Now RSPCA backs Spring Clean: Charity supports drive to freshen up Britain


Now RSPCA backs Spring Clean: Charity supports drive to freshen up Britain after reports of animals trapped in lockdown litter

  • RSPCA said it took 4,000 calls about creatures stuck in discarded waste in a year
  • These include a gull tangled in a face mask and hedgehog with head stuck in can
  • It is now urging people to get involved with the Great British Spring Clean 2021 

The RSPCA has backed the Great British Spring Clean following thousands of reports of animals trapped in lockdown litter.

The charity revealed that despite Britons going out less because of the pandemic, it still took almost 4,000 calls about creatures stuck in discarded waste in the last year.

These include a gull tangled in a face mask, a hedgehog with its head stuck in a can, a fox caught in an old Cornish pasty wrapper and a gannet entangled in plastic. 

The RSPCA has backed the Great British Spring Clean following thousands of reports of animals trapped in lockdown litter. Pictured: Gannet has fishing plastic removed

The RSPCA has backed the Great British Spring Clean following thousands of reports of animals trapped in lockdown litter. Pictured: Gannet has fishing plastic removed 

With an average of more than ten reports per day, the charity is now urging people to get involved with the Great British Spring Clean 2021 – organised by Keep Britain Tidy and supported by the Daily Mail – to help protect animals by picking up discarded waste. 

Adam Grogan, head of the RSPCA’s wildlife department, said: ‘Litter is one of the biggest hazards our wildlife faces today and the pandemic has just added to the problem with many disposable masks just being discarded on the ground.

‘These are a new danger to animals and we’ve been called out to rescue animals… caught up in the masks’ elastic straps.’

As well as everyday rubbish, the RSPCA has also recorded many animals arriving into its care with terrible injuries caused by discarded angling equipment – such as discarded fishing line, hooks and plastic netting.

The charity revealed that despite Britons going out less because of the pandemic, it still took almost 4,000 calls about creatures stuck in discarded waste in the last year. Pictured: Fox lays helpless in a Cornish pasty wrapper

The charity revealed that despite Britons going out less because of the pandemic, it still took almost 4,000 calls about creatures stuck in discarded waste in the last year. Pictured: Fox lays helpless in a Cornish pasty wrapper

With an average of more than ten reports per day, the charity is now urging people to get involved with the Great British Spring Clean 2021 to help protect animals by picking up discarded waste. Pictured: PPE mask is tightly knotted around a gull’s legs

With an average of more than ten reports per day, the charity is now urging people to get involved with the Great British Spring Clean 2021 to help protect animals by picking up discarded waste. Pictured: PPE mask is tightly knotted around a gull’s legs

Nearly 40 per cent of all litter-related calls last year were about animals that had specifically become caught in fishing litter, from a seal being strangled by old nets to dozens of swans who swallowed fishing hooks.

The Great British Spring Clean was launched this week with the annual litter-picking drive running from May 28 to June 13.

The Daily Mail encourages readers to ‘pledge to pick’ and help clear the plight of pandemic rubbish. Environment minister Rebecca Pow said the Spring Clean would ‘set the tone’ as Britain comes out of lockdown.

Last year more than half a million people signed up for the nationwide litter pick – which was delayed until September due to lockdown restrictions.

Last year more than half a million people signed up for the nationwide litter pick – which was delayed until September due to lockdown restrictions. Pictured: Hedgehog is trapped in an old tin of carrots

Last year more than half a million people signed up for the nationwide litter pick – which was delayed until September due to lockdown restrictions. Pictured: Hedgehog is trapped in an old tin of carrots

Meanwhile, researchers warned that the plastic pollution pandemic now reaches ‘from the tops of the mountains to the bottom of the sea’ after a camel found dead in Dubai had more than 2,000 plastic bags in its stomach.

Discarded rubbish is to blame for 1 per cent of camel deaths in the UAE in the last decade, the 5 Gyres Institute – set up to reduce plastic pollution – had found.

More than 300 camels died with polybezoars – a tightly packed collection of indigestible materials – in their stomachs as large as 63.6kg, which is the equivalent of six car tyres.

‘Latte levy’ to help firms recycle cups 

Customers face paying a ‘latte levy’ on their coffee under a new recycling tax, according to Government plans. 

Ministers yesterday launched a consultation on plans to introduce recycling targets for coffee cups, and to make producers pay the cost of recycling packaging. 

It would mean materials that are difficult to recycle, such as those used in coffee cups, would cost more, and companies would be forced to pass the costs on to consumers. 

The document highlights that there is limited recycling of coffee cups and other takeaway packaging because the costs are too high. Ministers say there is ‘little economic incentive’ to recycle the packaging. 

They have yet to decide how much would be added to the cost of a cup of coffee under the new tax. ‘There is support for a target to apply to other types of fibre-based composite packaging which can also be more difficult to recycle,’ the consultation says. 

‘Government therefore proposes to introduce recycling targets for a new category of packaging.’ 

This would include disposable drink cups, sandwich boxes and food and drink cartons. 

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