COMMUNITY CLEAN UP VOLUNTEERS PRAISED BY COUNCIL

[Kintyre Forum News]

COMMUNITY CLEAN UP VOLUNTEERS PRAISED BY COUNCIL

Argyll and Bute’s Lead Councillor for the Environment and Tourism, John Semple, welcomed the Keep Scotland Beautiful report on community clean-ups throughout the area as part of National Spring Clean 2012.

“Everyone who lives here knows that Argyll and Bute is beautiful and so do our thousands of visitors – it is great that so many people in our communities recognise the value of preserving and enhancing our environment.

“It’s the beginning of the high summer season, the start of the school holidays and soon Glasgow Fair holidays will start and thanks to the efforts of the GRAB Trust and their community volunteers the beaches, pathways, gardens and loch sides of Argyll and Bute are looking their best.”

Keep Scotland Beautiful & The GRAB Trust mobilise 2,525 volunteers to clean up Argyll & Bute as part of Scotland’s National Spring Clean

1,934 children and 591 adults from Argyll & Bute were amongst 117,734 volunteers from across Scotland who gave their time between 1 April and 31 May to support National Spring Clean, run by Scotland’s leading charity for the environment, Keep Scotland Beautiful.

In Argyll & Bute, groups from community councils, schools, student volunteer groups, youth groups, businesses, guides and scouts, environmental trusts, council staff, the GRAB Trust who coordinated all the Spring Cleans, 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 53 public gardens, school grounds, woodlands, nature reserves, rivers/canals/loch-sides, beaches, country parks, road verges, villages and town centres in Argyll & Bute will be litter free for summer.

Picking up thousands of discarded juice and alcohol bottles, cans, crisp bags, cigarette ends, cotton bud sticks, filled dog poo bags and fast food wrappers, volunteers in Argyll & Bute also uncovered some more unusual items – these included a drum and pallets. **For case studies for Argyll & Bute please see page 3**

Across the nation, using litter pickers and gloved hands each person collected on average one and a half black bags of waste – this means that 120 bags of litter were collected during every hour of every day of National Spring Clean 2012.

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 campaign.

Helen Darvill, Environmental Quality Coordinator 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 2,525 people from Argyll & Bute came out in force to take part in National Spring Clean 2012, and I am sincerely grateful to everyone who has been involved – from the GRAB Trust to the local authority, 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.”

National Spring Clean 2012 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.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/cleanupkit. In addition, Zero Waste Scotland has also today launched a new £250,000 fund to give community groups, as well as local authorities, businesses and landowners an opportunity to trial innovative projects to prevent littering in the first place. For more information about the fund, visit www.zerowastescotland.org.uk/litterfund
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For further information please contact: Juliette Camburn on 01786 477 171 or e-mail juliette.camburn@ksbscotland.org.uk

If you wish to speak to a group in your area, please visit our online map at www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/springclean where details of groups that took part can be found.

For fast facts and other press releases, please visit the National Spring Clean media centre at: http://news.keepscotlandtidy.org/SpringClean

Some additional information

 Keep Scotland Beautiful is the country’s leading charity for the environment. It works across Scotland, from Shetland to the Scottish Borders, cleaning and greening up communities, schools and businesses, and has been doing so since 1970. We work in partnership with all 32 of Scotland’s Local Authorities, 1,000+ community groups, 3,850 of Scotland’s primary and secondary schools, over 100 businesses and have empowered in excess of 200,000 individuals to assist in community action. Keep Scotland Beautiful is a committed partner of Government and shares in the government’s vision for Scotland to be a cleaner, greener, safer and more sustainable country. Further information can be found at www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org
 Zero Waste Scotland, the lead supporter of the National Spring Clean campaign, is the programme created by the Scottish Government to support delivery of its Zero Waste plan. Zero Waste Scotland has been created to provide a one-stop-shop for support and advice to individuals, businesses and local authorities in order to help them reduce waste, recycle more and use natural resources more efficiently. It integrates the activities of WRAP Scotland, Waste Aware Scotland, Keep Scotland Tidy, Remade Scotland, Envirowise in Scotland, NISP in Scotland, and some programmes delivered by the Community Recycling Network for Scotland.
 Greggs supported National Spring Clean volunteers by providing cakes to events across the country.


Reports from Argyll & Bute groups involved in National Spring Clean 2012:

Elizabeth Lambert from the Eco-Congregation in Helensburgh organized a clean up of Helensburgh West Bay Beach on 27th May. She said: “20 volunteers from the three Eco-congregations in Helensburgh cleaned the beach from Kidston Park to Cairndhu. The rubbish had mainly been washed up from the River Clyde but there was also a large amount of peoples food litter. We removed several large items of furniture, piping and pallets. The smaller items in great number were plastic bottle tops and cotton bud sticks. We have done the beach clean each year and this year there were less big items like tyres but more of the cans and bottles. The beach would look so much better if people took more care disposing of their rubbish.”

Clyde Cottage Nursery in Dunoon carried out a litter pick on 26th April. Julie Henderson from the nursery said: “We had a great day. We took roughly 50 children out alongside parents, staff and helpers. We cleaned up our surrounding paths, gardens and public walkways.”

Balcardine Primary carried out their clean up on 26th April. Jeanette Morrison said: “We walked over to our local forest along the cycle path and picked up all sorts of litter. We picked up loads of interesting things too - we got a drum, a glass bottle with liquid inside, hangers, doggy bags and lots lots more.”

Ardrishaig Beach in Lochgilphead received a spring clean on the 12th May. The organiser, Jean Hodgson, said of the day: “31 volunteers in total, including 15 children aged 2 years - 14 years (some local guide groups). Great enthusiasm - helped by great weather. Enjoyed tea and juice, and cakes provided by ladies from church.”