Sheffield woods litter pick removes 1,435 pieces of single use pollution including 159 drinks cans

The team collected 33 bin bags full of rubbish.

Trash Free Trails took part in a Halloween trail cleaning tour, removing thousands of pieces of litter from seven locations across the country, including Sheffield’s Grenoside Woods.

A team of 37 people, and six dogs providing moral support, worked together to remove 1,435 pieces of single use pollution – 33 bin bags worth – from the trail on October 24.

But Trash Free Trails isn’t stopping there, they want people across the country to pick up the slack using the Do It Ourselves toolkit on their website.

The team collected 1435 pieces of litter, including 159 drinks cans.

George Peden, who works for Trash Free Trails, said: “Over the last year and a half a lot of people have got out in nature a lot more, they want to get away from the rush of life, when you get there and there is litter everywhere it’s not nice.

“About a six weeks ago, Trash Free Trails put out a call for action and asked people to submit if their trail was dirty - someone from Sheffield got in touch and they had their A team come, most of them were volunteers from the local area.

“At Grenoside they found 159 drinks cans, which don’t degrade and they can be dangerous. On a clean up in Staffordshire they found cans that had animals trapped inside them.

“The clean up on Grenoside was pretty on par with others, it’s always a similar number of pieces of litter - it’s pretty staggering and there is lots more to do. Their aim is to reduce single use pollution on their trails by 75 per cent by 2025.

Trash Free Trails hope that their bigger clean ups will encourage people to start removing litter themselves.

"Aside from the bigger clean ups they are trying to get people out there themselves and help. The Do It Ourselves toolkit is a great resource, it tells people the best way to go on trails and clean it up.

"The bigger clean ups are drawing people’s attention to these staggering figures and encouraging them not to litter but also to pick up litter that they do see when they are out.”

The Do It Ourselves toolkit, with inspiration and information on how to safely clean up a trail, can be found here: https://www.trashfreetrails.org/dio-toolkit.