The Big Hog Friendly Litter Pick Challenge 2024

Results released today: Which campus had the biggest Trash Total?

Teams were tasked with the challenge of picking the most litter in the #Pick4Prickles 2024 challenge and they didn’t disappoint!

After 2 months of tidying up their communities, 2,228 students, staff and members of the public jointly collected just over 840 bags of litter from their campus and local area! That’s 828 more volunteers than last year and 94 more bags collected, well done teams.

The challenge saw 4 categories of teams taking part, including universities, colleges, secondary schools, and primary schools. The winners received a hedgehog house and bag of hedgehog food for their campus and all volunteers received a certificate too.

Winners of the University Category:

Congratulations to Durham University, who had the highest trash total of any university. The team of 108 collected a whopping 127 bags of litter over the challenge.

A big well done to the University of Hertfordshire, a team of 123 collected 107 bags of litter, coming second place. While the University of Warwick came third place with 91 bags and 88 volunteers.

Photo credit: Durham University

Winners of the College Category:

Well done to Shipley College who has the highest trash total in the College category. The team of 80 collected 27 bags of litter overall.

Photo credit: Shipley college

Winners of the Secondary School Category:

Coop Academy Bebington has won the Secondary School category with an incredible effort! Their 40 volunteers collected a total of 40 bags of litter. The school’s motto, “Do what matters most,”  truly shone through with this team. Congratulations!

Well done to North Cestrian School who came second place with a team of 13 volunteers and 28 bags collected, and to Longbenton High School who had 12 volunteers taking part with a trash total of 25.

Photo credit: Coop Academy Bebington

Winners of the Primary School Category:

Harrysmuir Primary School won the Primary School category 3 years in a row! With 213 incredible volunteers who collected 50.5 bags of litter overall for 2024. This is a reduction since last year, making the school grounds safer for hedgehogs and other wildlife as time goes on!

A huge well done to Aurora Hedgeway School who came second place with 32 bags collected and 35 volunteers, and to Redscope Primary School who had 19 volunteers taking part and collected 31.5 bags of litter!

A notable shout out to Oakfield Primary School and Huntington Primary Academy who both had around 400 volunteers!

Photo credit: Harrysmuir Primary School

The litter pick leaderboard:

Team	Trash bags collected	Number of Volunteers
Durham University	127	108
University of Hertfordshire	107	123
University of Warwick	92	88
Harrysmuir Primary School	50.5	213
Coop Academy Bebington	40	40
Aurora Hedgeway School	32	35
Redscope Primary School	31.5	19
North Cestrian School	28	13
Shipley College	27	80
Cardiff University	27	73
St Alban’s CE Primary	26	60
Oakfield Primary School	25.5	402
Longbenton High School	25	12
Huntington Primary Academy	23	387
Boston Spa Academy	21	27
Holy Spirit Catholic and CE Primary School	17	98
The Open University	14	11
The University of Chester	12	12
Kingston University Green Impact Community	12	11
Polegate Primary School	10	15
Wellingborough School	10	10
Queen Mary University of London	9	20
Royal Veterinary College	8	3
Heron Hill Primary School	7	25
Barugh Green Primary School	6	31
St Antony's Oxford	6	17
Cranfield University	5	8
Norwich Research Park	3	4
South Bersted CE primary school	1.5	36
University of Sussex	1.5	7
St Andrews Junior school	0.5	10

Well done to everyone who took part!

Hedgehog Friendly Campus is funded in part by public donations and in part by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, the UK’s hedgehog conservation charity. Delivered by Students Organising for Sustainability UK. Find out more about both charities at www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk / www.sos-uk.org/about.