Spring in 2024 started with a major windstorm, with wind gusts up around 100km/h coinciding with rubbish & recycling collection in Aintree and Bonnie Brook. What resulted was disastrous. Rubbish bins blew over in the night and the streets and wetlands were strewed with litter. The winds continued throughout the day, pushing the litter further towards the Wetlands. Once in the Wetlands, we would not be able to retrieve it and it would pose a major threat to wildlife through entanglement, ingestion, and later from microplastics.

Jono from We Love Aintree put the urgent call out, and approximately 35 people took to the wetlands at short notice and cleaned up 14 cubic metres of litter and waste along a 500m section.