Connecting with your community and building momentum towards long term litter partnerships can be achieved through simple little clean-up events. These are small cost effective micro-events that any local councils can do. It doesn’t take large scale participation or media recognition!
The best type of event is where your residents, particular locals to the area are involved in a short and successful clean-up. The event should show people how to quickly give an area a clean-up and move on with their busy day. When I mention short, I’m talking about people getting involved for ten to fifteen minutes at most, these events are designed to be short, sharp, effective and stick in peoples memories for how easy it was to make a difference.
Organised clean up event in Rye.
A complete event would have the organisers or staff onsite for two hours maximum. Ten to fifteen minutes scoping of areas and set up. Then discussions and loaning out of the equipment maybe five or six times per set for the ten to fifteen minute blocks I mentioned. At the completion of the event all thats required is the bagging of collected litter, pack up and then onto an alternate location. A critical element of these events is that people leave with the belief that by getting involved and making a small effort regularly they can help make a difference.
The event organiser or local council’s role is that of an enabler, the provider of some simple to use tools and advice about safe practices for picking up litter. The tools are easy, as few as four sets of pans and brooms, four litter picker and a couple of pop-up bins with garbage bags and gloves. That’s pretty much all that’s needed for your council to be a role model and show the community the types of behaviours that work best.
Pan and broom, litter picker and a pop-up bin are pretty much all thats needed to run a micro clean up.
Take these tools and materials to a location where you have any amount of litter but more importantly a pedestrian flow. Locals who may use the space for walking or other leisure activities on a regular basis. The goal of each event it to engage and enable a group to take longer term ownership of clean outcomes.
To launch this type of event in the past, you might have looked for media opportunities and large scale participation. The micro clean is about results. It’s only a small area you are tasked with cleaning up, ownership of the area and the ongoing engagement is what you are looking to establish, that’s where real long term value is found. Next week when representatives from the local council aren’t there you will still have engaged locals, people who will just pick up a couple of pieces of litter if they see it in their space.
This gent was seen picked up someone else’s litter on his way to the bin. Five Star human being.
Hosting these micro clean-up events regularly and at different locations is where your momentum will come from. The final two actions to complete and cement the behaviours is a posting on your local council’s social media platform to thank the few families who participated and a thank you card in the mail. By taking the time to acknowledge the participants individually, you value the behaviour and will have long term partners.
If you have a question on the tools required or any of the steps required, please get in contact, and I will take you through the process. Contact paul@wasteadspace.com.au