The annual Great British Spring Clean kicks off this Friday and we’re urging all our readers to take part. Why? Here are the facts and figures…

Back for its seventh year, the 2022 Great British Spring Clean takes place from Friday 25 March to Sunday 10 April. This time they’re asking people to join the #BigBagChallenge and pledge to pick up as much litter as possible during the campaign. This could be just one big bag one time, every day for a week or longer, like Danny and Jojo, who are collecting daily for the entirety of Ramadan. We already posted about how to get involved and top tips for litter picking, so now we're crunching the numbers…

Why take part?

• 8,000 incidents of animals affected by litter were recorded by the RSPCA over the last two years.

• 98 days is how long a hedgehog from East Winch, Suffolk, spent in care after being found with a plastic cable tie around its neck. Picking up rubbish severely reduces the harmful impact of litter on wildlife and nature.

• £1 billion pounds is spent every year to clean up our streets, parks and beaches. The summer of 2020 alone saw an extra £33,000 on average spent by local authorities in cleaning up parks, with one authority reporting increased spending of up to £150,000.

• 91% of last years' volunteers said that after taking part in the Great British Spring Clean they felt more pride in their local area, while 86% said it helped improve their mood.

How has the Great British Spring Clean helped?

• 957,377 bags of litter were picked up during the spring 2019 campaign thanks to 563,163 #LitteHeroes.

• 272 local authorities and 407 town and parish councils lent equipment to residents and collected litter following clean-ups during the September 2020 campaign.

• 66% were new to the Great British Spring Clean in 2021, with 13% being totally new to litter picking and a further 38% who had only ever picked up litter occasionally, demonstrating that the campaign is effective and important for the environment.

We hope you’ve been inspired to head out on a little litter-picking excursion in your own local areas. We’d love to see you in action, so please send your pictures in via Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, or email them to info@jewishrenaissance.org.uk, and we’ll share them on our blog and social channels.

By Danielle Goldstein

Photos courtesy of @KeepBritainTidy

For more information on the Great British Spring Clean, visit keepbritaintidy.org.