Bodmin litter pick closes in on 1,000 bags, MP joins the round

A traffic cone, a mattress topper and two tyres went into the pile on the edge of Bodmin this weekend, and for once the volunteers picking through it had an MP working alongside them.

A patch of Bodmin, cleared again

The Bodmin Tidy It Team was out again over the weekend, working through streets and verges around the town as part of its regular litter pick. Twenty bags of rubbish and nine bags of recycling came out of the round, on top of eight fly tips reported. The team’s running total now stands at 956 bags, and organisers say the amount left behind by the public tends to climb in places during the holiday season.

Ben Maguire, the local MP, took part in the clean-up alongside the regulars. Organisers said they hoped he came away with a clearer sense of the scale of rubbish left behind by the public around the town.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy It Team

What came out of the town this time

Alongside the usual bagged litter and recycling, the group hauled away a much bigger pile of dumped and abandoned items: two tyres, a mattress topper, a traffic cone, foam, a sheet of chipboard, cardboard and a long list of smaller bits and pieces. Clean Cornwall and Biffa both helped shift the load, taking away yet another substantial pile once the volunteers had it gathered.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy It Team

New faces, familiar ones

Not all of the morning was about rubbish. Trish brought along John, a face some of the regular pickers recognised from previous outings, along with his sister Ann and brother-in-law Ian. The group caught up over cake and coffee once the picking was done, a gathering that has become as much a part of the team’s routine as the bin bags and litter pickers.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy It Team

Thanks all round

Organisers took time to thank everyone who turned out: Tom, Max, Noah, Ben, Dee and the rest of the team, Nat, Gary, Penelope, Ezra, Paul, Ash, Andy, Karen, Sue, Anne, Nigel, Jenny, Lin, Theresa, Mandy, Trish, John, Ian and Ann.

Next pick: Wednesday 26 August

The next Bodmin Tidy It Team outing meets on College Lane at 9.45am on Wednesday 26 August. Everyone is welcome to turn up, hi-vis or not, and by then the running total will likely have crept a little closer to the 1,000-bag mark it is edging towards.

📷Credit: Bodmin Tidy It Team