Litter cut by 80% in country parks after bins removed

Cotswold Water Park launched its Enjoy and Respect campaign in July to raise awareness of the consequences of anti-social behaviour

Two country parks that removed bins from their land have said it has helped to reduce litter by more than 80%.

Ham Hill Country Park in Somerset removed the bins two years ago after experiencing problems with littering.

It said by encouraging people to take their rubbish home, rangers now spent less time clearing up after visitors.

Cotswold Water Park in Gloucestershire also removed bins as a pilot scheme in the summer and said it too had seen a steep fall in littering.

The decision to remove the bins at Ham Hill in June 2019 was taken in response to a spate of littering and has proven to be a resounding success, countryside ranger Paul McNeill said.

Cotswold District Council member Juliet Layton said if people brought picnics to the site it was just as easy to bring their litter home with them

"It has definitely been a good move.

"We tried putting notices on the bins asking people to take their litter home if the bin was full, but to no avail."

The park managers then decided to remove the litter bins without any announcement.

"We just came in early one morning and took them all away.

"Overall, we have reduced the amount of litter at Ham Hill by over 81% compared to 2018," Mr McNeill added.

Cotswold Water Park has removed bins from two "busy" areas of its site following a large increase in visitors during lockdown that led to a rise in rubbish and human waste being left behind.

Juliet Layton, Cotswold District Council cabinet member, said the "thoughtlessness of some visitors was really shocking".

"The detritus was massive.

"Human waste is a dreadful thing for our rangers to deal with. They are here to protect the wildlife and look after the lakes."

Ms Layton said clothing, inflatables, food waste, bonfires and barbecues had been left for rangers to deal with.

"We've removed those bins with no fanfare and the litter problem has reduced by 80% or even more, which is fantastic, It's a great scheme," she said.