The unbelievable litter left in Hartlepool - including false teeth, underwear and a fire extinguisher

A guitar, a plastic banana skin, pregnancy test and part of a shopping trolley have also been found by anti-litter campaigners.

The list also includes the cartridge from a caravan toilet, a printer, microwave, toaster, and bolt cutter.

The range of abandoned items was shared with the Hartlepool Mail by members of the Big Town Tidy Up Facebook page.

And they were keen to stress that, for every unusual item, there were nine times as many common items – such as plastic – which were regularly being dumped all over town.

Campaigners are regularly finding used wipes, abandoned bags of dog dirt, laughing gas canisters, and empty cans.

We first reported on the group and its excellent work last week and told how membership levels had topped 1,000 people.

There is space for even more to join the fight against litter which is being waged by a group which stresses that it’s the job of everyone to keep the streets clean and not just the council.

Group founder Jason Bland co-founded ‘Big Town Tidy Up’ with Danny Oram 18 months ago.

Danny said: “You do get unusual finds but 90 per cent of what we find is cans, crisp packets and that sort of thing.

“We want to get across the message that the group is pro-active.”

He said it was ‘up to the people of Hartlepool’ to get up and do something about litter instead of sitting back and ‘accepting the status quo’.

Other of the more unusual finds include a pigeon’s foot, a snake’s skin, fire extinguisher, and the top of a kitchen counter.

Big Town Tidy Up members have now taken 4,500 bags of other people’s rubbish off the streets of the town and they won’t be letting up in their battle for clean streets. Membership levels have also increased by 50 to 1,050 since our story last week.

The band of volunteers has the support Hartlepool Borough Council in their efforts to make a difference and want to get across the message that ‘this is everyone’s fight’.

A Hartlepool Borough Council spokesperson told the Mail last week that they were aware of ‘many individuals and groups who regularly give up their own time to help protect and improve the local environment and we would like to thank them all for their efforts.

“The Council is currently drawing up plans for a new campaign to tackle the scourge of litter across the Borough, and to try to ensure its success we aim to harness this sense of community spirit.

“We would urge as many people as possible to support the on-going effort to keep Hartlepool as clean and tidy as possible – either by organising their own clean-ups or by simply ensuring that they always dispose of their rubbish responsibly.

“By working together we really can make a difference.”

To find out more about ‘Big Town Tidy Up’ visit the group’s page on Facebook.

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