Students collect eight bags of rubbish on community litter pick

Students from Nescot’s Foundation Learning department took part in a litter pick outside college as part of their unit looking at the environment.

A group of six students, together with their teacher, two Learning Support Assistants and the Head of Learning Resources and Student Enrichment, collected eight bags of rubbish in just 90 minutes.

The students said they’d worked hard and enjoyed the task, but were surprised at the amount of litter they’d been able to collect.

“We cleared up all the rubbish, but within a couple of days there was litter everywhere again,” said Dennis.

“It was hard work and I felt tired when we had finished,” said Chloe. “Why don’t people just put their rubbish in the bin?”

The students wore high-visibility vests, boots and gloves, and used litter pickers to clear waste from both sides of Reigate Road on Thursday (May 3), even venturing into the undergrowth to retrieve items.

Litter included plastic bottles, sandwich packets, food wrappers, drink cans and cigarette butts, as well as part of a car bumper. All the rubbish was taken back to college for disposal.

The environment forms a key part of Nescot’s community charter, which states that students, staff and visitors to the college must ‘respect the environment’ and ‘behave responsibly’.

Graeme Hodge, Head of Learning Resources and Student Enrichment, said he aims to organise litter picking on a regular basis, with the path to Ewell East station and the bridleway next on the list.

“As well as educating our students on the importance of respecting the environment and disposing of rubbish responsibly, we want to show the community that we’re good neighbours,” he added.

The students are on Foundation Learning’s Springboard course, which supports students as they work towards getting ready for employment.

Any community group with projects that would be suitable for Nescot’s students to get involved in can contact Graeme by emailing ghodge@nescot.ac.uk