Elizabeth Hatt says her two daughters, one aged seven and one aged two, were gifted a litter picker by Father Christmas, sparking their passion to make the area they live in cleaner and greener.
“They are all taught about these environmental issues at school, then we come home and we’re driving down back lanes that should be pristinely clean, and there’s litter everywhere.
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The bag of litter collected by the trio (Image: Elizabeth Hatt)
“Litter pollutes the environment, and is damaging for for small animals. We’re degrading our environment just by walking past litter, which teaches them it’s acceptable,” said Elizabeth.
Elizabeth said that after opening the foldable litter picker on Christmas Day, her daughter shrieked in joy at the gift, adding: “I’ve got a litter picker, this is so amazing.
“Father Christmas must have known we love to pick up litter.”
Since receiving the gifts, the family has gone out on a number of litter picks, collecting a Sainsbury’s bag full of rubbish from a walk down a village lane.
Elizabeth said she’s passionate about teaching her children small wins that are achievable for everyone to do, something which she hopes will inspire others to make their areas cleaner.
“Over Christmas, my daughter was drawing pictures of endangered animals, including Pandas, and putting them up in our windows as she wants to raise awareness.
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“She’s a very passionate ambassador for all things environmental. She said to me, ‘We can’t have litter on the streets mummy’,” the 47-year-old added.
According to statistics collected by commercial waste collection company, Business Waste, around 3million pieces of litter are dropped on UK roads by motorists.
It also found that cleaning up litter from UK streets, excluding parks and public places, costs British taxpayers £500million every year.
Elizabeth said: “Some of the streets of Basingstoke look so dirty, even the ring road is absolutely hideous.”
“It’s just so nice going somewhere that’s clean. It’s nice to have clean streets around our home.”