Do you litter? Someone you know must……
Millions admit to littering in research published ahead of #SpringCleanScotland – the nation’s biggest mass litter pick
Half of Scottish adults (50%)[1] have admitted to littering in the past 12 months.
This revelation comes ahead of #SpringCleanScotland – Scotland’s biggest mass litter picking event – which launches on 13 March.
As tens of thousands of hard-working volunteers prepare to tackle the deluge of litter which blights our parks, beaches and urban spaces these astonishing stats have been released, showing the extent of effort required to clean up Scotland.
The YouGov survey for Keep Britain Tidy as part of the Great British Spring Clean, which is delivered in Scotland by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful, also revealed that:
- almost 403,000 people (9%) admit they left finished items or packaging behind after sitting down to eat or drink;
- more than 313,000 (7%) left rubbish at a train or bus stop; and
- more than 268,000 (6%) admitted throwing or dropping litter from a vehicle window.
Last year 35,000 people joined Spring Clean Scotland to help tackle the litter emergency. And we know that councils and road operators are working tirelessly to remove litter across the country too at a cost of more than £1 million a week.
Barry Fisher, Chief Executive at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “If 50% of adults in Scotland are admitting to the illegal act of littering in the last 12 months we have to question why. And we must accept that people we know and love are littering – and start calling them out.
“We know what needs to be done to encourage people to bin their litter, and we understand the drivers, the need for better infrastructure, systems and support to encourage reuse. But we desperately need more investment to ensure we address the root cause of the litter emergency
“Research carried out in Scotland almost two decades ago similarly found that 54% of respondents admitted to dropping litter,[2] so litter continues to be problematic – it’s about time we call an end to littering.”
“You may have littered, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stop. Now is the time to change and start picking up litter rather than dropping it. Spring Clean is your chance to take positive action. Gather your friends, family or colleagues and plan a litter pick that helps you improve your community, let go of any guilt you might have for past littering offences, and you will find litter picking actually makes you feel good.”
Laura Chow, head of charities at People’s Postcode Lottery, said: “We want to thank our players for their continued support in raising funds to support the Great British Spring Clean, and also the passionate Litter Heroes volunteers across the country without whom the campaign couldn’t make the impact that it does.
“It’s inspiring to see volunteers in action protecting the local environment in communities throughout Britain, sending a strong message that we can all play a part in loving where we live and protecting nature.”
If you are inspired to take positive action, learn more, access our tools and resources and sign up your event visit: www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/springclean
This year’s campaign is made possible thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery, media partners Bauer Media Outdoor, Magic Radio and The Mirror, and supporting partners KFC, Mars Wrigley, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Pepsi MAX and Walkers.
[1] YouGov survey for Keep Britain Tidy.
[2] Keep Scotland Beautiful (2008) State of the Nation report
Additional charging for.household bin uplift, charges for domestic waste uplift, restriction on acceptance of waste at council disposal sites, and of course charges for anyone who brings waste to a disposal site in a van is feeding the waste being deposited on our streets, grassed areas and countryside.
People generally want to do the right thing with waste. But the council.are making it increasingly difficult as they pursue the policy of evermore charging.
And then of course there is the much bigger picture of industry and how it is big business to produce waste. Look at your household bin and the amount of plastic wrapping. Its incredible the amount. Why do we need so much plastic..
Or polybags. Go to your local supermarket and look at how many polybags they sell.
At a price of around 65 pence for a bog standard bag a proportion of circa maybe 20 pence is to go to good causes. But does a bag really cost 45 pence to manufacture or does the supermarket make big profit from selling these bags. And moreover why is there no paper bag alternatives. Morrisons actually have paper bags have.but tend to hide them.
And then of course if there were available environmentally friendly paper bags, why aside of the cost, has the government legislated that there has to be an environmental good causes charge of 20 pence a bag. It doesn’t make sense.
But we all know the truth. For years and years our council were crowing about recycling, waste action reduction protocols whereas in fact they were just landfilling much of waste in landfill sites like the now closed Auchencarroch dump.
Saying one thing, doing another is real challenge and it needs told to bottom intervention. More is now being done to recycle. Bottle and aluminium deposit banks beingva good example. But more needs to be done to minimise the waste in the first place. Waste needs to be designed out.
As for locally increasing bin uplift charges, introducing tipping charges and etc its maybe no surprise that fly tipping is getting worse.
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