Our Litter Picking journey
Litter picking is about more than simply cleaning up and connecting communities; it's who we are.
It all started when George had an idea...
When our Chief Executive, George Monck, was seven his parents organised a beach cleanup in Woolacombe, North Devon, whilst on holiday. They instilled in him from a very early age the benefits of living in a litter free environment.
George founded CleanupUK in 2007 because he felt that people needed more support to litter pick in their local communities to improve their littered areas beyond the “street cleansing” carried out by local councils.
In the beginning, there was a survey
In 2006 George sent all UK local authorities a questionnaire about litter, and 34% of local authorities responded by saying that they needed people to get involved. Patron Dee Bingham and Keep Britain Tidy were encouraging, and George registered CleanupUK as a charity.
Olympics, here we come
In 2012, George realised that the organisation needed to focus on litter in areas of most need. Emma Harrington came on board and our President, the Former Duchess of Cambridge joined us and launched our project to tackle litter in areas of deprivation in Newham. The original boroughs were the five Olympic boroughs.
The CleanupUK of the future
Fast forward a few, maybe more, years and we’re now an established anti-litter force. We support people to create and join litter picking groups across the country and champion the amazing work of independent litter picking initiatives.
Since 2022, we have also been working on our Cleanup hubs initiative, by supporting local groups or organisations to host litter picking equipment so people can litter pick locally, whenever it works for them. We believe that a more concerted and coordinated effort by all of us at the grassroots level offers an achievable, sustainable solution to stemming the rising tide of litter and creating a cleaner, safer environment and friendlier communities for everyone.
If you fancy being a part of our journey, get in touch.