I pick up plastic waste to save it from landfill. It's lonely but worth it

In my single-handed fight I have collected 180,000 items - 50 pieces of litter a day for 10 years. If only the world didn't find this weird

Who's that weirdo? Sadly, the answer is me. I can feel the question following me as I dive into the gutter or duck around the feet of my fellow Londoners to sweep up the bottles and cans and newspapers they have abandoned.

The question hasn't changed in the the decade or so that I've been waging what seems a lone fight against the plastic tide threatening to engulf us. And I doubt it will change now, even as the Guardian reports that a million plastic bottles around the world are bought every minute - that's a staggering 20,000 every second.