Nature says thank you 🌳 Rubbish Roundabouts 2

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01]Hi everyone and welcome back to Rubbish Roundabouts, our special series where Liz and I attempt to clean up the three busiest roundabouts in our town. Back in part one, we litterpicked the first half of the Wesley interchange, collecting 10 bags of litter. Well, now we're back for part two. So, join us for more slip roads, brambles, and a whole load of rubbish.

[00:00:30]Good morning everyone and welcome back to another litter pick. And we're back on the roundabout for part two.

[00:00:37]We've got Liz with us again.

[00:00:41]We're starting where we finished last time where I picked that green triangle.

[00:00:45]The council's actually been through and mowed.

[00:00:48]You can smell it. They've mowed the grass all the way around the roundabout.

[00:00:52]>> Happy picking.

[00:00:54]>> Happy picking. Let's do this.

[00:00:58]So, I'm just going to start here with the good old layby.

[00:01:07]This is where we filmed about a year ago and I found those mysterious buckets full of maggots up there. You remember that? Oh, makes my skin crawler just thinking about it.

[00:01:23]Yeah. This is the typical little spot where people just pull up in their car or their van the end of a day of work.

[00:01:33]They pull up here in the evening and they just offload whatever's in their car, their fast food, their drinks can. It's not too bad actually.

[00:01:46]I kind of thought it would be a bit worse than this, but it's not too bad.

[00:01:49]I'm just going to quickly go through here.

[00:01:56]Yeah, when I was here last year, I was doing almost like archaeology here, wasn't I? I was pulling loads of stuff out that was half buried in the ground.

[00:02:09]Oh, there's quite a bit under here, actually. All just blows back, I imagine, in the wind. Don't think anyone's actually coming through here to drop it.

[00:02:20]Bloody brambles again.

[00:02:31]At least someone went to the trouble of bagging that one up for us.

[00:03:08]Right. What is that? Uh oh, it's a charger. Look, little adapter thing.

[00:03:16]There's some broken glass here, too.

[00:03:20]Someone's obviously just lobbed this beer and moresi bottle straight at the gate. It shattered on impact.

[00:03:28]Right. So, all of that section beyond the gate there. And all of this pile here is looking much better. Just going to quickly pull this stuff out of here.

[00:03:45]There better not be more asbestos in those things. That's what I found here last time.

[00:03:51]Load of asbestos tiles and stuff. The council did actually come and take it all the way, which is good.

[00:04:03]Right, let's get over to the roundabout.

[00:04:16]spoon.

[00:04:18]Lovely. How's everyone doing today? I hope you're all okay. If you're doing any litter picking this weekend, let me know.

[00:04:30]We've got the sign up again, of course, just to slow the traffic a little bit.

[00:04:37]So yeah, this is the island where we finished last time.

[00:04:43]I can see straight away there's a bit more stuff that's been revealed. Just cuz the grass was really long here last week, wasn't it?

[00:05:01]But honestly, thank goodness we came here and litterpicked it. Otherwise, this would just be a complete mess. You think about all the stuff that I picked off of this island last time in part one.

[00:05:14]If we hadn't come last week, that would have all been shredded by now.

[00:05:30]See, it's quite satisfying in a way to know that we got it all clear before the mower came.

[00:05:39]Talk about perfect timing.

[00:05:45]Still a fair bit of stuff here, though.

[00:05:49]It's probably about 5% of what was here before.

[00:06:00]Right. There's also a bag over here.

[00:06:03]This is the other stretch that I did last time. Someone's dumped something out their car window.

[00:06:11]So, let's go and get that.

[00:06:18]That's just a piece of plastic.

[00:06:34]Yeah, this stretch is all pretty clean cuz we cleared all of this last time, didn't we?

[00:06:40]Cigarette packet there. But yeah, we cleared all of this last time. There is one thing in the road over there. I'm just going to run over and see what that is.

[00:06:51]bottle and a can in the road as well.

[00:07:00]Yeah, other than those couple of new bits, it's looking pretty good over there.

[00:07:11]So, layby is clear. This triangle here is clear. All the other side is looking really good.

[00:07:18]So, I'm going to take our sign. We'll move along this verge. Start going around this way.

[00:07:23]Catch up with Liz.

[00:07:25]Tell you what, we've come out quite early this morning, but there's still a fair bit of traffic about. Surprised it's the Easter weekend here and today is Good Friday. I guess a lot of people are traveling. Hello.

[00:07:42]Oh, there's loads of sandbags here. Do you know what? I think in the video last year, I found a whole lot of sandbags here. And there's another cone base.

