By Rob, Gooding, Community Organiser
Led by Natalie from the East Herringthorpe Litter pickers, the group has brought together members from other East Herringthorpe groups such as the cemetery clean up and the local history group. The aim is to create a large group focused around improving green spaces in East Herringthorpe. The group already has around 18 residents involved with them and is hoping to grow this over the next year. Natalie said: “I was tired of looking out of my flat at rubbish in my neighbourhood so decided to do something about it.”
Through the year on the weekly litter picks the litter picking group had noticed large amounts of household waste dumped in the same areas, mostly things like cans and bottles that can be recycled. There was a concern that this was attracting rats and making the area look unsightly, Natalie contacted myself and residents off the estate to see if there was anything we could do about this. After creating a Facebook chat group and talking to residents Natalie found out this was because people were unsure as to what could be recycled and as a result their bins were filling up and they were left with excess rubbish, with no means of disposing of it so the decision was made to form the group.
The group is currently looking at getting constituted in the next few weeks so they can begin applying for funding as part of an educational project (community campaign) to try and prevent fly tipping of household waste in East Herringthorpe through educating people on what they can and can’t recycle in their bins. This will hopefully mean residents can get through the two weeks between pink bin collections of general household waste. The group will start by producing and delivering leaflets around the estate on what waste is recyclable in what bin and are hoping to get the council to hold roadshows in the area as they have in other parts of Rotherham where people can get their bins emptied no matter what rubbish is in as a one off amnesty and then get educated on the recycling aspects.
As part of this Natalie has put proposals in to Ward Housing Hubs funding to ask for green projects to be undertaken in East Herringthope. The aim of the proposal is to start to improve the green spaces such as wildflower verges.
