The Helping Hand Company Celebration Event
On Thursday 19th September, The Helping Hand Company including our Ledbury & Hereford offices will be closed for the afternoon from 12.30 and will reopen again on Friday 20th September at 8.30am.
Today we are honoured to receive the Queens Award for International Trade for 2019 and are celebrating with a summer party.
We thank all our customers, partners and colleagues who have helped make this possible.
Gavin James
Managing Director
The latest government figures revealed that councils in the county spent £12.7 million on street cleaning in 2018/19.
The amount spent on street cleaning in the last year was up from £12.3 million in 2017/18.
Nottingham City Council was the local authority in England that spent the most on street cleaning – a total of £4.4m last year.
And the problem was worst in district councils in Ashfield, where the council spent £3m ridding their roads and pavements of rubbish – which works out at £23.52 per person.
It compares to the lowest amount in the county at £5.31 per head spent in Newark and Sherwood, which came to £600,000 in total on tidying the streets.
Across Nottinghamshire, councils spent £15.7m on bins and more than the £12.7 million on street cleaning:
Nottingham City Council
For 2018/19, the city council spent £4,429,000 on street cleaning – which works out as £13.38 per head.
This figure includes costs for staff, supervision, fleet, fuel, equipment, overheads, and all street cleansing and grounds maintenance activity.
Residents in the city said it was “disappointing” to hear the council have to spend millions on keeping the city clean – money that could be better spent elsewhere on council housing as an example.
Nottingham City Council’s deputy leader, councillor Sally Longford added: “It’s a shame to have to spend this amount of money cleaning up after fly-tippers when funding is so tight and there is a free bulky waste collection available.
“We are constantly trying to raise awareness of the free bulky waste collection service, especially in areas where fly-tipping of household waste is more prevalent, as well as carrying out enforcement against fly-tippers.
“While these costs are high, they have been reduced in real terms over the last five years, indicating that the message about our free bulky waste collection is getting through – with around 1,000 collections a week and over 48,000 items collected a year.”
Ashfield District Council
Ashfield District Council spent more money on cleaning up litter and fly tipping than it did on bin collections.
The council spent more than twice as much on street cleaning in 2018/19 as they did on waste collection – £1.3m.
Councillor Helen Ann-Smith, deputy leader of the council and portfolio holder for Streets, Parks and Town Centres said: “We are proud to be spending this money to ensure that Ashfield is a clean district, where littering, dog fouling and fly tipping are challenged.
“We are committed to keeping our district clean and tidy. We have joined forces with other authorities in Nottinghamshire to create the Cleaner Nottinghamshire Group.
“This partnership, which allows us to share information on fly-tipping, along with our past and current projects, demonstrate our dedication to ensuring that Ashfield has a clean environment.”
Broxtowe Borough Council
The borough council spent £674,000 last year on cleaning its streets – a total of £5.95 per person.
Councillor Helen Skinner, chairwoman of the environment and climate change committee, said: “We’re incredibly proud of our ‘Street Cleansing Team’ who empty 1,200 litter bins each week and collect 1,500 tonnes of litter every year.
“The team is made up of four area based teams across our town centres, which enables them to develop local knowledge of their patch and use this to make best use of our resources.
“They have a real sense of responsibility and pride in their areas which has helped us achieved a cost effective service and a cleanliness level of 96 percent in 2018/19.”
Gedling Borough Council
Gedling Borough Council spent £790,000 on street cleaning last year – a total of £6.71 per head.
Leader of Gedling Borough Council, councillor John Clarke said: “For our residents the appearance and cleanliness of the areas where they live is of the upmost important.
“Our annual budget for street cleansing ensures that over 578 kilometres or roads are swept, 800 litter bins are emptied on a daily basis, 1,300 kilos of litter is collected and that our town centres and roads outside schools are maintained and kept clean.
“This year’s budget includes further investment in frontline services, including the introduction of a new ‘Rapid Response Cleaning Team’, to further strengthen efforts to deal with litter, dog fouling and fly tipping.”
Rushcliffe Borough Council
The borough council spent £809,000 on keeping its streets tidy last year – which works out as £6.88 per head.
Executive manager for neighbourhoods, Dave Banks, said: “Clean roads are important to us to help make Rushcliffe a great place and we continually look at ways to smarten our streets and listen to residents’ feedback on where we can further improve our services.
Mansfield District Council
The district council spent £1.56m on street cleaning last year – a total of £14.40 per person.
Councillor Amanda Fisher, portfolio for safer communities and wellbeing, said: “We work hard to maintain Mansfield so that it is a clean and welcoming district. We want people to be proud of their community and we will always take action where we can against those who fly-tip in our district.”
A council spokesman added fly-tipping figures in Mansfield were the lowest in the first three months of this year compared to any three-month period in the last two to three years.
📢 Competition Time 📢
This week, to celebrate LOVE PARKS WEEK (12th-21st July) across the UK, Helping Hand Environmental are giving away TEN Love Parks tool kits!
To nominate your local park champion, community group or eco-school click https://hhenvironmental.co.uk/contact-us enter the details of who you are nominating in the comments box and why and that’s it!
