A selfless seven-year-old boy chose to celebrate his birthday by throwing a little picking party for all his pals.
Caleb Ratcliffe was inspired to carry out the selfless gesture after taking part in Keep Britain Tidy’s Great British September Clean with his local Beavers group last Autumn.
The little litter picking party were loaned sticks, bags and hi-visibility vests and hit the streets of his home town of Watford, Hertfordshire, on October 9.
Caleb was joined by his sister, six friends, and their parents, who focused their efforts on littering hotspots, collecting two bags of litter, and one bag full of recycling.
The birthday boy said: “I like litter picking as it saves the environment and now when people go down the alleyway they will think it’s much tidier.”
Mum Naomi said today (Fri) her son’s decision to go litter picking instead of having a traditional kid’s party was due to his love of nature.
She added: “”He’s always been really interested in the environment and nature. He is very much at home in the outdoors and around animals.
“After seeing and being infuriated with all the litter along the dual carriageway, he came up with the idea of a litter picking party.
“I checked it with some mums who all thought it was a brilliant and inventive idea so we ran with it. After a little research I found that Veolia actually let you borrow all the equipment [including really cute mini high-vis vests] and collected all the litter and recycling at the end so it was actually very easy to arrange.”
The little litter pickers were given equipment by waste-management contractor Veolia that looks after recycling, waste, street, parks and open spaces for Watford Borough Council.
Darren Harding, senior contract manager for Veolia, said: “Thank you Caleb for having the excellent idea of combining your birthday celebrations with sprucing up your area to be litter free.
“We are impressed with how much civic pride you are showing to your community at such a young age. We are happy for more people to borrow our litter pick kits for all seasons and all occasions.”
