COMMUNITY-spirited Durham University students spent part of Sunday, May 1, litter picking around The Sands area, near the River Wear.

Eight volunteers from the Psychologists for Environmental Action (PEAs) and Durham Hedgehog Friendly Society collected five bin bags full of rubbish across a two-hour stint.

The effort was part of Hedgehog Awareness Week, which also included a week-long litter picking campaign, dubbed #LitterPrick; an Instagram quiz; the opening of a Hedgehog House at the University-run Botanic Garden; and a hedgehog-themed baking contest.

The Durham Hedgehog Friendly Society is working to make the University campus hedgehog-friendly by ensuring University policies take into account the needs of hedgehogs, engaging with community partners to raise awareness, and promoting activities which benefit the local hedgehog population, such as hedgehog surveys, training, campaigns, and litter picks. It has already achieved silver accredited status through the Hedgehog Preservation Society and is working towards gold.

Jack Hughes, a PhD student in Behavioural Science and head of the PEAS group, said: “We wanted to continue our litter picking events and support the Durham Hedgehog Friendly Society in their mission to make the Durham community a safe and clean place for hedgehogs.

“With exam period coming up this was a way to channel student stress and the need to relax into something productive and ecologically beneficial.”

Durham University staff and students give a combined total of over 35,000 hours to volunteering for charities and good causes each year. University staff are encouraged to take up to five days per year as paid volunteering leave.

Recently the University was placed 30th in the People and Planet Green University League, up 66 places on the previous year, and it has achieved platinum status in the EcoCampus accreditation, an environmental management scheme for higher and further education.

Soon the Green Move Out scheme will return, which allows students leaving Durham for the summer to donate unwanted goods to charity. Also taking place soon is the second Greenspace Festival, an opportunity to share environmental ideas and initiatives across the University and local community.

For more information, please visit www.dur.ac.uk/greenspace

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