Litter Warriors
Join our growing team of Litter Warriors who are committed to picking litter in their local communities on a regular basis.
Litter Warriors is a Colchester City Council initiative to support and enable local communities to help maintain a clean and green Colchester by litter picking an area of open space or street that’s important to you. This may be the street you live in, your favourite park or open space.
Register your interest
To sign up to Litter Warriors, email community.volunteers@colchester.gov.uk.
Once your sign up has been accepted, we will email you with an estimated delivery date for your litter picking kit.
We will provide you with:
- a high vis vest
- a litter picker
- bags
Your confirmation email will have more information on:
- how we collect the bags of rubbish
- how you can order new bags
- how to share your feedback with us
Litter Warriors is also a great way to bring families, friends and neighbours together and maintain pride in our local neighbourhood.
We are building a network of Team Leaders to bring people together to tackle bigger tasks, and help promote a community spirit.
Hear from some of our Litter Warriors
'I recently contacted the council to ask if we could clear a local footpath near our home address, I signed up as Litter Warrior which was a simple process, and we were provided with equipment to litter pick the area. The footpath was also overgrown, and the Council loaned us some bins to clear the detritus and overhanging vegetation. It was an extensive piece of work over a few weeks, and I have now made new friends in the community as more people saw what we were doing and joined us.' J Maitland, Cambridge Way'We all take pride in keeping our streets clean. This is why we are a part of the Litter Warriors Team. A needy cause with a satisfying result, it gives a purpose to a daily walk. Our locality would be so much nicer if everyone took care of the rubbish around them. Let’s all become Litter Warriors.' Marion Lockwood, Highwoods
'When I retired, over ten years ago, my friend told me about a group, called PALS (Pensioners Against Litter), who cleared the streets near her home in Kent. I decided to see if I could form a group in Layer de la Haye, but not restrict it to pensioners.
We became 'People Against Litter' (also PALS) and originally had just a handful of members. The parish council assisted us with equipment to begin with, then later Colchester Council provided everything we needed. The parish council are still happy to provide us with special equipment, such as extra-long folding pickers and warning A boards for when we are picking roads with no footpaths.
It was after Colchester Council provided us with the hi vis jackets with Litter Warriors on, that we changed our name to Layer Litter Warriors and now have 26 members. Each person is responsible for an individual road or area to keep clean and the whole of our lovely village is covered by somebody.
It's so satisfying to see the results of our hard work and is really appreciated by local villagers. We join for group litter picks of the main roads serving the village but had never all met up for a meeting.
So, it was good to get together recently to meet with Paul Andrews, our new Volunteer Coordinator for Colchester Council, and exchange views and I hope to arrange more social activities in the future.' Elizabeth Appleby, Layer Litter Warriors
'Anyone who volunteers to help keep our city clean is simply amazing and inspiring, It’s great for motivation, exercise and improving mental health as well as protecting our environment.' Councillor Martin Goss
Page last reviewed: 30 April 2024