The Peak District is for everyone to use but pick up your litter!

“Nowadays, the crags and edges where walkers and climbers go aren’t too bad,” said Rob Turnbull from Outside. “It’s the laybys and car parks, the areas that are easily accessible that are the worst bits now. I like to think climbers and outdoor people are quite respectful and do take their rubbish home with them.”

Last Saturday’s clean up ran from 8am to 6pm, with well over 60 people taking part across the Peak District. Rob and family were joined on the clean up by scores of customers and supporters, along with over a dozen shop staff and his retired mum and dad, Richard and Sally, who founded the shop 35 years ago.

“We encourage people to come out to the Peak District, it’s for everyone to use, but at the same time, we want to encourage people to pick up their rubbish,” said Rob.

The day’s volunteers, including members of the Sheffield Litter Pickers voluntary group, gathered enough rubbish to fill a large skip, said Rob, and even found a fly tipped bag of asbestos, left on site and later recovered by Derbyshire Dales Council, who also collected the day’s bagged up proceeds later.

The most common items were bottles, cans, and crisp packets, said Rob, but the team also recovered a still smouldering disposable barbecue and dozens of used baby wipes, which Rob says are increasingly found across the Peak District.

“They get left behind after people have come out and ‘gone to the loo’,’’ he said. “They’re horrible things, and you don’t really want to pick them up, but we do because we carry litter grabbers with us.”

There are reports that such finds are not uncommon even in more desolate areas: one keen fell walker recently carried off a rucksack full of assorted waste from the moors near Stanage left after a ‘wild camp’ expedition, which included uneaten chicken, Budweiser bottles, barbecue grills and equipment, cooking oil, a bottle of peri peri sauce, duck eggs, limes, mangoes and several piles of human faeces.

Over lockdown, urban folk unused to the countryside were being encouraged to socialise outside, partly to avoid the risk of Covid in indoor environments, and Peak District authorities recognised that many of those people had no idea about how to behave in the countryside.

Patrolling rangers said urban visitors sometimes seemed to assume that every picnic spot or roadside lay-by would be cleaned up by an official later in the day, just like Meadowhall. Some also seemed to believe that if no toilet was provided, they were justified in defecating onsite.

Apart from the simple fact that no-one wants to find the contents of a human toilet on their Peak District visit, campaigners note that human waste takes a long time to break down, and can meanwhile spread disease to animals and other humans, including salmonella, E. coli and parasitical worms.

Rob Turnbull said that the littering problem has improved since lockdown, but much more needs to be done to educate the visiting public who may have little experience of the outdoors. He’d like to see more emphasis on the Countryside Code in schools, and maybe a new TV campaign to help everyone enjoy the countryside respectfully.

The code was recently updated and now states: “Do not light fires and only have BBQs where signs say you can” and “Take your litter home – leave no trace of your visit.”

After their hours with bin bags, gloves and litter grabbers on the hills and crags, Saturday’s volunteers were rewarded by a barbecue back at the Outside store in Hathersage.

“It is rewarding to see what you’ve collected, and thinking that would still be out in the countryside if not for us,” said Rob. “But to leave your bottles and rubbish in the countryside after you’ve enjoyed it is one of the most selfish things you can do, in my opinion. It spoils it for everyone.”