Keep Britain Tidy

The ‘Keep Britain Tidy‘ campaign first came to the public’s notice in the 1970s, owing to the use of celebrities in television adverts and posters, as well as the creation of the ‘Tidyman’ logo, still in use today. The campaign is registered as a charity and has been very successful in raising awareness of litter in public places. The logo appears on bins and signs.

There are associated charities around the UK, namely Keep Wales Tidy, Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful and Keep Scotland Beautiful, which do very similar work. Cigarette butts and dog poo are two main focuses. Blue Flag awards for beaches and Green Flag awards for parks are two of the initiatives and are highly coveted by their recipients in this time of concern for the environment.

In both 1977 and 2016 there was a campaign called ‘Clean for the Queen’ but these were less productive than the annual ‘Great British Spring Clean’ events taking place in recent years, in which volunteers go litter-picking in their local areas.

(Top image: David Lally at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)