All about Litter

“In my spare time I clean mountains.” – Rob the Rubbish

Robin Kevan is a 61-year old retired social worker. His big issue is litter Some people just accept that people litter the streets and the countryside. Others might moan about it or ring up the Council and ask them to do something about it. Not Rob. He decided to do something himself.

Almost every day, Rob goes out first thing in the morning to pick up litter in the town where he lives, Llanwrtyd Wells, armed with gloves, a pick-up stick, yellow jacket and black bin bags.

After breakfast he sets out in his car to pick up the litter that visitors have left on the surrounding mountains.

Word of Rob’s His “mad” litter-picking activity began to spread. He became known as “Rob the Rubbish”. Rob started to receive invitations to clean up other mountains – Snowdon, Wales’s highest; Ben Nevis, Scotland’s highest; and the Everest base camp.

Rob is even thinking of franchising the name “Rob the Rubbish” so that people all over the world can join him in his mission to make a cleaner world.

“If I got angry about litter, I’d be a very grumpy man.”


“I started off in a small way in my little town just picking litter up in my own street, and then gradually moving out to do the whole of my town right up to its boundaries, and then around the area. When I disappeared up Ben Nevis, and realised that in two days I could clear the whole of half the mountain on my own, I began to recognise the kind of power that I had as an individual to change things and to do something about something that appears to be an overwhelming problem for all of us. We all look at litter and say ‘Isn’t it awful! It’s awful. Nobody can ever do anything about it. The Council should be doing this. Everybody else should be doing that.’ Actually, I went out and just did it.” – Robin Kevan speaking on Saturday Live, Radio 4, 27th January 2007

www.robtherubbish.com


The Littermovement is based in Finland. Their idea is for everyone to pick up one piece of litter per day and also invite one other person to do the same. Take a look at their website: http://koti.welho.com/jpeltora/littermovement.htm