HELP MAKE OUR CITY G-LITTER.

Byline: MIKE HORNBY

A MONSTER spring cleaning effort across the city is set to make Liverpool G-Litter.

The 2004G-Litter festival is about to get under way and thousands of residents are being asked to muck in.

The month-long campaign is being billed as a Monster Clean-up by the organisers,Liverpool council and Liverpool Culture Company.

Individuals, community groups and businesses will all be lending a hand to the big clean up, while street performers and artists will add a carnival atmosphere along the way.

In total there will be 17 neighbourhood clean-ups, the first being in Wavertree and Croxteth, while the city centre will be the focus towards the end of the campaign. There will also be clean-ups in Fazakerley, Dingle and Anfield,as well as many other areas.

And even the ECHO is joining in the fun,as we compete against teams from other businesses including Marks & Spencer,WH Smith and John Lewis to become champion litter picker.

As well as organised clean-ups, the aim of the G-Litter Monster Clean-up is to change people's attitudes to dropping litter in the first place.

So, during the G-Litter campaign, random spot prizes will be handed out to people spotted binning litter. The grand launch of the G-Litter Monster Clean-up will be on Monday,May 24.

Leader of Liverpool council, Cllr Mike Storey, said: ``The G-Litter Monster Clean-up promises to be a great event. The need to make sure the streets of Liverpool are clean and tidy is hugely important,and this is a great way of putting some fun into it.

``Everyone needs to be involved in making Liverpool cleaner and greener. The fact that so many people have already expressed an interest is great news for the city.''

David Henshaw, chief executive of Liverpool council and Liverpool Culture Company,added: ``We are committed to raising standards of cleanliness in Liverpool to create brighter, cleaner communities for the future.

``We hope thousands will play their part to make sure the G-Litter Monster Clean- up is a monster success.''

What a load of rubbish

It costs pounds 6.8mper year to clean the streets of Liverpool.

n Liverpool council collects 20,000 tonnes of street litter per year -about the weight of a cross- Channelferry. That works out at 110 tonnes per street cleaner each year -or one third of a ton ne per cleaner each day. Liverpool has almost 200 street cleaners working from 4 am to 11.45pmevery day to clean the city's streets.

The 1,644 tonnes of paper that have been recycled in Liverpoolthis year is enough to save all the trees in Sefton Park and Stanley Park -every month. n The new ``bring banks'' that were rolled out in Liverpool last December have so far collected 50 tonnes of paper and 1.2 tonnes of cans.

The British public drops between 25 and 30m tonnes of rubbish each year.

n Each year,local councils in Britain receive 80,000 complaints about litter.

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CAMPAIGN: G-Litter is tacklingmess