"The Wombles" are an iconic British creation and are a creation of Elisabeth Beresford in the 60s. First a series of books, then a TV series made them famous in the UK.
These creatures are furry and burrow-dwelling, and believe in the motto "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish". The books are about how the Wombles creatively recycle waste in the Wimbledon Common area in London.
Recently, their name was used in association with a Twitter campaign in the UK, thus bringing them back into memory and into international attention. How?
Image: The Guardian
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In response to the recent riots in London, some people began to use tools like Twitter in order to organize cleaning efforts to rid neighbourhoods of graffiti, broken glass, and restore public utilities (very much like the incident mentioned in
this IZ question).
@Riotcleanup was a leading account that helped organize this and promoted the use of a hashtag called "#riotwombles" to help people talk about cleaning efforts in various places. The use of "wombles" was both fitting and endearing, serving as a symbol of the campaign.