[00:07:50]Broken cone base here. Look.

[00:08:00]And look at all of this. Whole load of signs that they've just dumped here.

[00:08:04]Hopefully, they're going to pick those up. And you can just see here how much shredded litter there is. All just embedded there in the grass.

[00:08:12]Right. So, I'll start on this side of the slip road. Try and work up to catch up with Liz up there. She's done a great job along here.

[00:08:48]Right. So, I hope you're enjoying this roundabout series so far. We're hoping that this morning we can finish this roundabout once and for all.

[00:09:00]Just going to run over here while there's no traffic.

[00:09:04]Uh-oh.

[00:09:08]Just grab these couple of bits. Yeah.

[00:09:20]So, this is the classic example of the shredded litter. I mean, this is paper, I think, or maybe it's a tissue.

[00:09:27]So, it doesn't really matter. It will break down. But instead of picking up one tissue, got about 200 little pieces of tissue, which makes the whole job impossible.

[00:09:46]So yeah, Good Friday today. I think by the time this video comes out, Easter will probably be a distant memory, but I'll wish you all a happy Easter anyway, retrospectively.

[00:10:06]We might even see an Easter bunny today.

[00:10:08]I'm not sure if I mentioned in the last part, but this roundabout is like the biggest paradise for rabbits in this town.

[00:10:19]What's this? Just newspaper or something? Oh no.

[00:10:25]What the heck is this? Liquid turf hardener.

[00:10:29]Oh, this is the stuff that really winds me up. I think I've said it before.

[00:10:34]All it is is one piece of litter.

[00:10:36]Really, when it's so big like that, it just sticks out like a sore thumb. Every time you drive past something like that, you just see it. It's annoying.

[00:10:47]It's probably come off the back of a truck or something.

[00:10:56]Red Bull. Found a few red bulls so far.

[00:11:04]Of course I have. It's a litter pick in the UK. Of course there's Red Bull.

[00:11:17]So, I don't think we really saw this area the last time we came here. So, last year cuz my GoPro died at some point up here and I didn't get to show you any of this stuff. Not that it's that exciting, but you'll get to see the edge of this slip road in a second.

[00:11:37]So, this is joining the A14, heading towards well heading to the other side of Barry Edmonds first and then heading over towards Stow Market and Ipsswitch and eventually to Felix.

[00:11:50]Oh, look at all this.

[00:11:54]This is weird. Loads of these Desperado cans. Have they all been chucked at the same time out someone's car and all landed right next to each other? Or has someone been walking along here and this is where they dumped it?

[00:12:09]Don't know.

[00:12:16]You might think that sounds weird, but I have seen people walking along here before. Really weird cuz you can't really get anywhere up here.

[00:12:24]probably turn around now.

[00:12:26]>> Yeah. Okay, good idea.

[00:12:28]>> The highway is one.

[00:12:29]>> Oh, this.

[00:12:31]>> What are you going to do with it?

[00:12:33]>> Get back over there.

[00:12:34]>> Okay. Let me know if you need a hand.

[00:12:38]>> Okay, I'll come help you.

[00:12:41]Right. So, Liz has done a great job up to the edge of this slip road. I think we're probably going to call it here just cuz it starts to get a bit dangerous.

[00:12:51]So, this is where people are joining the A-14. And they get quite fast once they're getting to this point. So, we'll call it a day here. You can see a little bit more litter further up there in that bush, but I'm just going to leave it for now. And I can't get into here cuz of all the brambles.

[00:13:08]But anyway, Liz is going to have a go at picking up this giant A-frame over here.

[00:13:12]I might have to give her a hand, I think. Filled a bag already, guys.

[00:13:22]Wow. Bloody hell.

[00:13:29]There we go. We could work for the National Highways, moving all their equipment around.

[00:13:37]By the looks of it, this frame's been in the ground for quite a long time, and you and I paid for it with our tax money, and it just sits there, right?

[00:13:51]Nice job.

[00:13:53]All right, stay safe.

[00:13:56]See you soon.

[00:14:08]And this is all just crap that's fallen off the A-14, which is right here. You see any of that traffic?

[00:14:14]Oh, it's quite scary here, actually. I'm not going to get too close to that.

[00:14:25]I just really wanted to get this out the brambles.

[00:14:32]Right, there we go. Got that. Just get a few more of the offensive bits out of here.

[00:14:38]Just Oh, this is the nastiest bramble bush ever.

[00:14:47]Don't know how I'd begin to get any of that litter out of there.

[00:14:55]I'm just fighting a losing battle down there, right?

