6,600 Miles of Litter Picking
What I learned attempting to litter pick the entire coast of Great Britain
When I set out to walk the coast of Great Britain, I had a lot of other ambitions besides walking the ragged edge of the island I called home.
I planned to litter pick the coast as I walked, picking up all the litter I found and hauling it with me to the many towns and villages I would pass.
I wanted to give back to the landscape that had nurtured me by removing the rubbish that gathered there. I was full of romantic notions and a ‘do good’ approach, but when I set out, I didn’t comprehend the scale of that task.
The litter pick begins
I realised how difficult it was going to be on the first day.
Walking the coast from Caernarfon to the beach of Dinas Dinlle, 14 miles of the 6,600 miles I would walk in the following 385 days, I was overwhelmed with the amount of litter I had to collect.
On a single country lane, I pulled two shopping bags of discarded plastic bottles and cigarette packets from the hedgerows.
At the beginning of my walk, I was highly motivated to pick up as much as possible, and I gladly honoured my decision to leave no litter in my wake. But the further I walked…
