Tag Archives: Merton

Wandle Cleanup: October 2019: Merton

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The unrelenting rain threatened to call things off on Sunday, when we met for October’s cleanup at Waterside Way, in Merton. The river level started a little higher than normal, while the forecast looked pretty miserable, and due to the flashy nature of the river we were worried that any further heavy rain might mean that the cleanup would need to be cancelled on health and safety grounds. However, thankfully the weather forecast was not 100% accurate and we just had a dreary and drizzly day to contend with: nothing our stalwart volunteers can’t handle!

We had an excellent turnout of 51 volunteers, some wading whilst others hauled the rubbish onto the banks, ferried it back to the collection point in wheel barrows and litter picked the banks.

The weather didn’t get the memo that it was meant to be a Nice Day for A White Wedding……

There was more rubbish in the river than we anticipated and we cleared approximately 4 tonnes from a stretch less than 100m long.

 After two years of repeated efforts and an hour long battle on Sunday, this particularly pesky shopping trolley was excavated from its home in the silt, only to be joined shortly afterwards by another one.

If this skateboard had been structurally sound, we would have all been delighted by a fabulous display of Polly’s skills! Sadly this one had seen better days, so we’ll just have to wait until a better quality one is pulled from the river.

Jess found a way to keep people focused on the work…

So what did we find?

Two tyres, two shopping trolleys, a mattress, a desk fan, numerous scaffold poles, a tent, a mini skateboard, a toy gun, mdf boards, loads of carpet, clothing and the usual haul of plastic bottles and wrappers.

A special thank you to everyone who helped pack up the van at the end of the event, Dave for supervising the Event Tent,  Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment, and to our funders, the National Lottery Community Fund.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Bev, Autem, Anna, Lindsay, Margo, Anna, James, Iker, Simon, William, Dave, Mickey, Wayne, Martin, Guy, India, Tony, Steve, Rob , Paul, Elizabeth, Brian, Peter, Simon, Derek, Aaron, Will, Phil, Chris, Deborah, Andy, J, Teddy, Alex, Elijah, Margaret, Jacob, Kayla, Sheila, Phil, Zena, Willow, Julia, Mick, Jamie, NJ, Kathryn, Paula, Sophie and Charles.

Wandle Cleanup: June 2019: Merton

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Our June river cleanup took place at North Road, Merton. We had a great turnout this month with 68 keen volunteers.

Following the welcome talk and health and safety briefing, we headed downstream to access the river and start removing the rubbish. It was amazing to discover how much litter was both floating and embedded in the riverbed and banks.

Items such as plastic bottles and food wrappers quickly filled the trugs, and volunteers on the banks helped to bag it up and wheel it to the rubbish pile.

The wading team in action.
Yorkshire puddings anyone?

We also found quite a few larger, heavier items such as duvets, bicycles and a three-piece sofa set! We hauled these onto the banks as a team, and the cub scouts also did a great job of bagging up the rubbish and carrying it to the rubbish pile.

Warning! Duvets are heavy when wet!

Several trees had fallen across the river, creating great habitat for insects, birds and fish, and also trapping rubbish for us to retrieve. The volunteers carefully leafed through the branches, searching for “hidden treasures”.

A litter trap – and also an important refuse for small fish and birds.

Around 1pm we took a break to refuel. A huge thanks to Wally for managing the refreshments. Whilst enjoying some cake we sang Happy Birthday to Derek, one of our long serving and dedicated cleanup team.

After lunch we went back in the river where we’d left off and continued upstream pulling more rubbish. In total we removed a total of 6 tonnes of rubbish from along just 250m of river!

Trug, after trug, after trug of rubbish!

What did we find?
Two bicycles, a sofa and two armchairs, car tyres, a TV, duvets, an estate agent signpost, various parts of motor vehicles, children’s toys, kitchen pots and pans, religious statues, and the usual food wrappers and drinks bottles and cans.

We had a massive rubbish pile by the end of the session!

Great work everyone. Looking forward to seeing you all at our July cleanup!

