Gosport mum and daughter, 7, on a mission to clean up litter around the town

Elson Infant School pupil Eila Hurst has taken on the task of tidying the streets after being inspired from learning about plastic pollution at school.

Eila and her mum, Elizabeth Grant, are hoping to encourage others to take a bin bag with them when they walk the dog or go on a school run and join the efforts.

Carer Elizabeth said: ‘We are trying to make people aware that every little helps. It's really helped my daughter realise how bad it is for the environment and she's on a mission to help it.’

Since investing in a litter picker, Eila and Elizabeth have been on a mission to clean up their local park Grove Road recreation ground while walking their dogs, Pixie the chihuahua and papillon Amber.

One scary discovery came when Eila found a plastic bag which contained a knife, a pair of jeans and an unknown substance in a bottle, but luckily did not touch the items and they reported it to the council.

On a recent trip to indoor play centre Monkey Bizness Gosport, the pair noticed a lot of litter in the bushes surrounding the industrial park and managed to collect two full bin bags to dispose of.

Mum-of-two Elizabeth, 27, said: ‘She’s really enjoying it, she’s always noticed rubbish on the floor. She has always been quite caring and since we’ve got the litter picker she’s well away.

‘For children her age, when they’re into something so big when there’s adults that don’t even care, we have to keep going.’

The pair are hoping to encourage other children to get involved, and have recently linked up with the Gosport Wombles, a community of people caring for the environment in the borough.

‘We’re on a bit of a mission of helping the environment at the moment, one bin bag at a time,’ said Elizabeth.

‘[Eila] is a massive animal lover and loves David Attenborough. I love it - I very much hate what humans are doing to the planet, it makes me sad. I’m really proud of her.’