Did you know that the less litter there is in an area, the less likely it is for others to litter themselves? What’s more some studies even show that lower levels of litter were met with lower levels of all sorts of other crimes too, from graffiti to theft.
The Love Your Chelmsford team runs a litter picking volunteer programme for residents, schools, businesses, and community groups. We occasionally hold community volunteering days were anyone is welcome to attend, to see if we have one coming up check our Facebook page.
Alternatively we loan out complete kits of litter picking equipment for free for a maximum of 14 days at a time. These kits include an adult or child size litter picker, gloves, hi-vis waistcoat, and branded heavy-duty bin bags. Equipment is available to collect from Freighter House, Drovers Way, Springfield. We do not offer permanent equipment loans.
For safety reasons, please wear the provided PPE and do not litter pick on duel carriageways or A roads; we have trained members of staff to carry out this activity.
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Keeping our local area clean is a community effort that depends on every single person, but unfortunately not everyone chooses to play their part. And while the City Council’s fantastic Street Care team work 365 days a year to sweep our streets, pick up fly-tips and remove graffiti, the job of keeping Chelmsford clean is never ending and there’s always more to do.
Thankfully we have the support of hundreds of volunteers in Chelmsford who give up their time to litter pick in their local area. Whether that’s daily, weekly, or monthly, every single can, bottle and cigarette butt picked up makes a huge difference to our city.
We kindly ask that our volunteers adhere to the following guidelines when disposing of bagged litter:
If you collect 5 bags of litter or less, as long as the litter is in one of our Love Your Chelmsford branded green sacks, you can leave the filled bags by any street bin in Chelmsford. Our Street Care team will collect them when the bin is next emptied (at most every 7 days).
If you collect 5 bags of litter or more, please contact lyc@chelmsford.gov.uk or call 01245 615800 and ask for the Love Your Chelmsford team to arrange a collection.
What to do with the litter you collect
We offer litter picking equipment loans to schools and extra-curricular clubs (Scouts, Brownies, etc.). We have all the necessary PPE and litter picking equipment needed for your class or group to engage in cleaning your local community. We will also organise the collection of the bags of litter after the session.
Duke of Edinburgh Award Volunteering
We offer extended loans of 3 or 6 months to students who wish to volunteer with us to complete their Duke of Edinburgh award. We supply a maximum of 2 kits per individual volunteer request, one for the student and one for a parent, guardian, or friend should they wish to join them.
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In order for a member of our team to confirm the volunteering hours at the end of the 3/6 months, we ask that the individual keeps a digital journal of their volunteering, and once a week writes a few sentences on where they’ve picked and also adds a photo of the filled bags along with it. This can be done in digitally on Microsoft Word, Pages or Google Docs.
At the end of the 3/6 months they’ll need to send us this document as evidence of the volunteering. At which point we’ll be able to check through this and then submit an assessor form to confirm they’ve volunteered with us.
To begin this process please submit an equipment request and make it clear in the ‘comments section’ that you wish to complete your Duke of Edinburgh volunteering with us, a member of our team will then get in contact with you.
School and Youth Volunteering
The Love Your Chelmsford team also runs a litter picking programme for corporate and adult community groups (e.g. Women’s Institute, conservation groups, gardening clubs, etc.). We have all the necessary PPE and litter picking equipment needed for your business or group to engage in cleaning your local community. All our volunteering services are completely free of charge and we will organise the collection of the bags of litter after the session.
Occasionally, other local organisations and community groups will host clean up events. We strongly recommend that event hosts are covered by public liability insurance.
Corporate & Community Group Volunteering
A huge thank you to every single person who volunteers with us, your hard work makes all the difference!
