Litter Picking Wick Woodland

Today's been a long day, but an immensely satisfying one. I had suggested to Sandile that we do a litter pick at Wick Woodland between the A12 and the B112. Once I knew he'd be there I spread the word on Facebook and through Darren Starling to the email list of London rangers.

This morning I met Darren at Here East and, over breakfast, discussed my progress as a volunteer. Mostly, things are going well, and I look forward to going on some leadership training events later in the year.

Then our volunteers for the litter pick arrived, RE, CK, RB, VF  and DD, and after a couple of circuits of the site in the flat-bed truck Sandile was there too. Eventually the truck was manoeuvred into a spot below the A12 - and we got to work with bin-bags, gloves and litter pickers.

Here are the before shots:

And the during:

We cleared every scrap, including the full porta-potti, another boat's push-pit, duvets, pallets, foam cushions, an inflatable dinghy, bags of wool insulation and innumerable sacks of bottles and cans.

And the after:

Sandile drove the flat-bed full of trash to Old Ford Lock where we transferred it into the almost-full hopper in the unused lock chamber.

I feel accomplished, but achingly tired!

A productive 5 hours.