Retired Manchester teacher Keith Neal has shamed the Royal Mail as litter bugs by spending three years picking up almost THREE THOUSAND rubber bands dropped by postmen in his locality.
Whenever Mr Neal enjoyed his Sunday stroll to church he would often wince at the numbers of empty soft drink cans, and takeaway wrappers dumped around his well-heeled neighbourhood.
But he decided to act after noticing the numbers of distinctive red rubbers bands dotted around the streets – and realised the culprits were careless postal staff that dropped them when bundles of letters were separated for posting through front doors.
Since 2011, Mr Neal has been involved in a one-man crusade against the littering posties – by collecting thousands of the elastic bands found dumped near his home in Hale, near Altrincham, Greater Manchester.
After storing them in his study, each year he sends a large bundle of them back to the Royal Mail for recycling – and to make a point about their antic – only for the littering to start again.
Last year alone the grandfather collected more than 1,000 of the bands that are used by Royal Mail to bundle deliveries.
Mr Neal, a former biology teacher at the presitigious Manchester Grammar School, said: ”It is my way of fighting back against the problem of litter – but I do wish the postmen would be a bit more careful with their elastic bands.
”It is bad enough that we have a litter problem as it but no one expects one of the big culprits to be the Royal Mail. I keep picking up the elastic bands for them to use again but as fast as I do that, they’re being dropped on the streets again.
”I appreciate postmen have much bigger deliveries to make these days but littering the streets like this affects us all. Sometimes the streets look an awful mess and the postmen and women should know better than to just drop their rubbish all over the place.
”We all need to care more for our environment and show through example that we can all do our bit. I just think the Royal Mail should do their bit too.”
Mr Neal said that he began to notice how many of the elastic bands could be found on his regular one-mile walk to his church and decided to start picking them up.
He said: “I do quite a lot of walking and I always notice how much litter is around. Where I live, the church is about a mile away and I go three times a week and you see litter in the street like empty cans of soft drink, takeaway wrappers and such like.
“Then I noticed the number of rubber bands that were being left around the street. I knew instantly they were from the Royal Mail because they were the distinctive red they use in deliveries.
”Obviously I can’t pick up all the empty cans and takeaway wrappers but I thought picking up the elastic bands would be me doing my bit to tackle litter – and to make a point to the Royal Mail.
”After a while I was amazed at how many I was collecting. With most litter you can’t identify the people responsible for dropping it, but the elastic bands are clearly dropped by the Royal Mail.
“I’ve not got anything against the Royal Mail but some of their staff do drop a lot of elastic bands. I find myself collecting them every time I leave the house and it is not my job to do that kind of thing.
“I started it out of habit of wanting to keep things tidy but I was really surprised at how many I was finding. The other day for example I picked up five. As far as I know the bands are biodegradable but that would take years and they are so unsightly.
“I am sure that Royal Mail just think the council will sweep them up but that doesn’t happen. In my eccentricity I have been keeping a record of how many bands I’ve collected.
“Last year it was 660grams, which is about 1,000. They year before it was 500g. I keep the bands in my study in a carrier bag and then at the end of the year I present them at the local sorting office – yet no-one from the Royal Mail has ever even acknowledged it.
“I know it’s an eccentric pastime but on the other hand we do have a litter problem in this country and this is my way of showing that we can all do our own little bit.
“I decided to focus on the rubber bands because it was so obvious who was dropping them. I don’t go around picking up other litter, like sweet wrappers or takeaway packaging it would completely overwhelming”.”
The keen walker said that he estimates he walks more than 250 miles every year collecting the elastic bands.
Helen Bingham, from environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy, said: “Keith is setting a fantastic example to everyone by showing that we can all do our bit to tackle the problem of litter that blights our streets.”
Over the years, the charity has encouraged Royal Mail to play its part by getting its postal workers to keep hold of the bands.
Royal Mail spokesman Val Bodden said: “We regularly remind our postmen and women of the importance of avoiding litter and the benefits of re-using bands.”
“We re-use millions of rubber bands each year and the vast majority are recycled within delivery offices and mail centres.”
Image courtesy of kenjonbro , with thanks
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