Volunteer litter picker collects a tonne in one year in Cambridge – and reveals most common find

A volunteer litter picker has collected one tonne of litter in a year around Cambridge.

Joseph Tucker, who lives near Histon Road in Arbury, goes out twice a week collecting all manner of litter as one of the city council’s Streets and Open Spaces volunteers.

“I started as a volunteer in the middle of last year and I did a bit of picking here and there,” Joseph recalls. “Then in December, a volunteer copleted a one-tonne challenge and it was announced there would be a similar challenge

in 2023.

“I’ve been making good progress. Sometimes it’s litter I found myself, other times I put a little shout out on the NextDoor app and people send me lots of suggestions of litter that’s annoying them. In April, I got nearly 200 kilograms in one month.”

Joseph, who has just reached the 1,000kg target, often collects litter around Arbury Court and the Aldi and Iceland car park, but will go further afield if there’s a need.

“It was triggered by the Histon Road improvement project, which paralysed our neighbourhood for 18 months, but at the end of it, Histon Road was looking quite good and I wanted it to keep it looking good. There are lots of things you don’t notice if a place is quite scruffy but the moment it’s all cleaned up you notice them.”

Asked what the most common item is that he collects and there’s no hesitation.

“Red Bull cans,” he says. “If I could get a £5 note for every Red Bull can I would be living in the Bahamas somewhere. I don’t know if any go in bins judging by the number on the ground.

“There are also lots of crisp packets and absolutely loads of vaping refill boxes. And there are beer cans of every shape and size. You could probably do a survey of beer-drinking habits in north Cambridge from the beer cans on the ground. There was an occasion I was doing Arbury Court and in the very nice hedge between that and the Good Shepherd Church I pulled 20 beer cans out! I do come across very large nitrous oxide canisters from time to time and the occasional single shoe in a bush. You wonder how on earth that got there.”

Once Joseph has collected at least two bags of rubbish, he weighs it, places it next to a council bin and requests that it is collected by the council.

“It’s good exercise. It gets you out of the house and lots of people say thank you and well done. You get to meet your neighbours and you get time credits for every hour,” he says of the benefits.

“I’m trying to improve my swimming and Better, which runs Parkside, are happy to exchange a time credit for a swim. Cambridge Light Cinema and Kettle’s Yard also exchange time credits.”

The 63-year-old, who worked as a software engineer in Cambridge for more than six companies over two decades, notes: “It helps that I’m retired and I’ve got plenty of time, but even if I wasn’t I’d do it. I wonder why I didn’t do it before.”

The council has 190 Streets and Open Spaces volunteers carrying out a range of tasks. It said it was looking at how to thank those who completed the unofficial one-tonne challenge, first tackled by Dotty McCleod, from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Visit cambridge.gov.uk/streets-and-open-spaces-volunteers for details of volunteering.