'Litter picking changed my life for the better'

An ambassador for a litter picking charity says working to clean the streets helps his mental health.

Martin Hoe, 51, has volunteered with the Plymouth branch of Clean Up UK for three years after first hearing about the group at his nephew's school.

Speaking to BBC Spotlight as part of our Waste Day coverage, Hoe said the volunteering "changed my life for the better".

It comes as councils across the south west complain a lack of government funding is making it harder to maintain services.

Hoe said he had not looked back since getting involved with Clean Up UK's Plymouth group, known as Clean our Patch.

"The bug hit," he said. Literally, it was crazy. I started off with three volunteers now I've got 415 volunteers.

"It's amazing how many events I get invited to now and Efford's a lot tidier. If you think when I first started we had for one street 750 bags [of rubbish], that's now down to 48 bags so that's quite a lot of difference."

Hoe said he was often asked why he was litter picking instead of council workers.

"It's up to everyone [to litter pick]," he said.

"When we had Covid they were doing claps outside the doors [for key workers] and it's like well actually, at seven o'clock at night go out and pick up one bit of rubbish. Plymouth would definitely be a better society and have less rubbish."

In all, Clean Up UK boasts 648 litter picking groups nationwide, run from 94 Clean Up Hubs, one of which is in Plymouth.

Other groups operate from Barnstaple, Dartmouth and Newquay among other places.

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