Littering Awareness Campaign with Lochaber High School

This week marks the conclusion of a Highland Council littering awareness campaign with Lochaber High School. The Highland Council’s Waste Aware team visited the school during February as part of the initiative funded by Zero Waste Scotland.  The campaign aimed to help to reduce the amount of litter generated in both school grounds and in areas frequented by pupils at lunchtime. 

On their return from the Mid-term break, students found the school transformed with posters, banners, floor graphics, temporary biodegradable street stencils and bin stickers with Zero Waste Scotland’s national campaign artwork bearing slogans such as ‘Nobody likes a Bin Dodger’.  The eye-catching campaign materials have been in place since February 19th and teachers have been reinforcing the campaign’s core messages with pupils.  

Lochaber Councillor Allan Henderson, Chair of the Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee said: “In line with the Scottish Government strategy ‘Towards a Litter Free Scotland’ this campaign adopts a preventative and collaborative approach to addressing the issue of littering.  Effective communication of the problems associated with littering is essential to change attitudes toward the issue.  The materials used by Highland Council’s Waste Aware Team for this campaign provide an engaging means of delivering this message to school pupils and encouraging positive changes to littering behaviour.” 

The Waste Aware Team has also worked closely with the school and local retailers to identify waste hotspots and to target littering outwith school grounds by utilising the materials in the local area as well.  Campaign posters have been displayed by local shops during the campaign period.  In this way, it is hoped that the wider community can also engage with the anti-littering message. 

The materials used for this campaign were specifically selected with longevity and sustainability in mind, with the majority being permanent or reusable.  The materials have previously been used successfully for campaigns with all Inverness Secondary Schools and Inverness College and it is intended that they will also be made available to other schools within the Highlands.