Taking part in a litter pick on a Sunday wearing what may as well be a bright green bin bag might not be everyone’s idea of fun, but as I discovered this weekend, it actually feels really good! As part of Keep Wales Tidy’s Spring Clean Cymru campaign, McDonald’s volunteers came together to clean up their local area last weekend. I teamed up with around 30 volunteers of all ages from McDonald’s Cardiff restaurants, Caerau Ely F. C and ACE (a charity dedicated to supporting young people in disadvantaged communities) to help clean up the football grounds in time for Spring.
The litter pick came about when one of the volunteers, Stacey (who works at McDonald’s, and whose son attends Caerau Ely F.C) suggested to local restaurant franchisee, Ralph Parker that the restaurants helped to spruce up the club’s grounds.
The litter pick was made all the more important to me because I actually grew up in Caerau and I lived there until I was 16-years-old, so it was lovely to go back to my roots and give back to the community by helping local volunteers to clean up the football grounds.
Wearing thick rubber gloves and armed with bin bags and litter-pickers, we set about clearing the rubbish from around the pitch. From plastic bottles, cans and sweet wrappers, to tyres, toys and plastic piping; we came across all kinds of waste.
At lunch time, we stopped for a well-deserved break with hot and cold drinks, and McDonald’s fruit bags to nibble on.
The litter pick continued after lunch, with the football stand also receiving some TLC as volunteers removed graffiti and added a new coat of paint, trimmed the edges around the path and jet-sprayed the paths around the grounds.
By the end of the day, we managed to fill no less than 38 bin bags with waste.
As if that wasn’t enough, we also collected a considerable amount of bulky waste including bust tyres, broken toys, paint pots, alloy wheels, piping and wooden boards – I even came across a car dashboard!
Speaking at the event, local councillor Peter Bradbury said:
“We’re here as part of McDonald’s involvement in Keep Wales Tidy’s Spring Clean Cymru campaign to tidy up the area around Caerau Ely Football Club. It’s been brilliantly organised by the Club, McDonald’s Cardiff and ACE [a charity dedicated to supporting young people in disadvantaged communities]… It’s important to remember that this is your local environment, and we really need to look after it.
Meanwhile, Caroline from ACE added, “Today, we’ve collected quite a lot of rubbish. It’s really surprising how much rubbish has been collected already, thanks to the fantastic volunteers.”
The event forms part of the wider work that McDonald’s carries out to champion litter prevention in the community, with organised clean-ups like this taking place throughout the country and staff from McDonald’s stores conducting daily litter picks around restaurants. A firm supporter of Keep Wales Tidy for several years, the McDonald’s believes sees its own crew members and customers as invaluable in helping raise awareness of the litter that surrounds us and the how we can all take action against it.
“It’s been a great turnout from McDonald’s,” said McDonald’s People Manager, Nicola Carter (pictured above centre, in the high-vis jacket). “It’s been great to work with the football team and it’s been a great event.” Following on from the litter pick at Caerau Ely F.C, McDonald’s plan to hold a ten mile litter pick between five of their Cardiff branches. I had such a good time helping out this weekend, I really am tempted to join them!
Were you aware of the wider work McDonald’s does to support the environment? Have you ever taken part in a litter pick?
what a great initiative to be involved in. I had no idea that McDonalds did this kind of thing. i have done some community litter picking in the past with my church
I really enjoyed it and I’d love to do it again 🙂
Litter picks are such an important part of any community, I think, and it’s so good to get the kids involved as they’ll be less likely to litter themselves as they get older. Great initiative, this!
It was a great way to educate kids on caring for the environment, and I had a really good time helping out too 🙂
This was a great idea…..I don’t know what my area McD’s does charity or community outreach wise but hats off to you and your local McDonald’s. What a way to give back!
Thank you. It was actually really enjoyable 🙂
I didn’t know how much mac Donald’s did for the local areas. It’s pretty impressive.
I wasn’t aware of exactly how much they did until I got involved with this campaign either.
Big well done getting involved, it looks like you all did a great job, these kind of initiatives are so important. Mich x
Thank you! I actually really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to doing similar stuff in future.
I actually wasn’t aware of this campaign MacDonalds is involved in, great work you guys, such a great thing for the community
Thank you. It has really opened my eyes to the work that McDonald’s does to improve the environment.
I had no idea that McDonald’s were involved in initiatives like this – but it’s great to read about the work they corporation are doing (especially as I’m sure some of the rubbish you collected was from the fast food chain itself!). What a productive and satisfying project to be a part of, you should be proud of yourself 🙂 x
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed taking part and I took a lot away from it on a personal level.
This is such a lovely initiative! I used to do this all the time in school, glad there are more initiatives like this out there 🙂
I am hoping to get involved in more litter picks soon. There is one going on this week, but I’ll be in Portugal so I’m going to miss it.
I definitely wasn’t aware of the wider work that McDonalds do before reading this post – and what a fab way to support the community and encourage less litter. Looks like a great project to be part of. x
Thanks Amy. I really enjoyed taking part and I am already on the lookout for future litter picks to take part in 🙂