Litter pickers collect 36,800 pieces of rubbish

Litter pickers collected 36,800 pieces of rubbish during 10 days of action across a county.

The spring campaign, led by Essex Wildlife Trust, asked people to pick up five discarded items every day for 10 days.

It saw 42 schools in Essex sign up, as well as rambling groups, businesses and local authorities.

Campaign officer Gemma Cosson said: "Keeping these spaces clean and tidy goes a long way to prevent any injuries or harm to animals."

This year's event saw more than 10,000 pieces of litter collected and an additional 259 groups or people got involved.

"We are so grateful to everyone who helped us clean up Essex this spring," Ms Cosson said.

She said it was "inspiring" to see so many schools sign up, adding: "We love to see this education about our natural world getting passed down to the next generations.

"If this is the kind of impact we can have in 10 days, think about what we could achieve if we worked as a county to take actions for wildlife every day."

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