Litter-picker hits grand total

Civil servant Mike Hawes has been rolling up his sleeves and helping keep the town tidy since 2015, earning himself a Mayor’s award along the way, and usually amasses around 600 bags per year.

But lockdown gave the 56-year-old more time and he managed to collect a total of around eight tonnes of trash in 2020.

As well as his work as a member of the Aldridge ‘Wombles’, he regularly picks up rubbish in other parts of the town in need of support.

The father-of-two is now encouraging others to join the Walsall Community Litter Watch Facebook page, which co-ordinates volunteering efforts across the borough, and get involved in keeping their areas rubbish free.

His work during the pandemic has been praised by Councillor Oliver Butler, Walsall Council’s portfolio holder for Clean and Green.

During his picks, Mr Hawes has found bags of drugs, beer cans and crisp packets from the 1980s and 1990s, fished trolleys out of Anchor Brook in Aldridge and returned lost phones to their grateful owners.

He even reunited a pensioner with a handbag that was stolen from her car at Streetly Crematorium while she tended to her beloved husband’s grave.

Mr Hawes said: “Most years, I get around 600 bags but because of lockdown, I was going out more regularly.

“In places, there was a sea of litter because people were going out more for walks.

“I go out four or five times a week. I’ve had lots of spare time during lockdown so instead of sitting around twiddling my thumbs, I’ve decided to press on.

“I was already doing 600 bags but now I’ve just taken it to another degree and get an extra few days in.

“We’re encouraging others. We have a Wombles group in Aldridge with many active members. When you walk around Aldridge, it is really clean.

“But it’s an ongoing battle. People might wonder how I got 1,000 bags this year if we keep picking it up but I get 600 plus every year anyway. Litter always comes back, sadly.

“All the bags are collected by the council on demand. They supply me with bags, pickers and kit so I’m sorted. I’m happy to do it.”

He was inspired to start doing it when he was working in Birmingham and saw high levels of litter on city streets.

Mr Hawes, who runs the Walsall in Photographs page on Facebook, said: “One day, something clicked and I thought I just can’t take this anymore.

“At the park by me, there were lots of dog poo bags and I thought, I’d get a bag and I had a picker anyway as I used to go camping and took it from there.

“One thing led to another. The place looked clean, I started getting a lot of feedback on social media. I am making a difference as opposed to doing nothing.

“People are very positive, they are happy to see it done. I always point out to people that litter attracts litter.

“The reason places get really bad is once there is a bit of rubbish down, people really don’t mind throwing extra on top because it is there already.

“It just builds and builds which is why some areas are awful. We’ve all got the choice of picking it up, leaving it down or waiting for the council to come.

“When I first started in Aldridge, I was finding litter 10 years old regularly. I’ve always found 1990s litter.

“The oldest thing I found was a 1988 Breaker beer can. There’s also been 1990s crisp packets. They never rot away, they are always there and they often look as good as the day they hit the ground.

“There is not enough council staff to tackle it and there never has been and now there is so much more litter from packaging, plastic bottles, that sort of thing.

“This isn’t just young people, it is everybody. We get bottles and cans thrown from cars. Tossing from cars is one of the major things.

“Nobody drives bangers anymore. They drive new cars so they don;t want smelly takeaways of empty coffee cups in there.

“When people say ‘oh, it’s the kids’, automatically default blaming young people, it isn’t. It is people of all ages.

“If everybody picked up that little bit of litter outside their house and binned it – it doesn’t matter if it isn’t theirs – it would make a massive difference straight away.”

None of the rubbish he collects can be recycled as it is considered ‘foul street waste’ and so he urged people to dispose of recyclables correctly.

But the benefits are enhancing the areas he tidies up as well as personal gains such as his fitness and health through walking miles each time.

Mr Hawes said: “I’ve got muscles in my arms that I never even had when I was a weight trainer. I was a member of a parachute regiment in the 1980s and I didn’t have muscles like this in my arms.

“Sadly it’s not matched in the rest of my body. I have strong arms but the rest of the body is of a 56-year-old man!”

Councillor Butler said: “I would like to congratulate Mike on his efforts picking litter during 2020.

“To collect over 1,000 bags of litter weighing around 8,000kg really is a ‘hoofing effort’ and Mike should rightly be very proud of what he has achieved. His efforts really are phenomenal, I think he may be a machine?

“I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all the litter picking heroes around Walsall, many of whom can be found on the Walsall Community Litter Watch Facebook page.

“All of your fantastic efforts this year looking after your local areas and supporting our resilient communities model are noted and very much appreciated.”

People can get involved with volunteer litter picking by visiting Facebook/WalsallCommunityLitterWatch