Walkers and Pepsi MAX clean up Leicester’s Beaumont Park as part of The Great British Spring Clean

The Great British Spring Clean 2025 has officially begun, with 55 colleagues joining forces with Keep Britain Tidy, the environmental charity behind the campaign, to clean up Beaumont Park in Leicester. During the litter-picking event, 57 bags of litter were collected, revitalising the much-loved Leicester park located just minutes from our Walkers crisps factory and global R&D Centre.

This event in Leicester is one of many litter picks happening across PepsiCo UK as part of the 2025 Great British Spring Clean, sponsored by Walkers and Pepsi MAX for the seventh consecutive year.

Walkers began our partnership with the Great British Spring Clean in 2018, launching the UK’s first crisp packet recycling scheme, where packs were turned into useful objects including flooring and fence posts. Now, crisp packets collected during litter picks can be recycled at one of the thousands of front-of-store collection points made possible through our work with the Flexible Plastic Fund.

We recognise the importance of using the power of our brands to inspire positive change for the planet and people, while also encouraging people to be more mindful of their littering and recycling habits. It’s all part of our PepsiCo Positive ambition to create a world where packaging never becomes waste.

Since 2018, over a thousand PepsiCo volunteers have collected more than 1,100 bags of rubbish across the UK – that’s the equivalent of eight lengths of a football pitch.

Passion for picking

Our support of the Great British Spring Clean is made possible thanks to members of PepsiCo's Green team, an employee-led group that educates and engages colleagues on how to become more sustainable at work, at home, and in their communities. The team organises litter-picking events to help educate colleagues on our PepsiCo Positive journey and how we can all take small steps in our day-to-day lives that make a big impact on the planet.

Walkers Quality Controller, Sam Laywood is a dedicated member of PepsiCo UK's Green team, and in his spare time acts as a Litter Ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy spending hours of his space time litter picking and educating people about its benefits.

Sam’s passion in this space led him to complete a 26.2-mile litter-picking marathon in just 11 hours earlier this week. This is the second litter-picking marathon Sam has completed, raising a total of £3,000 for the Wildlife Trust. Sam's efforts were recognised at the Great British Spring Clean ceremony, where he was presented with the 'Leading Litter Hero' award at the Houses of Parliament.