Treloar College students keeping the streets clean with ACAN litter picking volunteers

Ben and Connor, two Treloar College students joined volunteers from the Alton Climate Action Network (ACAN) group for their regular monthly litter picking walk.

Putting their community skills time to good use, Ben and Connor were eager to get stuck in, armed with high –viz vests and litter pickers, they joined the ACAN volunteers helping to keep the streets of Alton clean and tidy.

The group of 10 ACAN volunteers and 5 Treloar’s staff and students collected an incredible 25.5 kilos of litter, starting from the Mount Pleasant car park and litter picking on the High Street, Cross and Pillory Lane, Market Street, Church Street, the Market Square and the public gardens.

The ACAN litter picking patrols started work during lockdown, as a wonderful way to get outside for exercise and also an opportunity to talk to passers-by about the work of the ACAN groups locally, and raise awareness of environmental action in the local community.

The ACAN volunteers meet on the first Thursday of every month to collect litter around the town centre, the public parks and open countryside spaces of Alton.

To find out more and to get involved with future litter picking walks, email ACAN’s Action on Plastic Group or see ACAN’s website.

The Treloar College Eco Council have organised their own litter picking walks around Treloar’s campus. College students Ben and Connor both said they enjoyed the litter picking activity and were keen to ‘get outside in the fresh air, to give back’ to their local community, and to ‘help their local neighbourhood’.

For this term’s College Eco Challenge, tutor Charlotte has created an Eco Bingo card to help inspire students to take part in activities to learn about the environment. There is a prize for students who take part and a range of activities to try at home during the holidays or on campus.

The College Eco Council meet every month to discuss energy saving projects and improvements to the Treloar’s campus. Alton Town and EHDC District Councillor Graham Hill visited recently and answered questions from the students about what the local councils are doing to save energy and what projects they can get involved in themselves. He was so impressed that he made a generous offer of up to a total of £1000 from his EHDC Grant allocation towards suitable energy saving projects at Treloar’s. This generous offer will give the College Eco Council a wonderful opportunity to turn their ideas into action, for the benefit of the whole community around Treloar’s.