'LITTER heroes' are taking part in a month-long campaign to clean up Dorset's streets.

The Litter Free Dorset Challenge has begun, with June 1 marking the first day in a month-long effort to reduce the amount of litter left discarded on streets, beaches and in local communities across the county.

Around 120 participants, known as 'litter heroes', signed up to take part in the campaign when it was announced last month and, alongside the option of creating their own challenge, Litter Free Dorset suggested three challenges for heroes to take on.

More than two thirds of participants will be taking part in a '10 times' challenge, where they pick up litter in their local area 10 times over the course of June. Other participants opted for the '10-minute daily' challenge, while some signed up to complete the '10-hour' challenge, where they litter pick for 10 hours in one day.

The campaign has a specific focus on plastic pollution in the county, and participants will have the opportunity to provide data about the amount of plastic and they different types that they collect to help inform solutions to tackle plastic pollution in the long term.

Heroes are encouraged to share their progress with their individual challenges in a Facebook group to offer each other support and keep everyone motivated.

The challenge is supported by Queen Mary University of London and co-financed by the Interreg France (Channel) England programme through the Preventing Plastic Pollution project, a scheme aimed at reducing plastic waste.

Sophie Colley, from Litter Free Dorset, said: "Taking part in the challenge? Don’t forget to take pictures and share your litter finds on social media. Tag in Litter Free Dorset and the Preventing Plastic Pollution project and use the hashtag #LFDChallenge to make sure we don’t miss your social posts.

"Good luck with your challenge."

Participants are also able to fundraise for Litter Free Dorset while they complete the challenge. Litter Free Dorset, a community campaign to reduce litter across the county hosted by Dorset Council, will use all the donations to help achieve the organisation's goal to reduce the social, economic and environmental impacts of litter in the county.

For more information on Litter Free Dorset and the June challenge, visit www.litterfreedorset.co.uk/