Hi everyone, Toby here your Environmental and Ethical Officer! Last week on Wednesday the 13th of July, we successfully ran the first Battle of the Bins competition! At 3:15pm, once everyone arrived, each participant was equipped with bin liners and a litter picker, as well as being offered gloves. The participants then embarked on their journey to collect as much litter as they could in an hour. It was certainly a scorcher on that day, and due to the quite extreme heat, the event time was reduced from an hour to forty-five minutes. As well as this, two of the teams planning to participate had to drop out due to unforeseen circumstances. Despite any changes to plan, the event ran smoothly and those who participated had an absolute blast. Both teams kept me constantly updated with their progress, some even mentioned being complimented on their efforts by members of the public. Upon returning at 4:00pm, both teams had collected two full heavy bags of litter each. It was amazing to see that so much litter was collected in such a short period of time, despite a couple of teams dropping out prior. Upon inspecting the weight/amount of litter within each bin bag, it was decided that the result of the competition was a draw. Each player would receive the winning prize of a Rapanui T-Shirt.
This event was designed for multiple purposes, the first being to utilise Chandos Park’s New Quick Litter Point, the second quick litter point in Buckingham. These points are small containers that house litter pickers for the public to use at any time via using the phone number displayed on the container to obtain the code for the lock. The event was also meant to be a way to take advantage of the sunny weather via holding a fun outdoor activity. The brand ‘Rapanui: Sustainable Clothing’ was chosen as the source of the prizes, due to their use of natural materials, renewable energy in production and plastic-free packaging. Overall, the event was a real success in my mind, with everyone enjoying themselves as they cleared the litter from the Buckingham area. My goal was to make litter picking a fun activity for all to enjoy and remove the common perception of it being ‘boring’ or a ‘chore’ through making it a competition with a time limit.
I look forward to holding Battle of the Bins 2 which is planned for 12th August. I hope anyone reading this will want to join in and if you have any questions or would like to get involved please get in touch with me on 2003330@buckingham.ac.uk.