A three-year-old, fed up with seeing people drop litter on the floor, has been helping clean up his neighbourhood and is hoping his actions inspire others to help keep the borough tidy.
Tiago Piccaro, from Redbridge, in London, became the borough’s youngest ever litter picker after noticing rubbish people had dropped in parks and on the street when out walking with his mum, Elisa, who says: “I’ve always made a point of telling Tiago it’s wrong to throw your rubbish on the floor, but whenever we were out, he’d spot litter and would highlight the bad behaviour he was seeing around him”.
Wanting to encourage Tiago’s willingness to look after his local area, Elisa contacted the council’s Neighbourhood Team to borrow litter pickers. Elisa continued: “When I showed Tiago the council litter pickers and explained what they do, he couldn’t wait to start using them. He loved the idea of going out litter picking.”
Speaking his mind about people littering, Tiago said: “It’s not very nice to throw things on the floor and make it messy. You must put rubbish in the bin.”
The South Woodford duo went out weekly for several months, collecting a total of nearly 30 large bin bags worth of recyclable litter. Among the rubbish they found discarded were plastic drink bottles, glass beer bottles, tissue, food wrappers and containers, along with what Elisa described as “staggering amounts of single-use plastic waste”.
Speaking about people taking ownership of their neighbourhoods, Elisa went on: “If a child as young as Tiago can care about where he lives, we should all be able to. I hope his passion for keeping his neighbourhood clean and tidy inspires others.”
