Cleaning up your local community

Rob the Rubbish: “I decided right from the start that I would not get angry about litter. I would just pick it up.”

Robin Kevan (also known as Rob the Rubbish) is a 61-year old retired social worker. Almost every day he’s out first thing in the morning in the tiny Welsh town of Llanwrtyd Wells picking up litter. After breakfast he sets in his car to clean up the surrounding mountains. Word has spread. Rob began to get invitations to clean up other mountains — Ben Nevis, Scotland’s highest; Snowdon, Wales’s highest. Armed with a pick-up stick, yellow jacket and bin bags, he does the biz. He’s now been invited to clean up Everest base camp.

He started as one man with time on his hands and a determination to do something about a problem that was bugging him. He has now become a ‘world expert’ and a ‘one-man brand’.

Rob is a shining example of the ‘just-do-it’ and ‘change the world’ ethos of 365 Ways to Change the World. It’s amazing how you can do something quite simple, such as picking up rubbish, then become the “world expert” on it with your own brand and website. Find out more about Rob at: www.robtherubbish.com

I’d like more ideas, examples and intersting websites for how to make our local communities cleaner, brighter, safer… Please send them to me at norton [at ] civa.org.uk.