Field Journal

Trash Free Trails launches Spring Trail Clean

Trash Free Trails launches ‘Spring Trail Clean’ to encourage riders, runners, and roamers to protect our trails and the wild places they take us to.

Every single crisp packet, drinks bottle, or sweet wrapper stuffed into stone walls, tossed in hedges, or discarded in the woods will still be there hundreds of years later if we don’t take action now.

This April, Trash Free Trails is launching the Spring Trail Clean: a month-long mass-participation event to remove huge amounts of single-use pollution from our trails and wild places.

As part of the campaign, Trash Free Trails is setting riders, runners, and roamers a ‘One Bag Challenge’ to encourage as many people as possible to remove at least a bag’s worth of single-use pollution from their local area – from trails to fields, parks to roundabouts, or small corners of urban woodland.

The Trash Free Trails Spring Trail Clean is a celebration of what every single person can do right now, to roll up our sleeves and take care of the places we love. If the current litter problem is the result of millions of acts of carelessness, Trash Free Trails wants to counter that by even more acts of care.

There is evidence to suggest that people are more likely to drop an item of single-use pollution if they can see litter. Trash Free Trails is tackling the issue of single-use pollution on both fronts: stopping it in the first place and removing what still makes its way into the wilds.

From scientific research and developing education and understanding, to encouraging purposeful adventures, the work of Trash Free Trails has many strands. But if there is one activity that defines and encapsulates the essence of the organisation, it’s the trail clean. Here is how you can make a positive impact too:

One Bag Challenge
Removing just one piece of single-use pollution makes a difference, but Trash Free Trails is calling on people to undertake a ‘One Bag Challenge’, heading out from their front door or trailhead and filling up just one bag with any single-use pollution that they find. Whether it’s a five-minute activity at the end of a run or a ride, or a day-long adventure, Trash Free Trails is calling for everyone to get involved and make a difference.

Organised trail cleans
Partners of Trash Free Trails will also be running a number of organised trail cleans during April. Details of these events will be published on the Trash Free Trails website and social media.

The Spring Trail Cleans Grand Finale will take place in Bristol on Sunday, April 30th. This year, three teams will head out to remove as much single-use pollution as possible from Bristol’s trails on the fringe of the city. Leaving from the Trek Bikes store, the Left Handed Giant Brewpub, and Pedal Progression, riders, runners, and roamers of all shapes and sizes will converge on Ashton Court and the Avon Gorge riverbank.