We usually hold two litter picks a year on Saturday afternoons – one in the spring (April) and one in the autumn (November). We meet at Cottenham Village Hall on Lambs Lane Recreation Ground and then return there for refreshments. Our next litter pick meets at 2pm Saturday 25 April 2026.
At our most recent event, a surprisingly large number of volunteers turned up on Saturday 22 November 2025 and overall did some 65 hours or so ‘work’ collecting litter. We had about 30 people, and we say ‘work’ because it really was – if readers recall that afternoon the weather was appalling! It rained hard and steadily all afternoon and it was cold and windy. Hence the need to wash and dry so many hi-vis vests afterwards. Given the weather – an excellent result!
Yet again the number of people more-or-less fitted the number of pre-planned routes pretty well, thanks to those brave souls who went out in the rain and picked up rubbish – couldn’t do it without you!
The amount of stuff picked up was (unfortunately) much the same as usual – we’d hoped for much less. The range of litter was also much as usual – notably a mangled large triangular roadworks sign and associated metalwork, (only) two traffic cones, a complete long hosepipe, several bits of car bumper and plastic bodywork, a few wheel trims, one large white ex-fuel container, and some of the contents of a delivery van (we are trying to get that stuff back to the van owners). Litter left in (too-heavy-to-carry-back-to-the-Village-Hall) sacks around the village were collected on the day after by car – five bootfulls plus one trip to the Milton tip).
Some of the ‘hotspots’ and the verges (particularly on the left) of the roads leaving the village didn’t seem to be quite as bad as last time – are people getting the message?? Which is of course – don’t leave litter – take it home and dispose of it there. We’ve said it every time before – do drivers/passengers buy a can of something in the centre of the village, finish it just as they get to those verges, and then lob the can out of the window?
Overall, a productive afternoon outdoors in terrible weather. Our thanks again to our litter pickers, cake makers, drinks suppliers and base-camp helpers. We’ll be back in the spring (likeliest Saturday 25 April 2026), but we’d rather not be needed. After all, an “excellent afternoon’s litter picking” would really be one when we all went out all over the village and found no litter.
It would be really good if SusCott didn’t need to have its twice-yearly litter picks – although there is a steady but slow improvement (i.e. a reduction) in littering in the village a litter pick was needed again. We know that some residents do some informal litter picking around their neighbourhoods which helps.
NB for all our litter pick events, children may take part provided they are under the close supervision of a responsible adult. Equipment will be provided but wear suitable clothing for the weather – we will still go ahead even if it rains.
In June 2021 we carried out a ‘Brand Audit’ on the stuff our 25 volunteers collected. Two of us sorted (most of) the debris into brand-labelled items so the numbers of items from different makers could be counted, recorded and submitted to Surfers Against Sewage. The results are now published – see http://www.sustainablecottenham.org.uk/litter-pick-brand-audit-2021/
Our submission took the writer approaching an hour to enter – the list of brands on the on-line form was very extensive (and partly Americanised). All the figures from all over the country will be used for its campaign against non-recyclable containers and single-use plastics – aimed directly at the companies using the brand names.
Not surprisingly the biggest ‘culprits’ were Red Bull, Lucozade (of more than one sort), and Coca Cola. The small blue Red Bull cans were everywhere – particularly IN the verges on the edges of the village. Why drivers need to throw them out of their car windows en route out of the village – who knows!! Perhaps Red Bull ‘makes you fling’?
