Litter - Eco Schools

The rat population has boomed to 60m due to the huge amounts of litter around, this means there are now almost as many rats as people in the UK.

Use our Litter Pinterest to find ideas to reuse the ‘clean’ litter you have collected

The Great Big School Clean

Eco-Schools and Keep Britain Tidy’s Great Big School Clean is back for 2021!

28th May – 13th June 2021!

This year we’re on a #MillionMileMission. We’re asking schools to pledge how many pupils will take part and how many minutes they will litter-pick for. Then, using a slow walking pace of three miles per hour, we will calculate how many miles of litter picking your school will complete or have completed. We hope that together we can collectively complete a million miles of litter picking… or in other terms, enough litter picking to get to the moon and back twice!

The Great Big School Clean will take place from 28th May – 13th June 2021, but any litter picks completed in the meantime will also count towards our total if you enter your data. Click the link below to discover resources and pledge to pick!

Pledge to Pick!

Other Actions

Need more ideas? Here are some of our favourite links to help you work on our Litter topic.

#LitterHeroes Ambassador

If you are over 16 and go above and beyond to care for your community, you can apply to become one of Keep Britain Tidy’s #LitterHeroes Ambassadors. Ambassadors work within their community to encourage others to get involved in litter picking events throughout the year. Successful applicants receive a host of benefits from Keep Britain Tidy including invitations to local and national events and resources to help you care for your community.

Become a #LitterHeroes Ambassador

Helping Hand Environmental

If you want to purchase litter picking equipment for your school, we recommend ordering from Helping Hand Environmental using our School Order Form. Helping Hand provides a range of high-quality, customisable litter picking equipment in a variety of sizes and designs suitable for everyone. Using our order form entitles you to discounts and helps to support the Eco-Schools programme.

Visit Helping Hand Environmental

Waste Services, Local Authorities

Waste services at many local authorities will offer to loan schools litter picking equipment, help organise a litter pick or deliver assemblies in schools. You can search for your local authority online or find your contact on our LEA Support page.

Find local support

Litter Topic Winner, Eco-Schools Award Ceremony

Catherine Junior School in Leicester are expert litter pickers, leading the Wrigley Litter Less campaign in Leicester.

Read Catherine Junior School’s story here

Balloon & Lantern Releases

We know that balloon releases have been a traditional way to celebrate special achievements or events, but our attitudes towards them need to change. ‘Biodegradable’ balloon or lantern releases in schools are not part of our ethos and will be challenged. Please use our Plastic Alternatives Guide for other ideas to replace balloon and lantern releases, glitter and single use plastics in schools.

School Examples

Birchwood High, Warrington

On the 2nd April 2019, Birchwood Community High's Eco-Committee took part in Keep Britain Tidy's "The Great Big School Clean." The Committee organised a day of activities that focused on the impact of litter on the environment. For Eco-Schools Step 5: Informing and Involving they invited year 4 students from a local primary school to join them. The first half of the day was spent litter picking in and around the school site: 32 people were involved (a mixture of Committee members, primary school pupils and volunteers). In total 100kg of litter was collected including 358 crisp packets, some of which were 11 years old! In the second half of the day they learnt about how litter can impact our oceans and how long it takes for different types of litter to biodegrade. While these activities were taking place, in whole-school citizenship lessons pupils learnt about the impact of litter on the ocean and how to solve the litter problem by following reduce, reuse, recycle.

School Website

Register today

Start your Eco-School journey today