Tidy Up Sawbridgeworth group collects 32 bags of litter – and girl is sad to achieve her ‘bingo’ challenge

A nine-year-old girl set herself a challenge when taking part in a tidy-up of her town – and was disappointed to achieve it.

Elise Gardner was among 22 children who turned up for the Tidy Up Sawbridgeworth (TUS) event on Saturday and, after “playing” litter bingo, was sad to be able to fill in all her squares.

Her list included carrier bags, bottles, crisp packets, cigarette butts, PPE masks and gloves and fast food litter. All of that contributed to the total collected of 32 bags.

TUS founder and litter pick organiser Corinne Lewis hailed the amazing effort from the 45 “wonderful” volunteers who took part.

Corinne said: “It's great for children to get the message at an early age, the importance of not dropping litter because of the damage to the wildlife and in particular how damaging plastic can be."

After posting pictures of the litter pick and some of the children who took part on Facebook, residents praised the event, with one hailing it as a “fantastic way of teaching children about litter”. Another described the litter pick as a “cracking job”.