Leicestershire: Meet the 'litter womble' on a marathon clean-up

A volunteer litter picker is carrying out a 26.2-mile (42.2km) clean-up across Leicestershire.

Sam Laywood is clearing discarded rubbish on a marathon-length north-to-south walk through the county.

The 38-year-old is doing the solo challenge to raise money for the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

He said he was shocked by the amount of dropped rubbish he had found and collected so far.

Mr Laywood started his litter pick on Tuesday from his home in Belton, near Loughborough, and hopes to finish at Broughton Astley, near Lutterworth, on Wednesday.

The co-founding member of the North Leicestershire Litter Wombles group said: "My aim was to collect a bag of litter for every mile - but I filled 10 before I got six miles and I had barely dented the surface.

"It's mainly plastic bottles and aluminium cans which have been been chucked out of car windows.

"Some of the things I've found look like they were thrown away in the 1980s. That's the problem, this stuff just doesn't bio-degrade."

Mr Laywood said he had arranged with council rubbish collectors to pick up the bags of rubbish he had collected from locations along his route through Copt Oak, Markfield, Ratby, Kirby Muxloe and Enderby.

"I've raised more than £1,000 for the wildlife trust," he said.

"But I'm also trying to raise awareness of the shocking amount of litter that gets dropped in Leicestershire and hopefully persuade people to stop doing it."

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