Closing date July 22nd.
The content of the Love Parks Tool Kit is highlighted in the image below.
Please only nominate your Hero if you know this is the right prize for your nominee’s campaign, and benefit them, their community group or school project.
Ten luckily winners will be selected at random and announced on July 23rd.
Who is your #LoveParksHero….
As part of #plasticfreejuly campaign, Helping Hand Environmental been attempting to cut back on unnecessary single use plastics.
So, how do you keep that momentum going? Here are 5 ways to keep the momentum up when it all feels a bit bleak or you are unsure on handle single use plastics:
1 EDUCATION IS KEY
Whilst initiatives such as Plastic Free July are a fab starting point, the momentum can start to diminish as soon as the next monthly challenge takes centre stage. We read books like ‘No more plastic’ by Martin Dorey and ‘How to Live Plastic Free’ by Marine Conservation Society, we look at heart-breaking photographs and watch programmes like Blue Planet, follow influence bloggers on Twitter. Remind yourself why you are trying to become Plastic Free at home and at work.
2. STATS NEVER LIE
We use 300 MILLION TONNES of plastic each year. Every day, approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. Less than half of plastic bottles used in the UK are recycled – and over 150 plastic bottles litter each mille of UK beaches. 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually. It’s estimated that there is now 5.25 trillion macro and micro plastic pieces floating around in the open ocean.
We can all lend a helping hand in the fight against plastics!
We have reduced single use plastic from our work stations and canteens!
3. ORGANISE AN PLASTIC FREE PICK
Getting outside and seeing plastic litter first-hand. Some fun initiatives include Plogging which combines jogging and picking up litter – you’d be amazed how much rubbish you can collect in half hour! Other amazing examples include #PlasticFreeCoastlines run by Surfers Against Sewage, Plastic Free July, run by Marine Conservation Society and the awesome Martin Dorey’s #2minutebeachclean concept and boards including the NEW #2minutestreetclean and #2minutelitterpick
4. NOT ALL PLASTIC OR BRANDS ARE BAD
A Plastic Planet say ‘There will always be a need for plastic – medical science, aviation, technology, car industries – where plastic can more easily be reclaimed and kept within a closed recycling loop. Single use, especially for food and drink, is not defensible.’
The real issue is single use plastics – plastic cups, straws, coffee cups, plastic bottles, milk bottles, cutlery etc. Do we need such lazy products in our life and buy using and buying such products we are encouraging and support the use of this throwaway items which just end up in landfills. Lastly it is important we support brands which are making a difference – A Plastic Planet, Iceland, Morrison’s, Simply Cups, Coca-Cola, Costa, Harrogate Spring Water and all doing awesome things!
5. PROMOTE THE GOOD, NUDGE AND INSPIRE
Reduce, reuse, recycle- has been in our lives for decades. Completely eradicating all single-use plastics from your work/home overnight isn’t realistic. Think about where you can reuse it, and move on to recycling as much as humanly possible if all else fails.
More companies are moving towards plant-based ‘plastics’, but for this to be a success in the future, there needs to be more industrial composting sites, and more councils offering food waste collections.
As a business Helping Hand Environmental are do our bit, check out our #Factory2Hand tour where we are eliminating single use plastic from our waste, processing and manufacturing stream!
Helping Hand Environmental Annual Stock Take will take place from Wednesday 26th June 2019 until Monday 1st July 2019.
Unfortunately, no orders can be invoiced or dispatched during this time.
Last day to order Tuesday 25th June before 12pm for standard stock items.
Place your orders now to avoid delays:
Telephone: 01531 635678
Email sales@helpinghand.co.uk
Or visit our WEBSHOP
SCHOOLCHILDREN across Herefordshire are leading the charge in fighting waste with a new recycling project.
Colwall Primary School is the latest recruit to sign upto the Herefordshire Community Recycling project which has seen schools across Herefordshire recycled over 56,000 crisp packets.
The brainchild of Herefordshire Community Clean Up group founder, Andrew Wood, the seeds for the project were sown last year, when Mr Wood began to investigate the options for recycling rubbish collected on community litter picks.
A subsidiary group – Herefordshire Community Recycling Raising Money for Local Charities – was set up and, before long, their mission expanded to include educating children on recycling and the value of waste.
Each school taking part across Herefordshire is sponsored by a local business including Helping Hand Environmental – the world’s largest manufacturer of litterpickers who have sponsored the latest round of bins to be installed at Colwall Primary School.
Mr Wood said “The fee the business paid is for four coloured recycling bins for the schools, who’s each schools Eco Committee, choose which items they wish to recycle. The scheme is driven by the children with the help of teachers and parents. And the sponsor and the school will build a relationship”.
Interest in the project has been so great that there is now 27 schools across Herefordshire currently signed up to the project and a new recycling schemes developed with NHS.
Lindsay Richmond-Kearns, Communities Manager for Helping Hand Environmental said “We are delighted to be supporting this innovative project and sponsoring Colwall Primary School with their first set of recycling bins. We hope to engage with our younger generation and help to minimize waste and increase recycling within Herefordshire”.