Jo & Lucy

Huge thanks to everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Wally for supervising the Event Tent, Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment, and to our funders, the National Lottery Community Fund.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Tim, Simon, Carter, Shaun, Claire, Alfie, Sheila, Phil, Dave, Chris, John, Carolyn, Nick, Tom, Jenny, Becky, Ed, Matthew, Tony, Charles, Tim, William, Steve, Emma, Berte, Joanna, Thomas, Anita, Wally, Neil, Guy, David, Peter, Martin, Per, Andy, Nick, Farah, Davina, Aria, Murray, Elizabeth, Claire, Joseph, Alan, Jason, Denis, Ivan, Robert, Wilfred, Sebastian, Arna, Jane, Alan, Rob, Bev, Robert, Stewart, Jill, Leo, Aaron, Brian, Thea, Phil, Liz, Chris, Simon, Suzanne

Wandle Cleanup: May 2019: Merton

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For our May cleanup we headed to Plough Lane in Merton.

We started off the day with the usual Welcome Talk and Health & Safety briefing. For the first time this year we were lucky to have lovely sunny weather, so everyone was very eager to crack on with wading and litter picking around the banks.

We had another amazing turnout this month, with 49 volunteers getting stuck in cleaning the river. Initially the site seemed fairly clean, but once we got in the river it was shocking to see how much was embedded into the river bed.

The riverbanks were very clean, so the morning mainly consisted of removing rubbish from the river itself. This site was particularly bad for wet wipes and cloth trapped in the riverbed and surrounding vegetation. We had to work as a team to get the rubbish up from the river (we channelled our inner superman/ninja turtle).

We stopped for lunch around 1 o’clock and were all hurrying to get a piece of the lovely lemon drizzle cake made by Jackie – huge thank you for this, it was delicious!

After lunch we did a second sweep of the river and found even more cloth tangled in the riverbed. There was still so much rubbish to find, so we went all the way through until 3 o’clock when we finally decided to call it a day.

Here is the final rubbish pile.

So what did we find? 12 tyres, a trolley, a scooter, a bed frame, some socks, a traffic cone, a skateboard, various parts of a car, two large bones, a carpet, two barriers, superman, ninja turtle, various toys, a bike, huge amounts of wet wipes and other cloth, and as always lots of bottles, cans and plastic bags. 

Finally, we would like to say a massive thank you to the Robins & Day Vauxhall show room, for letting us use their toilet and also offering teas and coffees!

Lucy and Jo

Huge thanks to everyone who helped pack up the van at the end of the event, Dave for supervising the Event Tent, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment,Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish and of course to our funders, The National Lottery Community Fund!

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Mike, Suzanne, Charles, Sheila, Bev, Sally, Derek, Aaron, Claire, David, Caroline, Ian, Joe, Neil, Simon, Dave, Luke, Lynda, Steve, Joanne, Elizabeth, Chris, William, Guy, Paul, Alfie, Beau, Steve, David, Per, Nick, Andy, Margaret, Rob, Suzanne, Steve, Martin, Indi, Linda, Davina, Aria, Phil, Kate, Estelle, Will and Jamie.

Wandle Cleanup: February 2019: Merton

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Our February river cleanup took place in Wandle Park, Merton. This month’s cleanup was a little different from usual; combining litter picking, fly-tipping removal and tackling floating pennywort.

Floating pennywort is an invasive non-native plant species. This means the species was introduced to the area and is causing harm to the naturally occurring life in the river. Pennywort can be easily seen floating on the surface of the river like little kidney-shaped lily pads. It causes a range of problems including changing the availability of oxygen in the water, threatening fish and invertebrates, choking drainage systems and crowding out native water plants. With this in mind, we thought it would be best to get in early and remove the pennywort before spring arrives.

Luckily we had 52 lovely volunteers turn up to lend a hand!

The day began with the welcome talk and health and safety briefing before splitting the group into litter pickers and pennywort removers.

There was some excellent team work going on in the river as pennywort was pulled and removed, then wheeled away.

Most of the litter was likely a result of park users and included bottles, drinks cans, food packaging and footballs.

Around 12:30pm we took a break for lunch. Shout out to the Richmond University Great British Bake Off Group and Per’s wife for all the delicious baked goods; and Rosie and Wally for manning the refreshment tent ensuring everyone warmed up with hot drinks.

After lunch, our volunteers headed back into the river. Many of the litter pickers had sought out a few hotspots of litter which they cleared up. Top finds were a plastic palm tree and several plastic Christmas trees.

