£750 for Glen Urquhart High School as they clean up during week long SCOPE litter campaign

The Highland Council’s school litter project came to Drumnadrochit last week with volunteers and local businesses getting behind the campaign at Glen Urquhart High School.

Pupils and staff from Glen Urquhart High School were joined by volunteers from the Drumnadrochit Flower Forum and Highland Council staff at litter hotspots around the village to encourage school pupils to use litter bags and bins throughout the week.

In return for using the bins provided, pupils were given a token to hand in to the school to help it reach a target total. Pupils returning tokens were entered into a prize draw to win £10 cash prizes as a reward for disposing of their litter properly. 

In total, 707 tokens were handed in by the pupils and the school will now receive £750 to spend on eco equipment or initiatives as part of the campaign. The local community will also receive up to £500 of funding to spend on eco equipment or initiatives for their involvement during the week.

Each afternoon the rubbish was analysed, to obtain valuable data about waste generated at school lunch breaks.  Nearly 7 kg of waste was collected in the bins from the pupils over the week long campaign, of which 2 kg was recyclable. This included 55 plastic bottles and 7 drink cans which were recycled by the team of volunteers.

Depute Head Teacher Alan Bruce said: “This was a great opportunity to forge greater links with the local community for a common purpose.  It was fantastic to see community volunteers, staff and pupils working together to reduce litter in Drumnadrochit.  With such a positive response this is definitely something we will look to do again in the near furure.”

The Scope Litter Campaign which is being funded by Zero Waste Scotland as part of a Scotland wide trial, aims to reduce the amount of lunch time litter around secondary schools and to build links between the community, businesses and schools. 

The last Highland school taking part is Millburn academy so this week pupils, staff and volunteers at the school are busy during lunch breaks.