Bags of support for Peterborough charity's litter picking project

PECT is delighted to have been given £1,166 from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme. The funds are being used to help provide information and resources for volunteers wanting to set up and run their own community litter picks.

With its ‘Neat Streets’ project, PECT aims to bring together businesses, community groups, and individuals to educate and inspire everyone to have the confidence to run litter picks in

their own area. The charity wants to support communities who are tackling the problem of litter themselves, by offering advice and resources to enable people to organise tidy-up

activities that will enhance their own neighbourhoods.

Dropped litter has detrimental effects on our wildlife and environment, plus costs millions of pounds to clean up each year. Research shows that people tend to drop litter more when

there is already rubbish on the ground, and a lack of pride in local areas can lead to more crime.

Therefore, keeping neighbourhoods litter-free could help keep people safe too.

Stuart Dawks, PECT's director of operations said: "This is about more than simply getting people to pick up litter. We want to encourage long-term behaviour change around the issues of waste.

“Litter picking is a great way to raise awareness of the issues of waste. We want to encourage people to think about excess packaging before they buy and to reuse it or recycle it, and not to drop it on the ground!”

The charity’s volunteer information guide has been made possible thanks to support from Tesco’s Bags of Help community grant scheme. Bags of Help is run in partnership with

environmental charity Groundwork, and sees grants awarded to thousands of local community projects every year. Since launching in 2015, it’s provided more than £79 million

to over 26,000 local community projects.

Alec Brown, Tesco’s Head of Community, said: “Bags of Help contributes funds to community projects up and down the country and we’ve been overwhelmed by the response

from customers voting in their local stores. We’re looking forward to seeing more projects brought to life.”

Groundwork’s National Chief Executive, Graham Duxbury, said: “Bags of Help continues to enable local communities up and down Britain to improve the local spaces and places that

matter to them. The diversity of projects that are being funded shows that local communities have a passion to create something great in their area. We are pleased to be able to be a

part of the journey and provide support and encouragement to help local communities thrive.”

To find out more visit www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp.

To access the litter picking resources, visit www.pect.org.uk/resources/litter-picking/.