Written by: Sue Bentley MBE, Climate Change Ambassador for Cheshire Federation of Women’s Institutes
As part of the Climate Coalition Week of Action in July, several Cheshire WI members organised a waterside Plastic Waste pickup walk. We wanted to highlight how much unnecessary single use plastic is littering our countryside. Some of the groups included:
Hartford WI enjoyed collecting five large bags of plastic and litter on Monday 2nd July . The local Marshall’s Arm Nature Reserve lent us litter pickers. We had a great time collecting in the sunshine and were amazed by the volume of litter and plastic to be found. An intrepid band from Handbridge WI walked along the banks of the River Dee armed with litter pickers and determination. Little Stanney WI patrolled the Dee Estuary and were astonished at how much plastic there was scattered around.
Runcorn WI walked down the Daresbury to Norton Priory stretch of the Runcorn canal, there were 42 of us including Runcorn WI members, children, grandchildren, friends, family, our smashing local MP Mike Amesbury and two awesome councillors Norman and Carol Plumpton-Walsh. They picked up 32 bags of rubbish and plastic including two prams! Halton Borough Council very kindly provided litter pickers, gloves and recyclable rubbish bags. Some members also decorated hessian sacks to brighten the walk and bring home the message that single use plastic is a bad idea.
Middle-Wyches WI participated in the Climate Coalition Week of Action by collecting plastic litter along the canals of Middlewich. We were aided and abetted by a young grandson of one of our members and his friend who both ran around enthusiastically , and also by an uncle of another member who was over here visiting from New Zealand, so we were very multi-generational! We collected the plastic in fabric bags and took it to recycling bins. Other litter couldn’t be ignored but unfortunately that had to go in plastic bags for the refuse collection.
Many thanks to the Middlewich Clean team for the loan of their litter picking equipment. A great community effort by all!