Keep Jesmond Clean’s monthly litter pick happened on Saturday November 12th, with a turnout of over 20 people, some including Newcastle University students.

Within the two hours, 12 bin bags of litter were collected by all volunteers across most of Jesmond. “We got 21 volunteers this time, and we covered some of Sandyford and some of North and South Jesmond,” Tanya Pretswell said.

The more volunteers that join each month, the more areas Keep Jesmond Clean can cover and more litter will be picked. As well as being part of this campaign and helping the community, Pretswell mentioned some behind the scenes of the whole process.

“A lot of planning goes into it, which is done by Anna, the treasurer, Rachel, who is the secretary and me, the chair,” she said. “We’ve got to cart equipment from where it’s sorted, to make sure everything is here and in working order. We also must carry insurances, there’s making sure everybody signs in as well.”

At Saturday’s litter pick, equipment there included, branded hi-vis jackets, litter picks, bin bags and gloves. Volunteers, including myself, went around Jesmond for at least an hour and collected as much litter as they could. Back lanes of Jesmond are important to cover as they seem to have the most litter, the organisers said.

“I think it’s good to start young,” said Nadia, a Newcastle University student.

International Newcastle University students, Nadia and Yerim Kwon, participated in this Saturday’s litter pick as an activity for their volunteering society.

Kwon said: “this is our first time doing the Keep Jesmond Clean litter pick, it is part of our activity within our Beyond Volunteering Society. We wanted to meet the local community and break our bubble.”

“In the future, we want to participate in this litter pick every month, to make it our monthly activity,” Kwon added.

As I took part in this volunteering activity and living in Jesmond as a student, I can personally say that with the help of our community, the level of litter can be reduced.

Bins are provided across all of Jesmond and campaigns, like Keep Jesmond Clean, exist, so take part. The amount of litter I picked filled a full bin bag, so with the help of more students, this could be a lot more.

As stated in JesmondLocal’s previous article about broken glass in Jesmond, it is still apparent to residents and not just litter that concerns them.

During Saturday’s litter pick, a lot of broken glass was reported to leaders of the campaign, so they could further report it to Newcastle City Council.

Osborne Avenue and Farquhar Street where the main areas were broken glass was found.

To find out more about when the Keep Jesmond Clean litter picks are, make sure to follow their Twitter and Facebook pages to keep updated.