Dave had set up a catch net at the start of the day to prevent any drifting pennywort fragments from floating downstream. As a final job before packing up, this was emptied and removed.

All our volunteers should be extremely proud of their effort and work as the river looked much clearer and the flow had increased. On top of removing the pennywort, look at how much litter was also collected – great work!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the March cleanup!

Jo

Huge thanks to everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, those who baked and those who supervised the Event Tent, Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funders, Merton Council and the National Lottery Communtiy Fund.

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Lynda, Champior, Joanna, Davinay, Tom, Grant, Billy, Jihyun, Phil, Derek, Per, Charles, Chris, James, Steve, Becky, Gareth, Martin, David, Andy, Paul, Nicholas, Robert, Tony, Jess, Chris, James, Simon, William, Nyssa, Pontus, Lauren, Jacob, Nicholas, Jenny, Sue, Anita, Philomenia, Sanner, Hazjq, Hassan, Jane, Rosie, Margaret, Kyle, Wally, Dave, Milan, Aaron, Gideon, Erica and Ed.

Wandle cleanup: October 2018: Merton

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For our October cleanup we headed to North Road in Merton. This was Jo’s first river cleanup and an eventful one at that, so thank you to everyone for being so welcoming and helpful!

As usual we started off the day with the Welcome Talk and Health & Safety briefing. After a very rainy Saturday night we decided it was sensible for only a few of our more experienced waders to clear the river, so everyone else set off litter picking around the banks, park and roads.

Despite the poor weather we had a great turnout with about 42 volunteers – so thank you for braving it in the wind and rain!

We removed as much litter as possible from the river where it was safe to do so, and lots of litter from the surrounding areas. We found several interesting things, including a pram, half a motorbike, a mattress, a sofa and a chest of drawers.

We stopped for lunch around 12.30 and took shelter from the rain under the gazebo. Big thanks to Wally for bringing along the delicious pumpkin pie and to the mysterious individual who baked the chocolate brownies!

We couldn’t continue wading after lunch as the river had become too deep and fast-flowing thanks to the continuous rain. Instead, we litter picked around the park and the surrounding area. Initially we thought the area was fairly clean but as we looked further and deeper, it turned out there was lots of litter picking that needed to be done.

Here is the final rubbish pile!

So what did we find? 4 tyres, a mattress, sofa, half a motorbike, a trolley, a chest of drawers, a rocking chair, a pushchair, a toy kitchen, a bouncy ball, a fence, a bench, a food waste bin, a basket, a cone, a chair, lots of bottles, rugs and plastic.  

On a more serious note… While community groups like ourselves can make a massive difference, the government and large companies, like supermarkets, are largely responsible for tackling the issues with plastic waste. We can and should all use our voices to pressure our local council and supermarket to phase out the selling of single-use plastic.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Rosie and Wally for supervising the Event Tent, and Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funders, Tesco!

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming: Eleanor, John, Lia, Farrah, Maddi, Eric, Elliott, Wally, Rosie, Chris E, Swzen, William, Martin, Tom, Andy, Wayne, Billy, Chris H, Cuba, Kaori, Elizabeth, Duma, Per, Guy, Jamie, Nick, Jonny, James, Mark, Michika, Luke, Raphael, Dave, Lynda, Paul, J, Nicholas, Rob, Derek, Aaron, Charles and Sue!

See you next month!

Lucy and Jo

Wandle cleanup: September 2018: Merton

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For September we headed to Waterside Way in Merton. 

This cleanup is part of Wandle Fortnight – a two-week celebration of all things Wandle. Find out what other events are on offer here. 

 

Sadly, this month we said goodbye to Hannah who is off to Canada in a few weeks’ time. So a BIG thank you to Hannah for running the events these past few months, and all the best for Canada. On happier news, we also welcomed Jo, our new Cleanup Contractor who will have her first official cleanup next month!

As we had visited this site about 6 months ago, we were hoping to find less rubbish. However, as we drove up the road towards the site we could see that the litter pickers would definitely have their hands full, and as soon as we got in the river, we realised the waders would too!

Before we got started, we kicked off the day in the usual style, with a Welcome Talk and Health & Safety briefing. Once work began, it was not long until large items were being pulled out and the list kept growing…

…we found 4 tyres – a whole set!

