Litter picking world cup trophy not coming to Britain this year

The litter-picking World Cup trophy will not be returning to Britain this year; Team GB will finish 13th in Tokyo following their dazzling victory in 2023.

Last year’s champions, led by Sarah Parry and brothers Alexander and Jonathan Winship, cruised to global glory in the inaugural Spogomi World Cup.

However, this year’s team – Bella Spencer, Hannah Terrell and Hannah Hunter – was unable to repeat this success, finishing 13th out of 34 international teams.

Born in Japan, the eco-sport combines “sport” with gomi (Japanese for garbage), challenging trios to race against the clock to collect and sort garbage.

Competitors receive points based on both the amount and type of waste collected; Cigarette butts are worth 50 points per 100 grams, and plastic bottles are worth 25 points. However, larger items such as baby strollers or fire extinguishers attract penalties.

This year’s competition took place in Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district on October 29, and 879kg of trash was collected in two 45-minute sessions.

Japan, which has been training for over a year, took back the title on home soil, followed by Germany and Morocco.

UK contestant Hannah said the event highlighted the “huge littering problem” in London.

He recalled: “There was a tremendous amount of fly-tipping; we were ankle-deep in rubbish.”

Teammate Bella said the experience was “inspiring and humbling”: “The UK could learn a lot from Japan about taking collective pride in daily tasks. Too often we think it’s someone else’s job to clean up after ourselves.”

Spogomi UK representative Chris Roaf said: “It’s such a clear idea to use sports and competition incentives to protect the environment – I don’t know why we don’t already play matches every week.”

Despite this year’s defeat, Team GB have vowed to come back stronger (tongs ready) for the cleanest competition yet in 2026.