by Gazette Reporter
A team of 21 chemists from Veolia UK’s water purification division has visited Hornsea as the guests of the Plastic Free Hornsea group, to spend one of their environmental team building days clearing up litter in the town.
It’s the third year running they have chosen to come to Hornsea, and it was more than just a get-together as they set themselves to work in various locations straight away.
As a rule, staff from the company usually communicate digitally, so meeting up in such numbers in one place is quite rare.
The team members, who had come from different counties across the UK, met up at the Hornsea Hub first for breakfast and a briefing before getting to work.
Last year, some gentle pruning was done on the Hornsea Rail Trail in the morning followed by a large beach clean. However this year, more radical work was needed on the Trail to remove weakened and protruding branches for the safety of users.
The Veolia team supplies all their own equipment, and lot of the work was done in three-and-a-half hours. While there, they also found much older hidden litter, resulting in five full bin bags being filled and removed.
The team also tackled the hidden litter in some of the wooded areas of Hall Garth Park. Although all areas could not be covered in the time available to them, it was a significant result.
Veoila UK team leader and manager Matt Havler said: “We could go anywhere for our environmental day, but we choose to come to Hornsea. We want to help and to make a difference.”
Jane Denton from Plastic Free Hornsea said: “We would like to thank Matt and his team for their hard work, their donations of equipment, their hospitality and for genuinely making a difference. We are looking forward to next year.”
Plastic Free Hornsea is at the Hornsea Hub each third Sunday of the month from 10am for the loan of litter picking equipment to help keep the town and coastline clean.
Companies or educational establishments wishing to organise group picks outside of these times can contact them through their Facebook page.
(Photos; Jane Denton)
