Keep Scotland Beautiful mobilises 5,327 volunteers to clean up the Highlands as part of Scotland’s National Spring Clean
Issued by Keep Scotland Beautiful
Over 97,000 volunteers – 13,569 more than in 2010 - gave their time between 14 March and 16 May to support Keep Scotland Beautiful’s National Spring Clean campaign, with 5,327 being from the Highlands.
In the Highlands, groups from community councils, schools, youth groups, John Muir Trust work parties, businesses, guides and scouts, environmental trusts, council staff, residents associations, Beautiful Scotland groups, and churches all pulled on their yellow Keep Scotland Tidy tabards and spent time cleaning up different locations. The result of all the hard work is that 99 public gardens, school grounds, woodlands, nature reserves, rivers/canals/loch-sides, beaches, tourist hotspots, country parks, road verges, villages and town centres in Highland will be litter free for summer.
Picking up thousands of discarded juice and alcohol bottles and cans, crisp bags and fast food wrappers, volunteers in Highland also uncovered some more unusual items – these included creels, a rubber boot, tyres, old road signs, two dead sheep, traffic cones and a hard hat.
Across the nation, using litter pickers and gloved hands each person collected on average one and a half black bags of waste - that is enough to fill 145,855 street litter bins!
Many groups also recycled the litter they collected this year, helping reduce the amount going to landfill and supporting Scotland’s zero waste targets. Zero Waste Scotland provided funding to support the event.
Helen Darvill, Team Leader for Volunteer Campaigns at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: ”I am astounded by the number of people who have given up their time this year to keep their own parts of Scotland beautiful. It is a real achievement that 5,327 people from Highland came out in force to take part in National Spring Clean 2011, and I am sincerely grateful to everyone who has been involved – from the local authorites, businesses, schools and nurseries, community councils, and enthusiastic individuals – you all deserve a massive pat on the back. Keep Scotland Beautiful shares the government’s vision for Scotland to be cleaner, greener, safer and more sustainable, and everyone involved in National Spring Clean is helping Scotland achieve this. Let’s try and reach the 100,000 mark next year!”
Councillor John Laing, Chairman of The Highland Council’s TEC Services Committee praised the 5,000 strong volunteers who took part in nearly 100 clean ups in the Highlands. He said: “On behalf of the Highland Council, I would like to thank everyone who turned out for the National Spring Clean in their own special part of the Highlands. Having pride in our communities and our own areas is vital to keeping the region clean and tidy. This support from the community is extremely welcome by the Council in our efforts to keep the Highlands tidy.”
National Spring Clean 2011 may be over but people can still organise and take part in clean up events throughout the rest of the year. Clean Up Kits can be ordered online at www.keepscotlandtidy.org
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