A metal fence, which took four strong volunteers to carry it back down the path to the rubbish pile. It must have taken some real effort to get this into the river.

A toilet seat / photo frame

A beer keg – which unfortunately was not full of beer

We also came across some of the local wildlife – eels! Here is one of the bigger ones that we saw. But we quickly released him gently back into the Wandle.

We found a lot of heavy items, so thank you to all the volunteers for your hard work and continued enthusiasm throughout. I bet your muscles ached on Monday!

So what did we find?
A camera, broomstick, lots of carpets, 3 bicycles, a sleeping bag, wallet, 4 tyres, a duvet, 2 bicycle tyres, a washing machine motor, lots of gutters, a golf ball, a fishing rod, a metal fence, a toilet seat, a children’s bicycle, lawnmower, scooter, coconut, epi-pen, ID, oyster card, shopping trolley, baby walker, chairs, sink, table, silt trap/drain bucket, strimmer, 2 saucepans and an umbrella.

All of this was just some of the more unusual items we collected amongst many cans, plastic bottles, wet wipes, food wrappers and other items of litter in the river.

Huge thanks to everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Rosie for supervising the Event Tent, Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funders, Tesco!

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:  Derek, Lucy, David, Aaron, Nick, Phil, David, Emily, Andy, Paul, Wayne, Thea, Madeleine, Sheila, Rosie, Frank, Phil, Rhianna, Nicholas, Charles, Caitlin, Paddy, Kaori, Grace, Anna, Brigid, Kaiden, Steve, Martin, Janet, Will, Simon, William, John, Per, Steve and Chris.

See you next month!

Hannah, Lucy and Joanna

Giving eels a helping hand on the Wandle

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In 2017, we delivered the Wandle Eel Project in partnership with the Living Wandle Landscape Partnership, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Environment Agency, Zoological Society London (ZSL), National Trust, and Wandsworth Borough Council.

Why?

European eels (Anguilla anguilla) once thrived in London’s rivers but the number of young joining the adult populations have dropped by over 95% since the 1980s and the species has been classified as ‘Critically Endangered’ by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species since 2008.

One of the major threats to eels in freshwater are barriers to upstream migration such as weirs and sluice gates that reduce the amount of habitat available for eels to grow and mature.

What’s been going on?

This project aimed to improve eel passage along the Wandle by installing eel passes at six locations where structures were a complete or partial barrier to migration. All installations were completed by Wandle Trust staff and assisted by local volunteers.

1. In June 2017, the existing eel pass at Morden Hall Park was repaired, extended and fitted with a monitoring trap. This site was then used by ZSL to train local volunteers, and National Trust staff to monitor elver migration along the Wandle.

2. The Topps Tiles tiles site in Earlsfield was delivered in December 2017 (in the snow), which included a row of lift out eel tiles with upstream deflector, and a section of low profile bed tiles on an adjacent channel. This site was testing the improved steel brackets which were fabricated by a local contractor/volunteer. These installations were designed as ‘easements’ to allow eels to navigate the fast flowing sections of the heavily modified concrete channels. Two old, defunct eel passes were disassembled and removed from site.

3. The Trewint Street easement was installed in December 2017, and consisted of a 30 m section of the new ‘low profile’ bed tiles that were commissioned for this project, with a short section of flexible bristles to navigate over a 300 mm wooden baulk at the upstream end.  This has provided an additional route up the left hand channel which offers a less turbulent route than the fish pass in the right hand channel.

4. The eel pass at EDF was installed during Dec 2017/Jan 2018 with a 15 m section of ‘low profile’ bed tiles. As some high tides overtop the weir, these works were designed to increase the range of time/tides that this structure would be passable to elvers.

5. Improvements to an existing eel pass upstream of Ravensbury Park were installed in March 2018. An extension piece was added at the upstream end to prevent debris blockages. At the downstream end, a deflector plate was added to reduce turbulence, and four standard bed tiles were installed to direct eels towards the pass entrance.

6. This gravity fed eel pass was installed on a small side channel near Poulter Park in March 2018. This was a cheaper and more secure alternative to a pass that had previously been stolen.

