Grand Litter Pick-up – Calle Niagara

In addition to the individual Pick-ups that the various groups of volunteers are arranging Los Verdes would like to organise a Grand Litter Pick-up once a month for large problem areas that are not being cleaned by the Council.

On the 10^th July 2008 on this Blog I posted an article on the litter on Calle Niagara and the failure of the council to have it cleared, despite it being reported to them. You can see from the photograph the litter is still there!

At 10.00 a.m. on Thursday the 16^th October 2008 we are holding a Litter Pick-up of the location shown and others along the length of Calle Niagara. We are asking that as many volunteers as possible give approximately 15 minutes of their time to help clean up this area. The more help we have the greater the amount of litter we can clean. We can show the Council what changes people power can make to the cleanliness of Orihuela Costa.

Our aim is to clean as much of the part of the road marked green on the map as possible. The meeting point is shown. Remember to bring your gloves to protect your hands. We will bring the hats, badges, labels, and bags.

Please help to Clean up the Costa, by giving just 15 minutes of your time once a month to help on the Grand Clean-up! For further details or to pledge your help on the 16^th October email cleanupthecosta@gmail.com or telephone 965319660.

Click on Map to see enlargement.

Calle Niagara is just 200 metres from the Saturday market in Playa Flamenca.

Lucky 13 Save half a day!

On Sunday 21st September 13 volunteers attended a clean-up organised by Josephine and Graham Cantello in the Las Ramblas urbanisation. The location they tackled was on Avenida Las Ramblas de Oleza, with particular attention to the area where the communal rubbish bins are sited.



Josephine said “It was not as bad as it usually is but needless to say, it did need a clean and disinfect. 13 people turned up which turned a half day of cleaning into just 1 hour”
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This excellent turnout showed that many hands make light work and the task was soon completed.

Josephine added; “It was brought to my attention that another area on Las Ramblas was in need of a clean so arrangements are now being made for next Sunday when, we hope, with the aid of our "flyers", we will get a good turn out.

14 Bags of Litter in I hour.

Residents with Los Verdes campaign coordinators

Several residents from the Sol Beach and Vista Azul 2 communities in Cabo Roig held a 'People's Litter Pick-up' on Thursday 11th September starting at 10.00 am with the result that 14 bags of litter were collected in approximately 1 hour.

The event was organised by Bernadette Dunkley, Vice President of Sol Beach, following registering with the campaign and receiving a Free starter kit. Her colleagues on the clean up included Wendy, Rita, Barry, Sue, Amelia, and Patrick (apologies to any one I've missed).

The area they chose to tackle was the recreation area situated on Calle Ortosa, which includes football pitches and petanca courts. The transformation of the area following the clean up was tremendous, the football pitches did not look like rubbish bins any more and the surrounding space was clear of litter.

Bernadette commented that “We have planned our next session for Thursday next and hopefully by then we will have more helpers. It was a good satisfying morning.”

On a return visit to the site latter in the day, to take some photographs of the result of the clean up, I personally noticed people looking at the campaign stickers put on the bags of collected litter. A gentleman who noticed my campaign badge asked for more details about the scheme and commended the effort of the residents.

My apologies to the residents for a lack of photographs after the clean due to my clumsiness in dropping my camera on the morning and finding that sticky back plastic doesn't fix everything.

Council agree to co-operation with Campaign

A meeting was held on Tuesday 2nd September 2008 in the Ayuntamiento in Playa Flamenca, between four members of the Los Verdes Working Group for Orihuela Costa (Gérard & Ulla Perret, and Elliot & Natalie Sampford) on behalf of the Clean up the Costa campaign, and Councillor Jose Antonio Aniorte, PP Councillor for the coast.

The result of the meeting was that it was confirmed by the Councillor that the Council will co-operate with the 'People's Litter Pick-up' part of the campaign in that it (the council) will ensure that any bags of rubbish or other items that are marked with the campaign stickers will be collected, that it will provide free of charge large rubbish skips for the larger 'Pick-up' projects that it is notified of by the campaign, that it will supply free of charge a quantity of refuse bags for use by the volunteers to the scheme. A small quantity of bags that was available in the Ayuntamiento was given to the Los Verdes representatives following the meeting.

9 Starter Kits issued in 1 Day

Following the launch of the 'People's Litter Pick-up' part of the campaign in the local press, on the campaign Blog, and on two of the local chat forums; between 10.30 am & 12.30 pm during the Los Verdes surgery held on the 3rd September 2008 at the Celtic Isle in Playa Flamenca we issued 8 Free People's Litter Pick-up starter kits to residents who called in. With 1 further telephone request latter in the day that gives a total of 9 registrations to the campaign and the issuing of kits in 1 day.