A large scale rubbish installation at Margate railway station, murals and poster campaigns and an online shop for litter pickers are just some of the goals for a Margate volunteer group.
Rise Up, Clean Up was created by Margate theatre set and costume designer Amy Cook. The mum-of-one says the group is a response to the continuing issue of littering on the town’s main sands.
Since its launch on July 24 scores of volunteers have joined the mission, clearing rubbish, giving out bin bags to visitors and working with the council on ways to raise environmental awareness.
Rise Up, Clean Up has launched a fundraiser to help make their proposals reality. Other aims are to roll out schemes for tackling cigarette litter – such as souvenir keychain ashtrays and innovative cigarette disposal units; trial re-usable pint glasses, with pubs offering discounts to customers who use them and to distribute hundreds more biodegradable bin bags to beach goers.
The group, which meets on Friday evenings, is also in talks with a number of council staff, Margate seafront business owners and Your Leisure this week to look at how plans can be made for better ways of tackling the litter issue next year.
A Zoom meeting will also take place today (August 24) with a number of bars around Margate to discuss the reusable cup scheme. Participants include Little Swift, XYLO and Olby’s.
Amy said: “We had a really great clean on Friday. Around 30 people turned up in spite of a day of rain. Although the beach was fairly empty and it didn’t look very messy, we still managed to collect over 20 bags of rubbish consisting of all the small bits of plastic that are so often missed by the council teams. There were also an enormous number of cigarette butts which our volunteers did their best to collect up.
“Our Crowdfunder ends this Sunday, August 30 at midday. We are still very much in need of financial support to be able to continue our work and plan for our future going forward into next summer.”
