By Julia Jones
I’ll be honest – I had no idea that a talk about litter was going to be so interesting and emotive. Not only the emotions of disgust, incredulity and anger — which thinking about litter evokes all too easily – but engagement, humour, surprise, compassion, admiration. Yet that’s how I felt listening to Jason Alexander’s presentation to the RDA on Bonfire Night. A good moment to be sweeping up some old preconceptions and seeing them burn away cold night air, giving out warmth and inspiration as they go.
This is the story of a one-man campaign and a movement we can all join, on our own or working with others.
Jason is the founder of Rubbish Walks (https://rubbishwalks.co.uk/), a social enterprise which does what it says on the can, enables people to meet on a regular basis, clearing litter from a specific neighbourhood area, taking exercise together and appreciating their environment from looking at it minutely. Jason is bugged by litter, single use plastics, cigarette butts, dog poo, all the detritus we so casually toss aside that isn’t just unsightly but can cause the death of our fellow creatures. He’s trying to do so much more than gathering people together to pick litter up: he wants to persuade us not to drop it in the first place; inspire us to change our lifestyles, reduce waste, enhance our environment, care for our fellow creatures and the planet.
Jason’s story began when his son Sam was aged 4 and mad about wildlife. It was 2004, the first series of Springwatch with Bill Oddie, Kate Humble and Simon King. Jason and Sam watched together, enthralled (like thousands of others) with the footage of the blue tits bringing up their fledglings in the nesting box. Jason was in plaster at the time. He wanted to make a nesting box for Sam to carry on watching and developing his enthusiasm. His background was in product design and electrics, so he researched suitable camera kits, then worked with his brother, a carpenter, to make a whole range of different nesting boxes for different birds – even when the grey squirrels moved in, they were welcome.
For a while Jason worked with Simon King on The Wildlife Whisperer Podcast but as they became more successful he found himself spending more time in the office, when what he really loves doing is getting close to people – and tinkering around with gadgets. He became wildlifegadgetman.com, with 30 cameras in his garden and live streaming all over the world. He was using trail cameras, infrared nightvision and sensors. It was like having Springwatch all the time in his own garden. There were so many delightful moments – like watching a hedgehog seeing off a fox or discovering how many moths we have in the UK.
Then he set himself a challenge to witness and photograph 100 sunrises in a year. It wasn’t just dragging out of bed to go and set up a camera, part of each mornings routine needed to be putting the technology away and simply being ‘in’ the moment.
When he was setting up his shots, he’d be moving bits of litter away and this became a central part of his routine until, on some days, when the light wasn’t right for photography, he’d get up anyway and just go and clean the litter from that environment. Then he would share the images and stories from that activity. Bawdsey, East Lane and Kyson are among his most regular haunts.
One day Jason found a dead Gannett, tangled in a pink party balloon on a ribbon. It was gut punching that such a beautiful creature like that had died from human carelessness. I need to do something about this thought Jason.
Littering, plastic pollution and waste. These issues can feel overwhelming. One might so easily think that nothing one can do will make a difference. We feel that the UK is bad but there’s litter worldwide. It’s not too late. We mustn’t give up.
The impact on wildlife remains distressing. Jason showed us a photo of a mouse which had died, stuck in a bottle. More often his photos are startling in unexpected and humorous ways as he tries to make people think differently about our littering habits. A photo of himself staggering under the weight of litter from a single beach clean, a suit covered with bottle tops (campaigning for the government to introduce a deposit return scheme), a photo of his friend Morris, the dog poo fairy, a video of The Litter Raptor, shared on social media, litter art, collages made from crushed cans.
Jason’s capacity to dream up – and realise – imaginative projects seems limitless. We heard about the Enchanted Tree Trail in Rushmere-St-Andrew, which tells a story about the animals watched over by the tree guardians. Hundreds of people walk around the trail month by month. Perhaps one day people who are toddlers now will take their own children. And there’s the Little Hub of Happiness – a red phone box on the Market Hill in Woodbridge which encourages people to littler pick but is also a book exchange, a food bank and seed bank encouraging people to pick up spice jars filled with bird seed and be kind to the birds.
His other project is the Vintage Litter Museum in a blue container on Jetty Lane. It’s usually open on Friday and Saturday and displays 20th century litter genuinely found on beach cleans around Suffolk. Jason shocked us with his statistics about cigarette butts, the most common form of litter. 4 trillion are dropped around the world every year. They’re made of cellulose acetate and take 10 years to break down.
What’s next for Jason’s inventiveness? Rubbish Adventure TV, perhaps – a definitive YouTube channel for the litter picker and beach cleaner communities. He feels inspired to become the first person to litter pick or beach clean in every county of the UK. He wants to juxtapose the beauty against the grot. He wants to meet people and share stories. I think it sound brilliant. I hope he’ll do it and tell us about it.
How can we help? By joining the Woodbridge Wombles on one of their monthly walks/litter picks perhaps. These happen on the last Sunday of every month, starting at the Vintage Litter Museum. Or perhaps more groups might collaborate by sharing maps of the areas they pick regularly and seeing where the gaps may be. A litter picker conference perhaps? If you’re a group – or an individual – with a regular picking schedule – whether it’s a regular weekly walk or an organised annual event, I’ll gladly use some space in the Deben magazine to collate such information, if it’s thought to be helpful. Email [email protected] if you’re interested in this idea of mapping the litter picks in the Deben area.
If you want to contact Jason directly – perhaps to offer help or book a talk – visit rubbishwalks.co.uk or contact Jason via email at [email protected].
Julia Jones
Julia Jones is the editor of The Deben magazine.