Litter Picking
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
Woodland Borders - Rochester and Welling Ways
Saturday, 4th July 2026
Saturday saw us back at the woodland edges bordering the Rochester and Welling Ways – one of our regular litter and fly-tipping hotspots.
Of course, our mission isn’t simply about making the area look tidier. That’s a welcome bonus, but our real aim is to stop litter being blown deeper into the woodland where it can harm wildlife and the wider environment. Plastic breaks down into tiny fragments, cigarette ends release harmful chemicals, and none of it belongs in a woodland ecosystem.
The good news? At first glance, things looked much better than they had just a few days earlier, thanks to pathway litter picks carried out by RBG. It was one of those rare occasions when we wondered if we might have an easy morning. We should have known better.
With an excellent turnout of 16 volunteers, we soon spread out along the road verges, collecting the usual avalanche of sweet wrappers, shredded coffee cups, food packaging, scraps of foil and what felt like enough cigarette ends to keep a tobacconist in business.
Once the verges were clear, we headed into the woods. As well as covering our regular woodland areas and paths, we also collected a full bag of litter from along the two Shepherdleas paths running parallel with Berry Hill, before continuing along the Green Chain Walk.
By the end of our two-hour session, we’d filled 31 sacks of general litter, plus an eclectic collection of items that no woodland has ever requested:
One car tyre
One car number plate
One kitchen rubbish bin (ironically, not being used for rubbish)
One bag of soaked clothing
One car mat
One soggy blanket
One broken planter
One lonely glove, still waiting for its partner
Two neatly tied carrier bags, each containing four empty beer cans (someone was so close to disposing of them properly!)
An empty bottle of rum accompanied by a bottle of blackcurrant juice – we’re not here to judge anyone’s choice of mixer.
Numerous plastic water and “health drink” bottles, apparently no longer promoting healthy living.
And, making yet another appearance, five catering sized nitrous oxide canisters. At this rate they deserve their own section of the blog.
One 10p coin!
The most depressing find, however, was three sacks of shattered glass – possibly from a vehicle windscreen – hidden about 10 feet into Shepherdleas Wood between Falconwood Station and the traffic lights. They were far too heavy for us to move safely, and one had already split open, scattering tiny shards of glass across the woodland floor.
It’s now been reported to RBG, but it’s frustrating to think that council staff will have to spend time dealing with something that could have been disposed of responsibly in the first place.
Which brings us to the questions we ask after almost every session.
Why carry broken household items into a woodland to dump them instead of using the appropriate waste or recycling facilities?
Why carefully tie up a bag of empty beer cans, carry it into the woods, and then leave it there instead of placing it in one of the many nearby bins? If you’ve gone to the trouble of bagging them, you’ve already completed 99% of the job!
Until we understand why people behave like this – and find ways to change it – volunteers and council staff will continue spending hours clearing up preventable waste. That’s time that could be spent improving habitats, planting, maintaining paths or simply making these wonderful green spaces even better for everyone.
The good news is that, thanks to our fantastic team of volunteers, the woodland is once again looking much healthier than it did at the start of the morning. Every wrapper removed, every bottle collected and every sack filled is one less hazard for wildlife and one more step towards keeping these woods the beautiful places they deserve to be.
See you at the next pick… although we’d be perfectly happy if there was a little less for us to find.
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