A former social care worker who walked 4,000 miles picking up litter along the British coast said people have “forgotten” how beautiful parts of Great Britain can be.
Wayne Dixon, from Blackburn, Lancashire, started walking along the coast of Britain 10 years ago alongside his Northern Inuit dog Koda.
While the pair never completed the walk, Mr Dixon’s efforts turned into a grassroots environmental campaign, inspiring dozens of community litter and beach-clean groups across the UK.
The 54-year-old became an ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy and estimates he helped spark 20–30 litter or beach-cleaning groups into action along his route, which he was first inspired to undertake by his father, John.
He told GB News: “My father was a long distance walker and an author of historical walking guides around Pendle and Lancashire.
“From a young age, I was introduced to long distance walking and camping, and always had a passion for people who had, you know, done long adventures.”
However, when John died, he left Wayne with Koda shortly before his death, which helped him through the grieving process.
He added: “I had a bit of money coming in, and I just saw the opportunity to walk across Britain.”
Wayne with Koda while on their walk
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Once he decided to start the walk, he described having a “voice” in his head encouraging him to start litter picking while travelling across the country.
Wayne continued: “I’d started litter picking, and I was for years getting angry about litter, because you’re walking past it and you’re getting angry about it.
“I remember once, I was walking to the shop when I was in Leeds, and I saw a load of litter and I thought, there’s no point getting angry about it, so I started to pick it up.
“As soon as I started to pick the litter up, the anger went away, so fast forward a few years, when I was came to the walk, there was just something in my head telling me to do it.”
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Wayne and Koda were often put up in pubs while on their walk
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Wayne also managed to draw on his own previous experience as a social worker, emphasising how much community meant to him while he was undertaking his walk.
He continued: “I think the first thing to address in a community, if you are to improve the community, you have to focus on the ground level stuff, which is to actually create a clean environment.
“By creating a cleaner environment, you become a volunteer, you start litter picking. But with that, if you’ve got more litter pickers on the street, you’re not just picking up the litter.
“You’ve also got positive people out in the community that are also looking out for other stuff.”
The pair picked up litter across the country
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When asked about what his highlight from his mega trip was, he said meeting people from across Britain’s coastal communities was “inspiring”, however there were times where he was left disappointed by the inaction on display.
He said: “We’ve forgotten how beautiful our country is and especially our coastline. But I have seen the decay of the country, if you will.
“You’ve got the people who are dropping the litter, but you’ve also got the people who were just ignoring it. I go on beaches and it’s full of litter or streets, yet no one’s picking it up.
“If you walk past somebody injured or an injured bird, there’s something in our head that will say ‘I’m not walking past that. I will pick it up.’ I’ve seen big differences over the past 10 years with more people individually litter picking.”
The pair undertook the epic walk before being stopped by Covid and an injury
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His efforts gained local media attention, and he was asked to speak with children at Scout and Beaver troops, as well as in schools.
Despite not completing the full 7,000-mile course due to Covid-19 and a groin injury, Wayne’s impact is evident in the increased community engagement and environmental awareness he fostered.
He said: “One of the legacies is that there’s many litter picking groups. Individuals have started litter picking from seeing my walk.
“So I think that’s the biggest highlight, the people that continued or started up the litter groups, beach cleaning groups, on the back of it.”
Koda sadly died in November last year
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Sadly, last year, Koda passed away, with Wayne now working as a gardener.
Looking back on his walk, Wayne said walking the route acted as “therapy” for him and encouraged others to follow his lead and explore Britain for themselves.
He continued: “It was tough because it was hard work picking up the letter and every day you see the beauty of our country, but running alongside it was the ignorance. You’d get to a beach and it would be full of c**p.
“You’d be on a little country lane going into Cornwall and the lanes are absolutely full of rubbish from people just throwing out of the windows, and you would be very sad.
“But at the same time, I was doing something about it. I was getting angry about the litter when I walked into a shop and folk weren’t doing anything about it. All I was doing was getting angry.
“We all live in the area. We’re all live in the community, the more people that actually saw things and addressed things, then maybe we could live in a a clean and safer environment.”