City council celebrates success of river clean up

Chelmsford City Council is celebrating the success of another river clean up event.

The city council was delighted to see that more than 50 volunteers joined our NICE Programmes River Litter Clean Up on Saturday 7 October.

The event took place along the River Chelmer and the group started at the Baddow Road Car Park, Chelmsford and worked along the river to the Riverside Retail Park, Chelmsford.

The volunteers collected more than 100 bags of litter, 15 bags of plastic, five bags of tins and five bags of glass.

It is becoming more and more important to dispose of waste correctly so litter doesn’t end up in the beautiful rivers.

The NICE (Neighbourhood Improvement and Community Engagement) Programme has been running since 2014 and aims to encourage the city residents, organisations, community groups and business to get involved in improving the environmental quality of the city.

At the River Litter Clean Up each volunteer separated the litter they found into recyclable and non-recyclable materials.

Each year NICE still finds litter in our rivers and amongst this is plastic bottles.

Plastic pollution is now becoming a worldwide problem, because it is a long-lasting pollutant which does not fully break down.

It is becoming more important to recycle and dispose of plastic correctly as plastic is now being ingested by marine animals and birds.

NICE and the city council wants to thank all volunteers who came along to the River Litter Clean Up including a local cub group, Chelmsford Sea Cadets, Chelmsford Lions, Chelmer Canal Trust and Chelmer Canoe Club.

Councillor Malcolm Sismey, Cabinet Member for Waste and Recycling, said: “I am so proud of the work carried out at these and other events to deal with littering in Chelmsford.

“I want to encourage our residents to recycle and dispose of their waste in the correct way in order to reduce the amount of litter in our waterways and other landmarks.”

The council wants to remind residents to bin their litter, take it home or run the risk of a £75 fine if caught littering.

To find out more about NICE visit www.chelmsford.gov.uk/communities/nice/