East Haven Together recognised for collecting tonnes of litter during annual campaign

Nationally, almost 50,000 bags of litter were picked during this year’s event as people across the country rolled up their sleeves to tackle the litter emergency.

East Haven Together were recognised with a Spring Clean Scotland Heroes award for their contribution to the campaign, with 232 volunteers collecting 3.3 tonnes of litter.

Organised by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful, Spring Clean Scotland is the country’s largest co-ordinated mass litter picking activity.

Between March 21 and April 21, more than 33,000 people – including 18,000 young people – took part in one of 2600 events covering every Scottish local authority area and collectively picked up 325 tonnes of litter.

Wendy Murray from East Haven Together said the group is delighted to be recognised with a Spring Clean Hero Certificate.

She said: “We work hard all year round to try and clear as much litter as possible from inland areas to prevent it reaching the sea. Spring is always the hardest time of the year for beach cleaning as so much is washed in during winter storms.

"We plan a lot of activities around this time to try and encourage as many people as possible to take action and play their part in keeping our beautiful green and blue spaces clean and free from litter."

Barry Fisher, Chief Executive at Keep Scotland Beautiful, added: “We know there is a litter emergency in Scotland, but we also know there are people in every community across the country who are determined to take action and deal with the issue.

“Spring Clean Scotland gives us an opportunity to spearhead a collective effort to make a noticeable difference, inspiring as many people as possible to help clean up Scotland.

“I’m so impressed to see that more than half of our volunteers this year were young people. It’s so inspiring to see the younger generation already taking notice and action of the litter issue in their communities.

“A huge part of Spring Clean is recognising those who have taken part, told us about their activities and helped us understand the depth of the problem we’re facing. But we also know that there are thousands more who don’t share their efforts and have made litter picking part of their daily life.

“To everyone who has played a part, however big or small, thank you for keeping Scotland beautiful.”

#SpringCleanScotland complements and supports the objectives of the Scottish Government’s National Litter and Flytipping Strategy and the Marine Litter Strategy.

Keep Scotland Beautiful has a Community Litter eLearning module to help people learn about littering issues in Scotland and how to investigate a first step to tackle litter in communities.

A certificate of achievement will be received after completing the 90 minute course. Find out more: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/local-environmental-quality-training/community-litter-elearning-module/. The Community Litter Hub also has a number of resources for people looking to tackle the litter emergency: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/community-litter-hub/.