a traffic cone, a mattress and a scatter of other odds and ends still turned up along the way.

The haul tipped the team’s running total for the year over 1,000 bags, with the count now standing at 1,006.

Years of rubbish behind the garages

Among the day’s finds, one patch stood out. Theresa spent part of the session clearing rubbish from behind the garages at St Mary’s Crescent, some of which looked as though it had been sitting there for years. Leaving an area properly clear, rather than just tidier, is the part of the job the volunteers say is the most satisfying.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy it Team

A birthday behind the bags

It was also a special day for one of the regulars. Ash was celebrating a birthday, and the group stopped to sing happy birthday before heading over to The Cornish Oven in Bodmin, which gifted her a slice of lemon cake to mark the occasion.

Thanks went out to everyone who turned out for the session: Ash, Paul, Gary, Trish, Nigel, Tom, Theresa, Mandy, Lindsay, Jamie, Teriza, Jo, Jamie, Andy V and Anne.

Join the next Bodmin clean-up

The group runs its picks in partnership with Clean Cornwall and welcomes anyone who wants to come along. The next two meet-ups are:

• Wednesday 9 September at 9.45am, meeting in the car park at Lidl.
• Wednesday 16 September at 9.45am, meeting in the small car park just on the left as you enter Wallace Road.

More celebrations for Ash, the group said, are still to come.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy it Team