Council backs anti-litter campaign

The Highland Council is backing a national campaign to raise awareness of the hugely harmful effect of litter.

It is supporting Clean Up Scotland, the new national campaign led by Keep Scotland Beautiful. This is a year-round mass-engagement campaign that aims to encourage one million people to get involved in a number of ways.

Small actions can make a big difference such as:

To find out more please visit www.cleanupscotland.com/

Councillor Graham Phillips, Chairman of TEC Services, raised awareness of the campaign he said: “Highland is no different from any other city or big community in the UK.  It has a litter problem. Take a look the next time you walk outside - you'll see it. Cigarette butts, takeaway wrappers, crisp bags, cans and cartons, newspapers, ATM slips, chewing gum. You name it, and it's on our streets and motorways, in our parks and our lochs, up our mountains and on our beaches.”

A national recording programme found litter in 80% of the sites it visited. And it found cigarette butts on 70% of the streets it visited - each one takes 12 years to decompose.

He added: “It's not just litter, dog fouling and graffiti, flytipping and flyposting, abandoned vehicles and other examples of the incivilities that our own people inflict upon our country. More than 62,000 incidences of flytipping - that's dumping things like washing machines and sofas on our landscapes - were reported to local authorities last year. And it is estimated that around 5,000 cars are abandoned every year.

“A Keep Scotland Beautiful survey showed that more than half of Scots have dropped litter, and almost half do it regularly. This is a problem for all of us, caused by most of us. We need to fix this.”

Littering is an offence and is committed when any person throws down, drops or otherwise deposits into a public open place. Highland Council Environmental Officers can issue a £50 fixed penalty notice for dropping litter, which includes cigarette ends.

In 2012, the Council carried out 27 waste/litter related campaigns throughout the Highlands and promoted: 8 events Zero tolerance on litter and fly tipping; 8 clamp-downs on dog fouling, seagulls, chewing gum, and cigarette butts; 8 events on waste awareness and recycling; and 3 events on Alcohol Byelaws, Illegal sales tests and road verges.