We would like to give a huge thanks to all our volunteers who helped install these passes and those who are continuing to monitor eel numbers during the current season!

Wandle cleanup: May 2018: Merton

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The one with the prehistoric trolley… 

For May’s cleanup we headed to Plough Lane in Merton – a site we hadn’t visited for over a year.

The day started in the usual way, with a Welcome Talk and Health & Safety briefing. It wasn’t long until we were trekking down the Wandle Trail to get into the river and start the rubbish hunt.

It was a sunny, spring day and the vegetation along the banks was a gloriously green backdrop to our wading party. Within half an hour, the first item was found – a car seat!

As the day continued, Plough Lane gave us some equally interesting finds including a briefcase…

…A ukulele – nice playing Phil!

…A drone…

And perhaps my favourite find – a Pokeball. I had always wanted one growing up and this was my lucky day!

By lunch time we were all gasping for a drink and headed back to the tent for a break and some lunch.

In the afternoon, the wading team found a couple of challenges to keep themselves busy. The first was a trolley which, by the state of it, had been in the Wandle for many, many years.

The second was a bicycle – again buried so deep in the silt we were not sure what it was for about half an hour!

To finish the day we found a scooter and used it to head all the way back to the tent to pack up.

So what did we find?  1 trolley, 1 scooter, 1 jumper, 1 drone, 1 bicycle, 1 child bike, 1 washing line, 1 till, 1 licence plate, 1 dinosaur (and no I didn’t keep this one), 1 car mat, 3 dust sheets, a hessian bag full of rubble, 8 carpets and bags and bags of other junk.

Huge thanks everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Rosie for supervising the Event Tent, and Merton Council for organising the collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funders, Tesco!

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:    Alice, Andy, Annabelle, Becky, Beth, Bridget, Caitlin, Carol, Charles, Chris, Claire, Dave, Dave , Derek, Ed, Edward, Eiryn, Ethan, Garth, Gideon, Guy, Jim, Joanne, John, Kory, Lloyd, Madeline, Martin, Mevan, Michael, Paddy, Paul, Penny, Per, Phil R, Phil S, Rose, Sarah, Sheila, Simon, Steve, Stewart, Sue, Thomas, Toby, Tom, Wally and William.

Wandle cleanup: March 2018: Merton

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The Great British Spring Clean 2018

Our March event was part of The Great British Spring Clean!

The Rivers Trusts joined Keep Britain Tidy in assembling an army of #litterheroes for a UK wide mass cleanup. Did you know 80% of plastic in the oceans comes from land, and rivers are a significant pathway for it to get there? Well that is why in March this year, rivers trusts up and down the country held volunteer events to help clean up our rivers and beaches. So we stepped up on the Wandle!

The day started in the usual way, with a Welcome Talk and Health & Safety briefing, and after that, our Litter Heroes set off to clear Waterside Way in Merton.

We have cleaned this site a fair few times now, and we always find large carpets, and today was no exception. We hauled this one out at the beginning of the event, and there were more to come.

Parts of a car started to emerge as well, such as tyres, a car bonnet …

.. an exhaust pipe…

And the car seat….

We have no idea if these were all from the same car, or bits of several different ones!

A computer keyboard was found so I could start writing this blog on site.

And a new toy for myself, a little squid which I took home and kept.

At lunchtime we were all starving, so we all headed back to eat our lunches, cake and warm up a bit with tea and coffee.

In the afternoon, some more great finds were discovered.

A razor shell…

A sad teddy bear

And a fyke net!

So what did we find?  1 fyke net, 1 tennis racket, 1 scooter, 1 walking stick, 1 Christmas tree, 1 sink, 1 squid toy, 1 car bonnet, 1 exhaust pipe, 1 toilet seat, 1 car seat, 1 sad teddy bear, 2 umbrellas, 2 frying pans, 2 traffic cones, 2 coconuts, 3 hoovers, 3 carpets, 3 wooden fencing posts (1 with its concrete base), 3 radios, 5 tyres, bits of several small kids’ bikes, bags and bags and bags of rubbish – I think we got through 120 sacks at least!

Huge thanks everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Rosie for supervising the Event Tent, and the Waste Team at Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funders, Tesco!