Nationally, PepsiCo have now collected 4m crisp packets nationwide, across 12.5k collection points in the UK.
📢 Competition Time 📢
This week, to celebrate Volunteers’ Week, Helping Hand Environmental are giving away TWO volunteer tool kits!
To nominate your local litter hero, community group or eco-school click https://hhenvironmental.co.uk/contact-us enter the details of who you are nominating in the comments box and why and that’s it!
Closing date June 10th.
Please note, the content of the Volunteer Tool Kit is highlighted in the image.
Two winners will be selected at random and announced on June 12th.
Who is your #VolunteerHero….
The Helping Hand Company’s mission to rid the world of litter has been rewarded with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for international trade after growing its export business by 750% in just six years.
The manufacturer of litter clearance tools, which supplies more than 90% of local authorities and waste contractors in the UK, now exports its litter collection hand tools and environmental educational support services to over 20 countries worldwide.
The Herefordshire-based business, which sells its professional waste collection tools through its HH Environmental division, has defied the uncertainty surrounding Brexit, more than doubling its overseas sales from £450k to £986k between 2016 and 2017 alone.
HH Environmental has built large customer bases in France, Holland, Denmark, Belgium and Ireland and is developing distribution channels in Australia, Germany and Spain.
The company works with local authorities, community groups and charities and commercial partners keen to boost their CSR activity, in the UK and beyond.
Labelling itself as a ‘litter consultancy’, HH Environmental provides and tools and promotional material needed for organisations to launch their own litter picks and ant-litter campaigns.
It works with dozens of campaigning bodies in the UK including Keep Britain Tidy, Keep Scotland Beautiful and Keep Wales Tidy, and has taken a similar approach in Europe in the last five years, developing partnerships with clean up action organisations such as Nederland Schoon in Holland, Limburg.net and Mooimakers.be in Belgium.
HH Environmental has worked with 346,012 litter pick volunteers in the first three months of this year alone.
The company also designs and manufactures bespoke clean-up solutions for unique problems such as a Belgium waste management contractor that is looking for a way to segregate litter as it is collected along the highways to increase recycling rates.
Lara Bryant, VP sales and marketing at The Helping Hand Company, said: “Our mission is to get rid of all the world’s litter – which would mean we’d have no business, but it’s what we want.
“We support organisations and individuals in tackling litter scattered on pavements, carparks, greenspaces, beaches, rivers and motorways – we need to turn the tide.
“By recycling just 50% of all litter thrown on our streets today, we could save £14.8million pounds every year or £40,547 a day.
“We have seen a big increase in people getting actively involved in clean-ups and much greater awareness since that amazing Blue Planet series just over a year ago.
“It has had an astonishing impact.”
HH Environmental’s recent expansion has been supported by the recruitment of an environmental Export Sales Manager and administrator in February 2014, who together have driven the rapid growth of sales across the EU and beyond.
The company’s products are manufactured at its base in Ledbury, Herefordshire, using sustainable materials and packaging that can be recycled wherever possible. A massive 97% of all HH Environmental’s production waste is recycled.
All the litter pick tools have been carefully designed, tested and refined over many years to ensure efficiency and durability with recycle kits which can extend the product life cycle by 300%.
“We are not the lowest priced product, but we know our customers do not want a single use item” said Lara.
“Organisations choose us because they know they can rely on the quality of the products which are made in the UK using a sustainable and ethical manufacturing model and the added value we provide as a ‘litter consultancy’ advising on funding streams for litter picks and campaigns, educational material and charity partners. We don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk too”
HH Environmental has partnered with the Eco-Schools litter education scheme which has engaged 19.5 million children across 67 countries, making it the largest educational programme on the planet.
The company prides itself on successfully combining commercial enterprise with socially responsible action which facilitates environmental campaigns.
“We are an adaptable business that is not solely focused on the commercial gain of a product sale but more on a sustainable relationship with our customers. This approach makes us unique in our industry,” said Lara.
“We are committed to promoting environmental awareness today for our world tomorrow. Working alongside the Eco Schools programme and other local environmental education initiatives is a central focus for us – doing something as simple as a litter pick is a great way to engage children in learning about litter.”
The Queens Award is just the latest in a string of accolades for the HH Environmental branch of the business, including Green Apple Hero Award 2013 & 2014, CIWM Sustainability & Resources 2015, Guardian of Public Spaces 2016 and Business of the Year 2017.
The Helping Hand Company is absolutely thrilled to announce we have been awarded a Queens Award for Enterprise 2019 for International Trade.
In recognition of our outstanding continuous growth over the last 6 years in overseas trade of 750% in Litter clearance equipment, Environmental education and consultancy services.
A trusted partner to many Local Authorities and Waste Contractors in the UK, the company’s fast growing export sales have defied the uncertainly surrounding the Brexit vote.
Immensely proud of the team – together, we make a difference every day in helping protect our planet for future generations.
#QueensAward #International Trade #CommercialLitterEquiment #EnvironmentalEducation #VolunteerLitterPicking #BuyBritish #NotSingleUse #HerefordshireMeansBusiness #HelpingHand
