Litter picking group started in Britain aims to collect ONE MILLION bags filled with rubbish worldwide

Ben McCaffrey
Thu, 02 Apr 2026 19:27:14 +0000

A British litter picking group has set up an ambitious aim of collecting one million bags of litter from streets, parks and public spaces.

Mark Rowlands set up the initiative in 2024, and it has since grown into a grassroots movement encouraging people to get outdoors, get active, and improve their communities by collecting litter.

King Fisher's Primary School in Bristol became the first to join earlier this year, after numerous year three pupils approached their teacher, Alex Price, with an unusual request: they wanted to "help a man called Mark save the planet and collect one million bags."

Since its inception, the movement has so far collected 175,000 and its concept couldn't be simpler.

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While Mr Rowlands enjoys joining in on the litter-picking, anybody across the world can get involved by filling a bag of rubbish and posting it online with the caption #onemillionbags.

"There are no barriers to entry," Mr Rowlands told GB News. "It's so simple, and it's online."

After starting in Bristol, the movement has already spread to all corners of the UK, but also to groups in America, Sweden, France, Australia and even Vietnam.

"A lot of people message me - I don't know these people, but that's the great thing. They feel part of something bigger," he explained.

"I think that's the big draw. They feel part of something bigger. And I think, here's the really important thing, is that there's a bit of a stigma about litter picking, right?

"'Oh, I feel a bit awkward,' or 'I look silly'. When you're doing it as part of a big movement, it just breaks all those barriers down."

His success so far has resulted in personal outreaches from Buckingham Palace, Downing Street and legendary nature activist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough.

And while the movement is gaining the momentum of a steam engine across the globe, Mr Rowlands insists: "This is just the tip of the iceberg".

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The idea for One Million Bags was conceived far from Bristol — at Mount Everest base camp.

After seeing litter left by visitors, Mr Rowlands felt impelled to collect a bag at the summit of the world's tallest mountain.

Crucially, his idea didn't stop there. Instead of leaving it at one bag, he created a group on the fitness app Strava, called One Million Bags, which seemed an inconceivable number at the time, encouraging any rogue members who joined to collect what they could.

"And it's just exploded from there," he said. "Really exploded."

Fast-forward two years, and 175,000 bags later, Mr Rowlands is well on his way to achieving his goal - but he has far more in mind.

"I think One Million Bags is just the beginning. It's just the start of something bigger," he explained.

"If you think about One Million Bags at its core, it's good for your community, it's good for your health, it's good for your mental health.

"So actually for me, I think One Million Bags could just be the start of something much bigger - what that is, I don't know yet."

A key focus for Mr Rowlands is expanding the movement throughout schools across the UK and beyond.

He hopes to develop a framework designed by schools themselves, allowing children to set goals, complete challenges and track their progress while learning about environmental responsibility.

"It would give schools tangible targets and rewards that fit alongside children’s learning and development," he explained.

Mr Rowlands believes the young people of today are already deeply aware of environmental issues, and willing to band together to find a solution.

"Kids today are growing up watching the world burn," he said. "They understand what’s happening."

He recalled one moment that perfectly captured the spirit of the movement.

While litter-picking with a group of seven-year-olds in Bristol, he saw a young girl confront a passer-by who had dropped rubbish.

"He obviously dropped something on the floor, and this little girl ran up to him and said, 'You need to pick that up because we've got to save the planet.'

"I just thought: there it is. There's the magic!"

The movement comes at a time when fly-tipping has been increasing in the UK.

In 2024-25, almost 1.3million fly-tipping incidents were recorded by local authorities, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

This represents an increase of nine per cent on the year before.

In February, a serial fly-tipper was ordered to pay more than £1.4million after illegally dumping more than 4,000 tonnes of waste across England, and in November 2025, a "mountain of illegal waste" was found in a field near Kidlington, Oxfordshire, with environmental groups warning it could represent an "environmental catastrophe".

Mr Rowlands was keen to put a disparity between the movement and the growing fly-tipping issue, rather to focus on the positive impact of the movement than the behaviour of those who cause the damage.

He said: "I don't think about the negative in all of this because I don't control people who fight it. For me, the whole thing with about One Million Bags, it's purely positive.

"I just focus on the positive that does drive positive change."