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:   Aaron, Andy, Benit, Chris E, Chris S, Daniel, Dave, David, Derek, Ed, Eddie, Frank, Gideon, Guy, Ian, Jamie, Jane, Joanne, Joe, John, Johnny, Madeline, Neil, Nick, Patrick, Paul, Penny, Per, Phil R, Phil S, Rory, Rose, Sheila, Simon, Steve B, Steve Mc, Steve M, Stewart, Su, Thomas, Tom, Wally and William.

Wandle cleanup: November 2017: Merton

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The one where the police were called on us…

On a cold November morning, I arrived at North Road, Wimbledon to set up for this month’s Wandle cleanup. As I was unloading the van with a couple of helpers, a police car pulled up.

Although we knew we’d done nothing wrong, we were slightly nervous as they approached. It turned out that someone had reported fly-tipping from a Zip Van, and the police had come to check it out, only to find the Wandle Trust setting up our event to tackle fly-tipping.

So that was ironic – but if you’re reading this, and you were the person who made that call – thank you for caring so much about keeping the Wandle Valley clean, and don’t stop making those calls if you see anything suspicious!

With that all sorted, and no one arrested, I gathered our 45 volunteers to take a two minute silence for Remembrance Sunday, and then got our cleanup started.

This is the first event supported by the Tesco Bags of Help Fund which offers community groups and projects across the UK a share of revenue generated from the 5p charge levied on single-use carrier bags.

Our project, Wombles of the Wandle, was successful in receiving £2,000 after coming second in the public vote. The money will be used to run two Wandle cleanups in the Merton area and to replace some equipment such as gloves.  So a big thanks to all who voted for us. We have already put the money to good use…

To get started, we headed down to the footbridge by Garfield Recreation Park and got in to the Wandle to work upstream. The water was much deeper than usual, with poor visibility. This was due to heavy rainfall overnight, and some natural woody material which had fallen in the river, creating some excellent new habitats for fish in what was previously quite a straight, uniform channel.

While we loved the new additions to the channel, it did make our event a bit harder, with logs and bits of tree to navigate over, and deeper water. In fact, in some places it was so deep we had to get out and walk along the bank until the level had dropped.

Despite the additional challenges, rubbish was found. We cleared 15 bags of plastic bottles which had accumulated near one tree trunk..

We found the token Wandle coconuts too, as well as a green pepper, carved pumpkin and apples…

We also found this commemorative mug from Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s wedding.

By lunch time we were freezing and headed back to the tent for tea and cakes, as well as some delicious savoury snacks made for us by the students from the Richmond International University. However, we didn’t stop for long as the weather wasn’t getting any warmer and it was better to be moving than standing still.

After lunch, we headed under the North Road bridge and continued upstream. Again, the water was deep and murky, but we found a few things which made our trip worthwhile, including a sofa…

A Merton Council waste bin…

And a bike.

With 500 m of the Wandle covered in this cleanup, we called it a day and all went home to defrost.

So what did we find?  1 carved pumpkin, 1 green pepper, 1 step ladder, 1 computer chair, 1 Vishnu statue, 1 Prince Charles & Princess Diana mug, 1 piece of guttering, 1 shopping basket, 1 bicycle, 1 tyre, 1 bike wheel, 1 wheelchair, 1 mattress, 1 duvet, 1 Merton Council waste bin, 1 sofa, 2 wooden pallets, 10 coconuts, 15 tennis balls, 15 bags of plastic bottles and bags and bags of other junk.

Huge thanks everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Wally for supervising the Event Tent, the students from Richmond International University for baking such yummy treats and the Waste Team at Merton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funders, Tesco!

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:   Aaron, Alec, Andrew, Andy, Beth, Carl, Charles, Chris, Christine, Claire, Dave, David, Derek, Emily , Fahad, George, Guy, Hayley, Ian, James L, James T, Jayne, Joe, John, Kai, Karoline, Korab, Lisa, Michael D, Michael O, Mickeif, Nick, Per, Phil R, Phil S, Rolanas, Sheila, Steve, Stewart, Thea, Thomas, Wally, Wayne and Will.

So what did I learn from this month’s cleanup? Tick off all the equipment as you pack the van so you don’t have to drive back to site at 5pm and dig through the rubbish pile to find the missing Wandle Trust flag. I looked like a crazy person…