We’ll make 400k miles gleam again: Volunteers on road to goal of clearing million miles of litter 

Tens of thousands of litter-picking volunteers have pledged to help clean up 400,000 miles of the landscape and restore pride in the nation.

In less than a month more than 60,000 people have responded to the call to roll up their sleeves and bag up litterbugs’ leavings.

The community-spirited volunteers have committed to help out in a bid to collect rubbish from a million miles of the country. The milestone comes as the Daily Mail helps to launch Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British Spring Clean.

At least 64,700 people have signed up on Keep Britain Tidy’s website – and with five weeks until the campaign begins, the charity said litter-picking heroes can still help to ‘turn the rising tide of post-lockdown littering’.

The organisation estimates the number of miles that will be cleaned up by asking people to promise to devote a certain amount of time to helping.

Then, by using the average walking speed, it calculates how much ground its legion of litter pickers will cover.

Growing numbers have decided to tackle the shameful rubbish mounds left behind in parks and on beaches when lockdown began to ease at the end of last month.

As sunseekers took advantage of the easing of lockdown restrictions on March 30 – the hottest March day since 1968 – they left mounds of rubbish in their wake. In Nottingham, council leader David Mellen was even forced to close the city’s Arboretum and Lenton parks after the sheer amount of litter left behind by a ‘thoughtless minority’ spoiled the area’s green spaces.

Keep Britain Tidy’s chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said: ‘We are so excited that over 400,000 miles have already been pledged for this year’s Great British Spring Clean as part of our #MillionMileMission.

‘We think this signals how ready the public are to take action against the growing threat of litter. People are saying, “Enough is enough. My community deserves better”.

‘Community volunteers and the Great British Spring Clean are the frontline against the kind of devastating litter we are seeing in parks, beauty spots and beaches up and down the country.’

She said some funding partners, including staff at fast-food giants KFC and McDonald’s, have joined the army of people cleaning up streets, beaches and green spaces.

KFC has pledged 93,750 miles, while McDonald’s promised to tidy up a further 15,000 miles of landscape and to educate its staff on the impact of litter.

Mrs Ogden-Newton added: ‘There’s still five weeks left till the campaign officially starts, so still time for people to sign up and help us take a stand and care of the spaces and places that have given us so much during lockdown.’

Readers can sign up at gbspringclean.org for the Great British Spring Clean, which runs from May 28 to June 13.