Let’s Talk Trash: Braxted Park festival will put the focus on litter

We all dislike litter, so an event being held at Braxted Park, near Witham, next month should lift the spirits.
The Let’s Talk Trash event on Tuesday, July 18, is a “climate action anti-litter festival” for youngsters aged 11-13, with more than 300 pupils from the Plume Academy in Maldon taking part in a range of experiences designed to raise awareness of the impact of littering and waste on climate change.
It is hoped the festival will spark better understanding and behavioural change throughout the school, within families and indeed the wider community. There will be a focus on practical strategies to tackle litter and waste, as well as on recycling, repairing and re-using.
The pupils will be divided into six groups of 50, while there are plans for competitions to keep them all involved, as well as a motivational speaker.

Six interactive zones will be in place:

• Self-respect
• The ‘art’ of recycling
• Love the Essex countryside
• Essex wildlife
• What it’s worth
• Making a difference

It is hoped the festival, which is funded by the Essex County Council Climate Action Challenge Fund, will become an annual event.
Duncan Clark, of the Braxted Park estate, said: “We should aim to instil youngsters with a burning sense of civic pride and self-respect that makes them determined to ensure the district in which they live and work is the cleanest in the UK.
“With luck and effort we will create a spark that lights a flame that engulfs the county as a whole and thereafter the region and the nation.”

• Let’s Talk Trash, Braxted Park: Tuesday, July 18, 10-2pm