[00:15:01]So, let's continue along. So, yeah, I'd love to get up here and get some of this stuff. It's just there's literally no crash barrier or anything. If something came careering off of here, uh it would be game over, you know. Uh so, Not worth it for picking the litter, I'm afraid.

[00:15:36]Oh, look at this. Got a little jawbone and some teeth.

[00:15:41]What's that from, do we reckon?

[00:15:48]Found this handy bag here in this little wooded area. So, I'm just going to use that for now as my litter bag.

[00:15:55]Might as well.

[00:16:00]Oh, man.

[00:16:03]Another bag here. Look, I can use that again. Oh, no. That's got a big hole in it. Okay. Wow.

[00:16:13]This is mad. When I was here last year, I cleared all of this bit here under the trees. And it's just, someone's filled in the crossword there.

[00:16:24]Look, that black bag might come in useful as well.

[00:16:39]There you go. Happy Easter, everyone.

[00:16:41]There's some mini eggs.

[00:16:54]Oh, this place is nasty. Thing is, no one will ever see this place, but I'm not doing it for people. Like we saw last week, I found that little robins nest that was really nice. Beautiful little thing, but it was right next to the road.

[00:17:12]And I can hear the birds here in the trees. There's definitely wildlife around here. So, that's why I'm cleaning this area up. Really do it for them. Do it for nature.

[00:17:31]If humanity can do its best to destroy nature, humanity can also do its best to look after nature and restore it.

[00:17:46]Can't promise I'll get this place spotless, but give it a go.

[00:18:10]So yeah, as is often the case on this channel, we find ourselves in another no man's land. What a random spot to be.

[00:18:27]Oh, it's utterly depressing, let me tell you. It's just all this stuff. All of this undergrowth here. I mean, I could never get anywhere near that. There's brambles and all sorts of stuff there. I can just see all the little white flashes of little bits of plastic that's just stuck under there.

[00:18:46]I'm afraid without kind of heavy machinery to cut it all back and dig it all up, you're just never going to get anywhere.

[00:18:56]It's just the reality of main roads and dual carriageways, I'm afraid.

[00:19:03]But we'll do what we can, as we always do. We will do everything we can to make it better.

[00:19:13]There's another A-frame just up there.

[00:19:15]Can you see that through the trees just abandoned at the side of the road?

[00:19:39]Right, let's start filling this black bag.

[00:20:01]Some really beautiful old trees back here.

[00:20:06]Makes you wonder if they were here when the junction was created or if they were added. I don't know when this junction came into existence, but I'd imagine this tree is probably older than the A14.

[00:20:53]Litter pickers of the world unite and take over.

[00:21:02]Oh, it's hard going back here. Just feels like we're making slow progress today. Just the sheer quantity of this stuff.

[00:21:12]I mean, look up here. Can you see this?

[00:21:16]Probably doesn't come out that clearly on the camera, but that cone up there, just below that cone, there's a black sack and then there's just loads and loads of plastic crap.

[00:21:27]It's all buried under those brambles.

[00:21:29]Even in a place as ugly as this, you can still find beauty.

[00:21:38]Looks even better when it's not drowning in plastic.

[00:21:44]Wow. So, in most places, I'm just used to finding loads of beer cans and bottles, right? Loads of soft drinks and stuff like that. But here, I mean, there's a beer can. Look. Oh, it's a Stella. Of course, it had to be a Stella. The majority of the stuff here, it's all just soft plastic. It's all windb blown litter that's coming down from the motorway. And it's crazy, isn't it? It's just crazy how much there is.

[00:22:13]The sweet wrappers, the crisp packets, the just like general plastic packaging on absolutely everything that you buy these days.

[00:22:23]I mean, what a load of rubbish. Hey.

[00:22:30]Right, we're getting there, everyone.

[00:22:31]Slowly but surely. This wooded area through here, I mean, it was horrific before.

[00:22:38]I've pulled so much plastic out of there, you wouldn't believe. And I've done a fair amount up here going up this incline here. I've done what I can, but it's quite difficult with all the brambles and being so close to the main road.

[00:22:53]But I tell you what, it's looking a heck of a lot better than it was. So, I'm just going to come out of here.

[00:23:03]Hey, there's Liz.

[00:23:07]Hi.

[00:23:08]>> Hi.

[00:23:09]>> You all right?

[00:23:10]>> Good. How are you?

[00:23:11]>> Okay. Yeah.

[00:23:13]>> Yeah. I'm getting hot as well.

[00:23:16]>> Whereabouts are you?

[00:23:17]>> I did one side of the slip road, so I got going to go do the other.

