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A HGV driver is helping to clean up the UK by encouraging other truckers to pick up their litter.

Martin Burrows decided to take action after years of doing long distance deliveries for Eddie Stobarts in Stoke-on-Trent.

The retired RAF MTDriver is out on the road five days a week and often struggles to find parking as rest stops have been closed due to truckers' 'unsociable habits'.

The 54-year-old, who lives in Stafford with wife Jackie and and cat Jess, said: “Over the years I have noticed that many of our parking spaces were being shut down or having parking restrictions put in place which made it harder to fulfil our lawful rest period.

“Places like Kent were doing this and the reason was the unsociable habits of truckers. Throwing their rubbish into the bushes which ranged from human waste to every day litter!

“On one occasion at Rochester outside a major company I noticed drivers were leaving rubbish all along the road, so I took a video and sent it to UK Litter Pickers Facebook site.

“This prompted action from residents of Rochester where yet again drivers were banned from overnight parking.”

The father-of-two continued: “This made me think ‘is it all drivers or just the minority?’ So I started to do a bit of litter picking when I stopped and posted my efforts - I got a good response.

“So on April 1 the Truckers Cleaning up Britain Facebook group was born. This was to show the councils and the general public that drivers did care about the environment and initially my plan was to get each driver collecting one bag from their stops.

"This is not a lot but over time this became the length of the HGV vehicle.

“Then I spotted a phrase which was ‘don’t be the problem, be the solution’ and that is where I stand. We can all blame the council and the government but we have to look at ourselves and stop littering.”

Since Martin launched the Facebook group, more than 1,400 members have collected more than 660 bags of rubbish from laybys, industrial areas and depots.

Martin added: “To be honest I was shocked by the response from drivers on Facebook. There are a lot of drivers that think the same as me but were not able to do anything about it. When they saw my posts they decided to join in.

“Not only do we strive to collect rubbish but my aim is to try and educate HGV drivers of their actions. Group members are not just truck drivers but also coach drivers and other litter picking groups. We have also started to get HGV parking official sites joining in.

“I have noticed an improvement in some areas from drivers who are now thinking of their actions and doing the Bag it, Bin it.”