OLDHAM Council wants people to rid the borough of litter by taking part in the #1PieceofRubbish initiative.
A challenge has been thrown down to clean up the town by each person picking up at least one discarded item of rubbish throughout October – and you’ll be in with a chance of winning a special prize if you do.
The council is supporting #1PieceofRubbish, a social media-based initiative which is encouraging every person to pick up one piece of rubbish each day.
The winner will receive a three-month premium all-inclusive membership to Oldham Community Leisure (OCL).
Here’s how to enter the #1PieceofRubbish competition:
- Pick it up – in front of your house, office, college, park etc
- Take a photo – or a selfie, or a video, which includes the rubbish you’ve picked up
- Throw it in a bin – It can be yesterday’s paper, last night’s fast food or fizzy drinks cans
- Post it on Twitter – Using the #1PieceofRubbish hashtag and where you have picked it up. Then challenge five friends to do the same.
There is no limit on how many times you can enter; the Council wants you all to pick up as many pieces of rubbish as possible.
The population of Oldham is more than 230,000 so if each resident picked up just one piece of rubbish each day it would make a huge difference.
So, wanting to do our bit for the community, ahead of our first edition, the Shaw and Crompton Correspondent editor, Trevor Baxter, went looking for litter.
Sadly, he didn’t have to search too hard. Within half an hour he had collected enough rubbish to almost fill a bin liner.
One of the worst affected places was the Metrolink park and ride car park in the centre of Shaw.
Bottles, cigarette packets, fast food containers, sweets and crisps packaging, and coffee cups resulted in an unsightly mess and health hazard.
But litter wasn’t just confined to the busy centre as we quickly discovered.
The pavements of roads in and out of Shaw and Crompton bear witness to lazy motorists and pedestrians discarding their litter rather than taking it home or popping it in a bin.
Having already completed a similar exercise in our home base of Saddleworth, there have been comments suggesting it is Oldham Council’s responsibility to keep the streets clean and tidy.
Yes, it is – but the Council doesn’t drop litter in the first place.
We will continue to collect rubbish whenever we can and urge the town to do its bit too.
Cllr Jean Stretton, Oldham Council Leader, said: “This is a fantastic initiative. It’s a great example of how we can all make significant change when everyone does their bit.
“So I’m urging you, next time you’re walking down the street and you see a piece of rubbish, put it in a bin. It really will make a huge difference.
“When you enter the competition, have a bit of fun with your post and see if you can make us laugh. We’ll give you a retweet if you do.
“This is not something that ends in October. #1PieceofRubbish is an initiative we have a long-term commitment to. We also hope it will make people think twice about not dropping litter in the first place.”
Everyone who takes part during the month of October 2017 will be entered into a prize draw and the winner will be chosen at random on November 1.
See the terms and conditions for more information: http://ow.ly/3Die30fzGdn