Jason Alexander, from Rubbish Walks, opens UK’s first vintage litter museum in Kingston Road, Woodbridge, to raise awareness of littering

Suffolk’s residents will be able step back in time as the UK’s first vintage litter museum is set to open next month.

Jason Alexander, 52, of Ipswich, will be displaying his unique collection of litter finds from his museum in Kingston Road, Woodbridge – with the oldest piece going back over 100 years.

From a Twix wrapper dated to 1988 to a Spar Mintos sweet bag from 1972 or a can of Lucozade from the 1980s, visitors will able to view over 400 vintage items from October 22.

“Everything in this collection is from 1999 or earlier,” said Jason.

“The oldest piece is from the 1920s, so that’s over 100 years old.

“All of the items have been found during litter picks and beach cleans. They haven’t been sitting in somebody’s collection in a loft somewhere.

“The have generally been found on a Suffolk beach, in the woodland or in a hedgerow in a town somewhere.”

Despite the memory some of these items may bring back, the museum was designed to raise awareness of littering – something Jason sees as a growing problem.

He said: “I can stand with a crisp packet from 1986 that looks like it could have been dropped yesterday, and it really hits home that stuff doesn’t just disappear.

“We might spend a couple of minutes eating from a crisp packet, but if we don’t dispose of it properly, that crisp packet will still be polluting the environment in 40/50 years time.”

Jason first began litter picking nearly a decade ago after he set himself a challenge to photograph 100 sunrises in a year, but soon found himself moving rubbish to get the perfect shot.

“I was brought up to always put stuff in the bin, so I’d pick up that litter, put it in the bin or take it home with me to be recycled,” said Jason.

From that moment, Jason began regular litter picks, which he shared on social media to hopefully inspire others to do the same, and soon his work grew a following.

As a result Rubbish Walks – a non-profit organisation – was established in 2018, and now others across Suffolk join Jason in his clean-ups.

Despite his work being award-winning, Jason said not enough is being done to protect the planet.

“Here in the museum we’ve products from the 60s or the 70s which have the Tidyman logo,” he explained

“It says ‘please don’t litter, put your rubbish in the bin’ and that’s from around five decades ago.

“Today, we’re still having the same conversations with the same messaging, so something is not connecting.

“I think over time we’ve become blind to it. It’s the same with most things. You hear something for a while, you get a little bored with it and move onto the next thing.”

However, for Jason, the responsibility lies with the consumers, and he hopes the museum will encourage people to dispose of their rubbish properly.

“Regardless of whether we think the council or the manufactures should do more, at the end of the day it’s us as consumers that are dropping that stuff on the ground,” said Jason.

“Nobody likes being told what to do, but if we can nudge people in the right direction, then we’re on the right track.

“We won’t solve this overnight, and the museum wouldn’t exist if littering was an easy thing to solve, but hopefully we will start to see results.”