Not for profit Trash Free Trails (TFT) announces they will no longer host their annual Spring Clean campaign after this April.
After fifteen years, will we see the end of the Trash Free Trails Spring Clean?
The annual ‘spring clean’ has been used for decades by litter picking groups and environmental organisations to encourage the public to enjoy the warmer weather and ‘do their bit’ for local green spaces. But the not-for-profit Trash Free Trails, after years of mobilising thousands of volunteers to remove rubbish, have announced that this year will be their final spring clean.
They argue that despite the efforts of organisations like theirs, and increasing numbers of volunteers across the country, the amount of litter is still increasing. Through their world-leading study of litter on recreational trails, the State of Our Trails Report, they also note that volunteers find the same brands, packaging culprits and similar if not increasing volumes of waste.
With global plastic production continuing to rise, single-use packaging remains a dominant contributor to environmental pollution. TFT argues the result of this is a growing disconnect between the scale of the problem and the solution we continue to apply to it.
TFT says the responsibility of single-use pollution should no longer fall to individual volunteers. Instead, the organisation is calling for greater upstream accountability from producers, alongside stronger implementation of policy interventions such as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and the forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers (DRS).
They believe these policy measures are vital for better spreading responsibility – shifting from a narrative of individual blame to one of collective action.
2026 will be Dom Ferris’ – CEO of Trash Free Trails – 16th Spring Clean in a row, he says exasperated ‘we can’t keep cleaning up the same problem again and again. Volunteer action is powerful, but it was never meant to be the end solution to what is an over-production issue.’
Since 2019 TFT has removed and surveyed over half a million items of litter from trail ecosystems, enabling over 7,000 people to connect with wild places.
Despite the headline announcement, TFT is still committed to finishing on a high note. This year’s Spring Clean campaign will still see close to 100 clean ups take place across the UK led by their community of volunteers. As well as encouraging litter picking efforts, they’ll be educating volunteers on the topic of overproduction and shared responsibility, asking the question: ‘why do we still have to do this?’
Members of the public are encouraged to join one of the last TFT’s Spring Cleans as we know it this April, or do their own in their local area here.
