23.06.11 Trelai Park Clean Up Woodlands High School, C1st & KWT

Last Thursday I had a real pleasure to be invited along to help a class from Woodlands High school in Ely to clean up Trelai Park just outside the School. Anne from Communities First got in touch some time ago to help out with the event and it was a tremendous success.

As per usual, I started off with a walkabout and it was a bit stinking even though bins were present. We all met up at the car and had a chat about litter, health and safety and the fact we were going to split the rubbish into recycling and non-recycling.

The park around the skating area was stinking with mainly fast food and plastic bottles and we cleared this up pretty sharpish. We then headed across the meadow area and talked about why the grass was left longer here with a little tree ID thrown in for good measure (I think they'll know ash now for the rest of their lives). As the rain came down we retreated back to class for tea, biscuits and a toilet break before resuming the pick in sunshine. The last part of the pick was held mainly in the shrubline alongside the schoolgates which accumulated a great deal of litter, including yards of stripped cabling and dozens of bags of dog poo (these can go in the normal bins you know!!!). Altogether, the class of 9 collected 10 bags of rubbish and 6 bags of recycling.

Once again, we were supported by Parks Waste Services who came along and collected away the rubbish afterwards. One of the class, Kieron, is currently gaining regular work experience with Brian, one of the fellows who regularly collects our stuff.

Afterwards, the class got together and came up with some quotes for the event and are as follows:

• LF
I really enjoyed it. I liked being outside of school for a few hours!

• AM
We got changed to go to Trelai park. We put gloves on, then we put jackets on. Chris and Anne were there to pick up rubbish. We were in groups and we had to work in a team. We picked up packets and cans. It was good. I enjoyed picking up the rubbish.

• AP
I enjoyed it because we’re keeping our country clean.

• ZA
It was really good. We filled loads of bags.

- I could hardly say it better myself.