Why I litter Pick - Sue Patchett

​Litter picking seems to be flavour of the month at the moment, everyone seems to be at it! There may be a number of reasons for this, one may be that during the lockdown people got out walking, this meant that the litter was more evident to them, it’s easy to drive by rubbish without thinking about it but when you are walking through it it’s a different matter.  There may also be some political reasons for it’s popularity. We at RWF have been litter picking  for a while so we thought it might be interesting to hear from some of our regular pickers why they turn out every week.
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First up is Litter Picker-in-Chief Sue Patchett:

​"​I’ve always had an interest in wildlife and nature and over the years have started to try and do my bit to help with conservation issues. Things seem to have snowballed and I’m now a bit of an eco-warrior involved with so many different things. I caught the litter picking bug when I joined Friends of Park Wood, it was always satisfying to have a work party and leave the wood looking in the natural state it should be. No-one wants to go for a wander around a pretty woodland and see other peoples’ litter everywhere, it’s depressing and some litter can also be a hazard to wildlife so it’s best it isn’t sprawled around our countryside. Also litter picking is a bit like toad patrolling, it’s addictive. I’ve been toad patrolling for 17 years and run Riddlesden Toad Patrol. When you’ve been at it a long time your eyes are trained to spot toads at a distance and once you get into litter picking the same thing happens, you tend to notice all the litter that’s around and then feel an urge to do something about it. I’ve litter picked with many groups and have run plenty of my own community litter picks including getting the toad patrollers out! It is good to see other people have community pride and join in and also by having community litter picks it encourages people to join who wouldn’t have considered going out alone to do it".
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"​I started getting involved with river clean ups through the Aire Rivers Trust. I remember last February after the floods the River Worth looked terrible in places, litter had accumulated in various spots and I was eager to get on with the clean up operation but I got side-tracked with toad-time and then covid struck, during that time all Aire Rivers Trust events were off so in May I asked John Tickner if he wouldn’t mind coming out with me to tidy up the River 

Chronic litter and debris at Low Bridge.

​as I knew he was keen on the river. This is how the litter picking aspect of River Worth Friends blossomed, we ended up doing weekly litter picks along the river and eventually when other people saw what we were doing they wanted to join the party and everything gained momentum". 

Litter and debris deposited by high river levels at Aireworth Bridge

"​Personally I think it’s best to focus litter picking efforts on rivers, that’s where litter can do the most damage to wildlife especially long term when plastic from Keighley ends up in the sea and takes centuries to break down into micro plastics. The damage humans are doing to the planet is deplorable, the people that litter and fly-tip by rivers are just mindless and selfish, it’s terrible to think that long after they’ve lived their lives their actions can still be having an 

​impact in the sea and sealife can be dying and suffering needlessly. I might not be able to save the planet but I like to pitch in and try and help. A weekly river clean up isn’t much hassle and when there’s a team of you out a lot can be achieved. Teamwork makes the dream work!"

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​In the next blog we will hear from Sue's lieutenants  John Tickner and Chris tribe.