LAGER Can Blitz During the Great British Spring Clean

Volunteers remove more than 2,500 bags of litter

Volunteers after clearing up a park in the borough. Picture: Lager Can

April 7, 2026

Litter-picking volunteers across Ealing have delivered an extraordinary effort for this year’s Great British Spring Clean, collecting more than 2,500 bags of rubbish in just over two weeks.

Community group LAGER Can, which coordinated the borough-wide push, said the results showed the power of sustained local action. Between 13 and 29 March, volunteers donated 1,378 hours of their time, gathered 2,507 bags of litter and reported 288 fly-tipping incidents to the council.

An estimated 450 people took part, with many returning repeatedly throughout the campaign. Around 70 per cent of both the hours worked and the waste collected came from LAGER Can’s ambitious All Parks project, which focuses on cleaning every park in the borough.

This year’s All Parks effort saw volunteers visit all 148 parks in the London Borough of Ealing, clearing litter from paths, wooded areas and hard-to-reach corners. The project brought together a wide range of community groups, including students from West London College’s Southall and Ealing campuses, pupils from Derwentwater Primary School, Khalsa Primary School and Ark Byron School, as well as members of the Samurai Football Club and the Eco Team from St Thomas’s Church in Hanwell. They were joined by dozens of regular LAGER Can members and many first-time volunteers.

The Great British Spring Clean, led by Keep Britain Tidy, is the UK’s largest mass-participation environmental campaign, encouraging people to take pride in their neighbourhoods by removing litter from streets, parks and public spaces. LAGER Can was recognised nationally last year when it received the Great British Spring Clean Litter Legends Group Award.

Cathy Swift, chair of LAGER Can, said the response from volunteers had once again exceeded expectations.

“Just like last year, our Great British Spring Clean All Parks project proved extremely popular with our incredible members, whose enthusiasm never ceases to impress me,” she said. “It was wonderful to be joined by so many schools and community groups. We estimate that around 450 volunteers took part. We know that Ealing Council’s hardworking cleansing crews do their best to keep the busiest areas of our parks clean, but we found plenty of rubbish lurking around the edges and in wooded areas.”

Local streets were also targeted in the clean up . Picture: Lager Can

LAGER Can continues to run regular litter-picking sessions across the borough and is encouraging more residents to get involved.

For further information or to join future events, visit lagercan.co.uk.