How to enjoy your park this summer!

As the school holidays kick off, and people begin to venture outside to have socially distanced meetings with friends, we’ve never appreciated going to the park more. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, they’ve been the location for our daily walk or run, and now the place where friends and family can be reunited safely.

We’re looking forward to celebrating Keep Britain Tidy’s initiative, Love Parks Week, later this month where everyone is encouraged to look after the parks they love, and appreciate the people who work to keep them clean. Green, clean spaces have always been important for a happy and healthy community, but never have they been so important than during the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s why we think it is really important to talk about how everyone can do their bit to make sure the parks that we love stay clean. Recently, parks across the country have seen overflowing bins and rubbish left behind. We want to make sure that all waste ends up where it belongs – in the bin.

As the summer weather looks set to continue for the weeks to come, we need to make sure we’re doing all we can to enjoy our parks and keep them tidy for everyone else. When using our park for outdoor activities, whether meeting up with friends, playing sports or going for a solo walk to enjoy nature, how can we make sure we’re doing all we can to keep our communal spaces clean?

One of our favourite ways to enjoy our local park during the summer is to have a picnic, and the parks are full of people enjoying drinks and snacks in the sunshine at the moment. However, parks are also seeing an influx of rubbish and people not cleaning up after themselves. We all want people to enjoy our green spaces, in a way that looks after the environment as well.

So, we’ve been thinking up some ways that we can enjoy a tasty picnic without creating too much waste. Let us know on Twitter (@BinItEducation) if there are any other things you like to do to have a delicious picnic that’s good for the environment too!

1. Bring your own bag! As you head to the supermarket to stock up on yummy food to enjoy, remember to bring your own bag! Did you know that a plastic supermarket bag can take up to 1000 years to decompose, so remember to either take a reusable one or a tote bag!
2. Avoid that single use plastic! When planning your delicious treats try to avoid the single use plastic that can stay in our environment for thousands of years. We’d recommend buying a great reusable water bottle (did you know it can take 450 years for a plastic bottle to decompose?). Other ways to save on using single use plastic is either buying, or bringing some reusable cutlery, as well as making sure to avoid plastic cups by bringing cups home.
3. Make your own food! Buying all your picnic food from a supermarket can be expensive, with pre-packed sandwich wrappers and other produce difficult to recycle. Why not try investing in some reusable containers, so you can pack up leftovers or prepare food at home? Not only is this good for the environment and cheaper for you, but it means less food waste as well!

4. Always clean up your rubbish! One of the most important points from the Bin It! tour is that everyone is responsible for their own waste, and that you must put rubbish in the bin. Hopefully our top tips above will help you minimise the amount of waste produced in the first place, but if it isn’t possible to dispose of your rubbish in the park take it home with you to dispose of in your household waste. Throughout the pandemic, bin workers have been at the frontlines of keeping our streets clean. They’re our Bin It! heroes, and we want to make sure we show our gratitude by doing our bit.

We hope you get outside and enjoy your local park this month, whether for a picnic or just for a walk in the sunshine. However, always remember to leave it tidy for everyone else to enjoy, either pop your rubbish in the bin or take it home to dispose of there. Get in touch with us @BinItEducation to share your best picnic tips, pictures of your local park or just to say hi!