[00:23:21]>> Nice. Okay. Oh, and you did this as well.

[00:23:23]>> Yes, I did.

[00:23:24]>> Hey, great. Oh, well done. Yeah, there was a tire and a bunch of like cans and stuff, wasn't there, thrown on the other side. Liz has got that. So, that's brilliant. Well done.

[00:23:33]>> Thanks.

[00:23:35]>> But yeah, this slip road here joining the A14. Look, both sides done.

[00:23:41]We're gradually amassing a pile of bags here.

[00:23:49]So Liz has started working her way up the next slip road there. I'm just going to have a very quick peek up here just cuz I came up here last year and I'm intrigued to see what it looks like this year.

[00:24:02]But we'll get a good view of the A14 here from behind a guardrail more importantly.

[00:24:16]There you go. So, I actually cleaned a load of crap out of here last year, didn't I?

[00:24:22]I remember there was some really big bits of plastic that I picked up here.

[00:24:26]But yeah, there's the crazy traffic.

[00:24:33]I'm just going to quickly grab this bit of plastic, too.

[00:24:40]This person's sock and this cloth.

[00:24:46]But there you go. Cool. That beamer was flying down there. Gerard, was that you?

[00:24:54]So there you go. A14 to Cambridge.

[00:24:57]A14 to Ipsswitch.

[00:25:00]And let's get out of here cuz this is dangerous.

[00:25:20]Just have a little tidy up here under these bushes.

[00:25:24]Come on.

[00:25:26]Milk bottle.

[00:25:30]Very old crumpled number plate there, too.

[00:25:35]So, yeah, this is the center of the roundabout. This little woodland. We walked through here last week in part one. Liz came in here actually and cleaned it all up. I cannot see a single piece of litter in there. Oh, that's amazing. Wow, it is windy under here.

[00:25:52]Look at that.

[00:25:56]Right, got a little bit of crap on the center island here. I'm just going to go and grab that while I see it.

[00:26:03]Looks really bad from the road, but to be honest, it's probably only about 15 items. They're just quite big, big bits of plastic. Once these are up, we'll be laughing.

[00:26:19]We'll be laughing, mate.

[00:26:23]Come on. Let's do this.

[00:27:05]Right. Those of you who are of a more squeamish disposition, I would look away now or skip your video ahead for about 20 seconds cuz you're not going to like this. I did say that we might find an Easter bunny. I'm afraid there's a dead Easter bunny right there.

[00:27:25]Probably been hit by a car out of respect for nature. I haven't filmed this, but I've actually moved that rabbit. It's not there anymore. And I've moved it a bit higher up just so it's away from the road.

[00:27:44]Peaceful place for it to rest and nature will do its thing.

[00:27:48]So to all the foxes in the area, if you want a free dinner tonight, go over to the roundabout. Okay.

[00:27:58]Hello.

[00:28:00]>> Clean up that area over there. It was bad. It was, but like I said, it was about 20 things. They're just big.

[00:28:06]>> Yeah.

[00:28:06]>> How are we doing on the slip road?

[00:28:08]>> That slip road's done. Except for I got to get that cone.

[00:28:11]>> Oh, I can get it if you want.

[00:28:15]>> Right, everyone. So, while I was waffling along back there and going on the middle of the roundabout, Liz has already been and gone. She's finished this slip road. This is the one coming off the A14. She's cleaned up both sides. We drove down it a couple of days ago, actually.

[00:28:32]just going into town here and it didn't look too bad. So, she's cleaned that up in no time. I've just gone to grab this cone and I wanted to show you how clean it was looking. So, there we go. I will dump this here for now.

[00:28:50]Let's crack on. So, if we take a look at the map, there's really not much left to do now.

[00:28:58]I can see a bit more on the middle of the island here. I'm going to go and get that. This will only take me a second.

[00:29:23]So, look, in part one, I actually litter picked here round to this bush here. So, this is all clean. That's where we started out last time.

[00:29:32]I am just going to have a little bit of a peek on this island cuz last year I did find some stuff on this roundabout on this side.

[00:29:41]Look, there's loads of these rabbit warren here and unfortunately they make a great place a trap from the wind for the litter to go into. So, we'll get that out of there.

[00:29:55]Oh, look what I'm doing for the rabbits today.

[00:30:01]Yeah, apart from the noise of the traffic, the rabbits must have a pretty nice life over here. Being on this island, they probably don't get too many predators come over here. Don't imagine the fox risks it very often.

[00:30:15]It's absolutely covered in holes. It's just a minefield full of them. Massive warren under here, I'm sure.

