Volunteers have cleaned up about 10 tons of trash so far this year – including one-and-a-half tons of batteries cleared up on one site at the weekend.

Keep Bermuda Beautiful sent a team of volunteers to two sites on North Shore Road at the weekend after a member of the public alerted the group to trash problems.

KBB Executive Director, Rich Lathan, said: "About three weeks ago, a concerned citizen called the office and alerted us to a site on North Shore Road which had been home to vagrants for a number of years and which, unfortunately, had become a wasteland of hazardous waste and abandoned household goods and vehicles which could be seen from the road side. When we went to look at the site, we found an even worse site a couple of yards away that couldn't be seen from the roadside and decided that this really needed to be cleaned up."

He added: "Shortly after we were called, we informed The Royal Gazette of the eye sore and a photographer was sent out to take pictures. While taking pictures, the photographer was bitten by a rat confirming the significance of the need to clean up the area. Thankfully there were no incidents on Saturday."

The clean up started early Saturday morning and continued on into the afternoon with 30 volunteers pitching in to help.

They recovered 90 car batteries weighing in at one-and-a-half tons as well as 56 black bags of general trash and 15 bags of recyclables such as tins and bottles. The result of the clean up could be seen yesterday morning bagged on the side of the road as KBB waited for the Department of Works and Engineering to haul the trash away.

The amount collected at the weekend brought the total amount of trash collected this year by KBB to 20,000 lbs.

"This was the dress rehearsal for the 100 Sites Clean Up which is scheduled to take place on May 17," said Mr. Lathan.

KBB is planning on cleaning up 100 sites – some have already been located and the public are encouraged to join in and clean an area they feel needs to be cleaned. They should call KBB and have the area registered.

Anyone interested in joining KBB or volunteering for the 100 Sites Clean Up can contact the group at 295 5142 or via email at kbb@northrock.bm. www.kbb.bm will be up on May 1.