“Use your bins properly” – Salford residents urged to take responsibility against littering

A Salford volunteer is appealing to residents to take more responsibility to combat littering.

Graham Pattinson, who has been cleaning Salford streets for fiver years with Salford Litter Heroes, has helped to set up a spin-off group, Keeping Clifton Clean after spotting the need for a stronger approach to picking litter.

Flytipping is still a big problem but he says the other main source of litter is improper bin usage.

Mr Pattinson said: “Fly tipping is a major problem for some parts of Salford because we’re easily accessed by motorways.

“We’ve had caravans dumped in our area which were traced back to Bolton. Someone had come and dropped them here because they could get here on the motorway.”

Mr Pattinson believes that the responsibility of picking up litter should be placed on the general public.

He said: “It’s civic responsibility in my book. If everyone did a bit, we wouldn’t be totally reliant on the council to do everything.

“I think if every individual household just actually picked up the rubbish that was in front of their house and put it into their bins, there would be a big difference.”

He also urged people to “use your bins properly” as opposed to throwing litter on the street.

He said: “If you’re out walking think about the rubbish, taking it home instead of throwing it on the ground.”

Graham Pattinson started volunteering with Salford Litter Heroes in 2019, getting involved in litter picks in the area after retiring.

He said: “I thought, just try and give back as much as I can when I’d retired and litter picking, just seeing the outdoors, doing something.”

The issue of littering can cause a variety of problems for the environment, and adverse weather can cause litter to block drains and be swept into nearby water.

Mr Pattinson said: “We’ll see cans that are squashed in a gutter because they’ve been left in the road. Then they get pushed into grids, which then become blocked up.”

Past initiatives have been introduced by the Government to reduce littering. These have included campaigns and increased fines.