We’ve been in contact with one resident who carried out his own litter survey in various woods and parks of South Essex. He counted how much litter he saw in a two mile walk. This is what he found a couple of years ago:
Over the last few years I have noticed the amount in local woodlands increasing year on year. Therefore I decided to do a survey and to understand the nature of the problem.
I surveyed nine local woods by counting the amount and sorts of litter I saw during a two mile walk.
The worst I found was Belfairs woods near Southend on Sea, Essex, England. There I counted 571 pieces of litter. This compared with only 45 pieces in Hockley woods only three miles away.
Both woods are popular with the local population. Both have a car park and a playground. Belfairs has a golf course as well, but not much litter was seen on the fairways.
So there is no obvious reason why one should be heavily littered and the other not.
There were however some points which seemed to accumulate more litter than other place. These were roads; lanes; carparks; schools; supermarkets; lakes and playgrounds. However the only place which had lots of litter and lots of amenities was Sweyne park, which has a playground, supermarket; car park and a lake.Litter by type in SE Essex
Noticeably the woods which were heavily littered were surrounded by residential streets. This was true of Belfairs; Sweyne Park and West woods. The others were bordered by farmland or other woods. Both Sweyne Park and West woods also had a school bordering the area.
Hope he picked it all up!
I believe he did.
Well done him and hope everyone else does the same then there will not be a problem ,that’s great .Have been in Mid Wales and the countryside is pristine just the main roads out of England are littered!