HOW ONE MAN CLEANS UP HIS COMMUNITY

By Nicole Durkin |

Mike Gibson lives in Scawsby, Doncaster and he occasionally goes around his local area litter picking. Ecozine contacted Mike to find out about his role in cleaning up the streets of Doncaster.

How long have you been going around your area litter picking?

‘I have always picked up litter, but have been much more proactive since May 2015. 40 years ago, I would take my car trailer and clear up fly tipping on our country lanes.’

Photo: Mike Gibson

Why do you do what you do? What made you start picking up litter around your area?

‘I do what I do as I have an interest in the wellbeing of people, probably from the way I was brought up. I guess it is just the way some folk are.’

Photo: Mike Gibson

Do you feel like more people should be doing what you do?

‘I just do it as that is me. What others think is not my concern. But what others do in my world is my concern if I find it offensive in some way. Litter picking is a reaction to what others do, not what they think. It would be an ideal world if no one made litter, but if we go back in time littering has always been with us. As weird as it seems the best records of Roman occupation of the British Isles is from the bonfires of waste (to that time, but not ours). If we look at the letters as they were written at Vindolanda it is the waste that provides us (our generation or epoch) with our understanding of earlier times.

'It would be an ideal world if no one made litter...'

We all learn from history, but only if we record that history or our forebearers did. I do what I do. What other folk do is their concern. I ride a bike and leave my car at home and would not insist others do that as their needs and wants are unlikely to be the same as mine.’

Photo: Mike Gibson

Mike is definitely someone who is interested in looking after his area and the environment. He is going to continue to go around and clean up his area, just out of the fact he wants his local area to look environmentally cleaner.