In just six months of giving up their Sunday mornings a tidy group of volunteers has gathered over a tonne of rubbish from their streets.
Killyleagh Clean Team has made such an impact on its local area they now have an award for the work under their belt.
After 10 years of austerity, local councils are relying more than ever on volunteers to pick up after litter bugs not using the bins provided and in some areas they are having a real impact. In line with our Reach For Zero campaign, we spoke to one Co Down group about their efforts.
Read more: Plastic solutions help mould NI economy by saving it from landfill
Lindsey Armstrong, from Killyleagh Community Association, told Belfast Live: "The Clean Team is a group that Killyleagh Community Association set up to do litter picking. It was just set up six months ago and so far we have lifted 1.6 tonnes of litter from the beach and the town.
"Much of that litter is plastic bottles, bottle tops, packaging, food containers, drinks can, the odd golf club and scooter.
"We meet every Sunday morning - all ages from children to older members of the community and it's a lovely way for us to get to know other people. We spend one hour together, really whatever the weather.
"We are trying to not just remove the litter from the beach and from the town but to get a message across to people to dispose of their litter responsibly and to try and get it into the mindset of younger people. Everybody is noticing the difference, which is lovely."
The group is supported by Live Here Love Here who have given them a grant of over £16,000 to install a raft of new bins in Killyleagh centre and sea front as well as its playpark and schools to support their efforts. Fourteen of those bins were made from recycled materials while some include lockable frames, to display litter picking artwork drawn by kids at the local schools.
Lindsey said: "There will be 20 pieces of work from children of different ages encouraging the message of being responsible with your litter, keep your place tidy and protect marine life - that's really important not just for the children to be doing it but their parents and grandparents might come along and say 'where's our son's artwork'. It's always reinforcing that message.
"We don't just do litter picking on a Sunday - we love improving the place in any way that we can. We clear up old ivy, weed areas that are public but there's not the funds to weed and plant up and so on.
"We really have a laugh doing it and it has spread into other areas."
As a result of their efforts, the mum of three said "we won the spirit of Live Here Love Here award".
"It was just brilliant," she added.
"We are very heavily supported by Live Here Love Here. They provide us with bags [and] the litter picking equipment. We bag all that rubbish and some weeks we could have 17 or 18 bags. We tidy it up and we leave them beside the litter bins in the street and then they are collected on a Monday morning."
This May 8, the group will be taking part in Live Here Love Here’s Big Spring Clean which any local litter picking group can take part in.
You can register for your local clean up here.
Read more: Some supermarkets to hike carrier bag charge above new levy
Read more: Call for ban as over 4 million single use plastics dumped in NI every week
To get the latest breaking news straight to your inbox, sign up to our free newsletter.
