About LAGER Can

LAGER Can – the Litter Action Group for Ealing Residents – was founded in 2017 by Keith Freegard, then a resident of Hanwell. Membership has climbed to 2,000 and continues to grow.

In 2021 we were honoured to receive a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. The award was collected by Keith and LAGER Can Chair Cathy Swift in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey.

Our primary goal is to make the London Borough of Ealing’s open spaces cleaner and greener. To achieve this we work with our partners at Ealing Council and the Canal & River Trust as well as businesses, schools and scouts. Do contact us if you’d like us to visit your school or youth group.

We have supervised volunteer litter picking by 160 Duke of Edinburgh silver and bronze award students from all over the UK.

Having achieved Thames 21 River Action Group Status, we’re working hard with Clean Up the River Brent (CURB) to keep our waterways clean and free from invasive species. Since March 2022 we have cleaned the River Brent from Ealing Golf Club to Alperton. We have scheduled additional events up-river in Wembley and down-river in Greenford and Hanwell.

With the Canal & River Trust we hold monthly litter picking events on the Grand Union Canal and quarterly ‘paddle‘n’pick’ sessions using canoes.

LAGER Can is a very active group, with volunteers working every day independently or in groups, removing hundreds of bags of rubbish, recyclables and piles of unbaggable items from our open spaces. We’re often in the local news, and you can keep up to date via our blog and our dashboard which gives a real-time update on our grime-fighting activities in numbers.

However, we don’t simply pick up rubbish. We’re keen to change the behaviours that lead to littering and fly-tipping. We regularly report fly-tippers to Ealing Council. Many have paid large fines.

We also believe that an environment that looks cared for is less likely to become littered and fly-tipped. To this end, and working in partnership with Ealing Park Rangers, Ealing Wildlife Group and others, we have carried out grounds maintenance and planting projects to regenerate previously abused sites, notably at Horsenden Hill West and Grove Farm. LAGER Can has developed and maintains a Rose Garden near Alwyne and Manor Court Roads in Hanwell.