[00:30:28]Yeah, look. The litter even gets up here.

[00:30:32]Crazy.

[00:30:34]There's actually a big pile of it just through here. That doesn't look like it's all blown there. I'd think that someone's been hanging out here.

[00:30:44]Possibly had a little bit of homeless activity here. Look. Look at all this.

[00:30:49]Right, let's speedun this.

[00:31:02]Done. Easy.

[00:31:08]Oh, bad news up here, I'm afraid. Bad news.

[00:31:13]I was prematurely celebrating this one.

[00:31:17]There's loads of crap up here.

[00:31:20]All these cans.

[00:31:23]They have not blown up here from the road.

[00:31:27]We've definitely got some antisocial stuff going on up here.

[00:31:32]Ridiculous. Who in their right mind is coming to the center of a roundabout?

[00:31:39]It's like, oh, I know where we'll go and hang out tonight.

[00:31:42]Let's go to the Wesley interchange.

[00:31:44]Yeah, middle of the roundabout seems like a perfect place to hang out and drink.

[00:31:51]It's ridiculous.

[00:32:07]I mean, I sort of understand it. It's out of the way, isn't it? No one's going to find you out here. If you were sleeping rough or you wanted to get away from prying eyes for something, it's the place to come, I guess.

[00:32:31]Wow. Almost filled a bag just over here on this little patch alone. That's crazy.

[00:32:39]I really wasn't expecting much up here.

[00:32:47]I did climb up here last week. Look, this is the slip road going on towards Cambridge and New Market there.

[00:32:53]Have to say it's all looking nice and clean.

[00:32:57]Yeah, I think the central island is done. We can check that off the list.

[00:33:01]Boom.

[00:33:07]Oh, I spoke too soon again. Just happened to stick my head around the side of these bushes and I found another little pile here.

[00:33:21]You won't be able to see her. I can see this orange speck on the horizon. Liz is absolutely smashing it on that slip road.

[00:33:37]Well, not slip road junction, but whatever. You know what I mean, right? Without tempting fate any further, this little piece of paper marks the end of the center island for us. Amazing.

[00:33:59]Let's get onto that triangle there and see what we find.

[00:34:05]Can't remember what we did here last week. I think if I remember rightly. I think Liz cleaned this little island right at the start of part one.

[00:34:56]There's our dreaded fly tip site again.

[00:34:58]Not going anywhere near that.

[00:35:16]Right, just working along the central reservation here.

[00:35:25]The central reservation's also been mowed this week.

[00:35:29]So, there's a little bit of shredded litter. It's not too bad, though, to be honest.

[00:35:38]Pretty manageable for us.

[00:35:47]Hello.

[00:35:49]>> Hello.

[00:35:56]>> Right, everyone. My bag is very full now. I don't think there's enough left to uh justify opening another bag. So, I'll just grab these few bits here.

[00:36:12]Uh, you know what? I've changed my mind.

[00:36:17]I've just seen a load of plastic crap up here. So, I've changed my mind. I'll do one more bag. Why not?

[00:36:24]Just the amount of cans embedded in the grass here. It's mad.

[00:36:30]Just that throwaway culture.

[00:36:44]But look, we're getting to the end here now.

[00:37:00]Welcome to Barry St. Edmonds everyone.

[00:37:10]So this verge up here, that's where I cleaned in a video a few weeks back when I was testing out my new GoPro.

[00:37:20]So, I got all the way to where these trees start on the right.

[00:37:29]So, we're kind of joining up the dots here today.

[00:37:42]>> Hey.

[00:37:43]>> Hello.

[00:37:45]>> Right, this is it.

[00:37:47]We finish up here. We're done.

[00:38:03]Wow. Teamwork makes the dream work today. Amazing stuff.

[00:38:09]Liz is a litter picking machine over there.

[00:38:15]Just doing a little quality check on the area that I did before.

[00:38:43]I want to go get a couple more bits. Be really quick.

[00:38:48]Oh man, it's busy.

[00:38:51]Just admiring our work from the other side.

[00:38:55]And I spotted a couple more things. Not really sure how I missed it. I'm sure I walked right past these. Oh, well, these couple of bits and I'm sure there's something hanging in the bushes up here.

[00:39:12]It's a glove.

[00:39:18]There you go. Simple, right? Thanks for watching today, everyone.

[00:39:30]Amazing effort by Liz.

[00:39:34]This roundabout is officially clean. One down, two more to go. We'll see you very soon. Thanks everyone.

[00:39:45]And what about all this crap? Hey, come on. Highways, come and pick up all your stuff.