About Us.
Hello.
If you’re here, you’re probably interested in keeping Margate clean and tidy.
You’re in the right place!
We set up RISE UP. CLEAN UP. MARGATE. Cic in the summer of 2020 as a response to the litter crisis affecting Margate’s beaches.
We run regular beach cleans. We’d love for you to join us.
Our Projects…
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Turner Portfolio Exhibition
Portfolio is a free platform for young people living in Kent and Medway to get their art and ideas out in the world. Each year Turner collaborates with a local organisation. This year Turner Contemporary has collaborated with RISE. UP. CLEAN. UP. to select the chosen works.
The theme: Rising
We are living in a time of climate crisis. Rising consumption leads to rising numbers of plastics produced which leads to rising pollution, rising temperatures and rising sea levels. Raising awareness of these issues is leading to rising activism, rising social outcry, and a future generation with a rising desire to do things differently.
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Rise Up Residency
RISE UP RESIDENCY was a week-long mural project and educational programme taking place in September 2022 in Margate, Kent. The initiative was spearheaded by RISE UP. CLEAN UP. and Margate-based, internationally acclaimed artist Louis Masai.
The residency welcomed seventeen local and international artists to stay in Margate and create public art as a means of raising awareness of ocean conservation and the issues caused by plastic in and near our oceans. Their aim is to inspire, unite and empower the community of Margate and its visitors to partake in reducing plastics and respecting the ocean.
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Margate Pride reusable cup
One cup. All day.
No more single-use cups! This cup is made from 100% recycled plastic and can be used all day at Margate Pride. What’s more, you will receive discounts at venues around Margate when you use it. What’s not to love?
Cups can be purchased in our online shop. All proceeds go straight back into our work.
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TidyPac
Margate was the first place in the UK to install TidyPac rubbish bag dispensers along its seafront.
The stations aim to normalise the idea of litter picking and encourage everyone who visits the beach to do their bit.
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The Water Fountain
After 2 years of campaigning and fundraising, we are delighted to announce that Thanet District Council has installed Thanet's first dedicated water fountain on Margate Main Sands.
The water fountain was paid for by the community, who have been donating to RISE UP. CLEAN UP. MARGATE. over the past few years. The installation and maintenance of the fountain will be the responsibility of Thanet District Council.
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Station Installation
Designed as a collaboration between set-designer and RUCU founder Amy Cook, and local design agency Because Creative, the installation is a playful art object that carries a strong anti-littering message. It was situated in the ticket hall of Margate Train Station from July 2021 - Feb 2022.
Meet the team
Alanna McGill-Tagg
Alanna co-founded RUCU with Amy. With RUCU, Alanna wants to create opportunities and platform for the people of Thanet to take action to protect our beaches and ocean. Mad about the litter? Let’s do something with that. Got an idea to change behaviours? Let’s do something with that! Got some time and want to get involved? Let’s do something with that!
Amy Cook
Amy co-founded RISE UP along with Alanna. She is a performance designer with a passion for the ocean. Her love of sea swimming and surfing lead her to care deeply about the environmental crisis facing our waters. She hopes that with the work RISE UP does, we can leave a better future for the next generation and for our blue planet.
Jessica Rose
Jessica Rose joined forces with Rise Up Clean Up to push for Thanet to become a plastic free community. She's the Surfers Against Sewage community lead for Margate and has been living as plastic free as possible for more than four years. She's an environment campaign manager at national charity Business in the Community.
Louis Masai
Acting as artist lead for the Rise Up Residency, internationally-acclaimed artist and Margate local Masai also created one of the 17 murals. After receiving a Fine Art Degree in Falmouth, Louis began a career straddling studio work and large-scale public domain murals, using visual language to focus on animal life, biodiversity, the encroachment of ecological disaster and more recent forays into issues surrounding the farming industry & mono-farmed crops.
Maite Pardo
Maite is originally from Spain, and moved to Margate in 2020. She trained as a Veterinary Surgeon, but she is also very focused in sustainability and climate change. When she is not working or litter picking she is also a Greenpeace Speaker, BDMLR medic and co-coordinates the local Friends of the Earth group. She says, “I truly believe in the power of the community. Through education projects, working with the council and chats with the public, we can achieve a litter free Margate”.
Sam Pisano
Sam joined Rise Up Clean Up to help with beach cleans and refilling the free bag stations. She says, “it’s been a great way to meet like minded people with a passion for environmental issues”. She is delighted to have become more involved over time with Rise Up Clean Up as there are so many exciting projects and plans in development as we continue to work towards a cleaner and plastic free Margate.
Our Mission.
Inspire.
To inspire people to come together as a community, and seek creative solutions that will tackle the issue of litter on our beaches.
Organise.
To organise regular community beach cleans – providing litter pickers, and bin bags to all those who want to be involved.
Engage.
To be a visible presence on the beaches during the busier summer season – talking to the public, collecting litter and handing out bin bags.
Change.
To work with the council and relevant tour/transport operators to tackle the problem at all levels, promoting meaningful and long-lasting change.
The numbers.
Since our beginnings in July 2020 we have held 42 community beach cleans.
We have collected 968 bags of rubbish.
That’s over 4,800kg of litter.
On a busy day in summer, around 1,500 people arrive into Margate Train Station every hour.
During the summer holidays, Margate’s population can grow by up to 25% on a single day, but its waste management budget remains the same.
On a busy day, Thanet Council clears up to 5 tons of rubbish from around Margate Main Sands. This is the equivalent of 275 regular street bins
