The University of Cumbria Student's Union is great! Not only do they organise some fantastic events, and help facilitate opportunities for students but they organise transport for those that aren't lucky enough to be able to drive. So when I heard that there was going to be a minibus from the Carlisle campuses to the Conservation Society's litter pick in Bowness-on-Windermere, I knew I had to be on it.
It's not every day free transportation gets provided to our Ambleside campus.
The drive to Ambleside was as beautiful as ever. I've actually been quite a few times over the last month so I'm getting rather used to those roads now! It's a bit torturous looking out of the window to see all these stunning spots, and knowing that I can't get out to take pictures of those dark forests, or go for a walk along those alluring shores.
When we arrived, we were provided with an enormous lunch before being left to our own devices in Rigg Cottage – the student's space on the Ambleside campus. Once the Lancaster group had made their way to us we were given a quick campus tour, which involved a trek up their own miniature fell! We were then packed back into the minibuses and began on the next leg of our journey; Ambleside to Bowness.
Our arrival in Bowness was marked by a short briefing led by the head of the Conservation Society where we heard about the aims of the day and the charity behind this whole event, Surfers Against Sewage (SAS). For those of you who don't know, SAS are an environmental charity that looks to tackle the issue of our reliance on plastics and the effects it has on the world around us. They encourage individuals to 'Think Global, Act Local' which results in beach cleans and litter picks all around the country. One of their projects is to catalogue all the plastic pollution that is collected on clean-up events, like ours, to then use to petition the government to change the laws surrounding plastics use in the UK - including the reintroduction of a bottle deposit system.
Emboldened with our mission, we set about hunting for any rubbish we could find. Almost immediately I stumbled across the remains of someone's birthday party, complete with alcohol, cake and candles, stuffed under a bramble bush. As I poked about further, the more rubbish I turned up which was clearly related to the same party. I was horrified as I pulled bottle after bottle from this one tiny patch. Who could just leave all this rubbish without a second thought for the damage it could do to the wildlife of this area? There ended up being so much rubbish from this one spot that I had to go back to base to drop it off – there was no way I could manage it all. The organisers had a similar reaction to me when they saw how much there was, but we all agreed it was good now that it was removed from the site.
I continued working for another hour and a half. At first, compared to my 'birthday party', there wasn't a great deal to find, but as I went further into the park it was clear that there was a lot lying around. Some of the things we found, like wrappers, I could see how they might have gotten there by accident. But things like bottles and cans that had been well and truly wedged in their positions had clearly been placed there on purpose – how can people do these things and not feel guilty? Do they just not know? Do they just not care?
All too soon our time was up and we had to meet back at base for the final thank you and goodbyes. We all felt that the event had been extremely successful, and the staff at Cockshott Point were extremely grateful for all our hard work. Later we heard that between us we had managed to collect 73kg of litter which is a staggering figure for such a small area! I went to bed that thankful that at least that litter was now being disposed of properly, and the figures being collated to show the government the damage being caused, instead of just lying there and polluting the heart of the Lake District.
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