Swale Borough Council has rolled out three community litter-picking stations across the borough, with one now open at The Hub Café on Stadium Way in Sittingbourne. Waste contractor Suez launched the scheme in partnership with the national 2 Minute Foundation, fitting each board with litter pickers and bin bags that residents can borrow at no cost during opening hours.
Two more stations are in place at Faversham Swimming Pool and Queenborough Town Council. A council spokesperson said everyone is encouraged to grab a litter picker and spend just two minutes tidying their local area. Local businesses, town councils, and charities act as guardians of the boards, managing the kit and making sure collected litter is properly recycled or disposed of.
The 2 Minute Foundation runs over 1,000 similar stations across the UK and Ireland, raising awareness of plastic pollution through campaigns including #2minutelitterpicks. This new effort sits alongside Suez’s existing street cleaning programme, which already targets hard-to-clean roads with a rolling deep clean schedule. Anyone can drop by one of the three sites during opening hours, borrow a picker and bag, and hand everything back when finished.
About this article: This story was put together with the help of AI tools and checked by a real person on our team. We're a small crew trying to cover as much of the UK as we can on a limited budget. We're getting better every day - but we're not perfect yet. If something looks off, let us know. You're part of the process.