Following a roadside litter seminar in Perth at the end of March which brought together key stakeholders to learn about our latest campaign interventions we have delivered in the area as part of our commitment to the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy Action Plan, Heather McLaughlin, our Campaigns and Social Innovation Manager, highlights our journey to raise awareness of roadside litter, our successes, learnings and road map for the future as crucial enforcement opportunities become a reality through the Circular Economy Act.
When I joined #TeamKSB we were half-way through the delivery stage of our ‘Give Your Litter A Lift’ campaign. I remember hearing about the time consuming planning and preparations needed for on-the-ground activities, the caveat to our call to take action given the dangers of collecting and surveying litter along roadsides and on-going debates about whether the new litter characters should or shouldn’t be smiling in certain scenarios (we’ve agree they smile when in someone hands/a litter pick or in the right place (a car or bin). We have travelled a long road to get where we are, but we have a long way to go too. Here I explore the journey we’ve taken and start to outline the road map we are calling for in the future.
The issue
Scotland is beautiful. People travel from all over the world to visit our mountains, lochs and castles. But look at little closer from the window as you travel by car or bus, between our iconic cities and beauty spots and the view is definitely not as beautiful as we claim.
More than nine in ten of us think that litter on our roadsides creates a negative impression of our country, and 88% think roadside litter is a problem, this has risen from 69% in 2016.
We know that roadside litter poses a real threat to Scotland’s, already depleted, wildlife, it can pollute waterways, as well as an enormous expense to the public purse through costly and dangerous clean ups.
Despite only one in ten agreeing that enough action is being taken to reduce the amount of roadside litter in Scotland, we continue to work hard to raise the issue, to collaborate and improve actions being taken. And, yes, we also want to see more coordinated action taken to make inroads tackling some of our most littered areas in Scotland.
The cause
At its heart, this roadside litter is caused by individual behaviour; a proportion of road users who are happy to trade littered roadsides, which they don’t connect with, for a clean car interior.
Look at almost any verge at the side of the road, any roundabout or motorway slip-road, and you’ll see litter – most often highly visible on-the-go packaging such as cans, bottles, cups, fast food wrapper - discarded by those who chose to eat and drink on the move and are intent on keeping their cars clean. These people aren’t proud enough of our country to keep our roadsides litter free, they can’t keep their waste in their vehicle until they find a bin, or get home.
The road travelled
We have been working to tackle this issue for as long as we have been a registered Scottish charity – a found member of the Scottish Transport Litter Group, we led a number of collaborative attempts to drive action to tackle the issue. We secured funding from a number of sources to deliver campaigns and test interventions including:
2003 - Bought in… Dropped in… | Keep Scotland Beautiful which featured radio ads and campaign material, engaging with commercial and haulage companies nationally.
2005 - Keep Our Roads Litter Free | Keep Scotland Beautiful – We swapped the message and the channels for reaching road users focusing our promotional material as advertising on bus backs, using car window stickers to spread the message and providing taxis and car hire operators with free car litter bags to make it easier for people to do the right thing and keep their packaging in a ‘car bin bag’ until reaching a bin.
2016 – 2019 - Give your Litter a lift – take it home Our biggest campaign to date funded by members of the soft drink federation. A three -year, well-resourced campaign, which tested messaging, provision of infrastructure, removal of infrastructure, and surveyed litter in depth at key sites to help target messages.
2022 – 2023 - Cross border collaboration on roadside litter. A fortnight of clean up activity with North and South Lanarkshire, Glasgow, East Dunbartonshire and Renfrewshire Councils with promotional materials being shared in relevant Costa and McDonald’s drive-thrus.
2024 – 2025 – Curbing roadside litter. We worked with Perth and Kinross Council, Killiecrankie, Fincastle & Tummel Community Council and local businesses including Stagecoach, Enterprise, Starbucks and McDonald’s to tackle roadside litter.
We could say all failed…… we still have a massive issue with roadside litter. But, we also recognise that each is a step forward in the right direction, moving us closer to understanding the challenges, to having all the right tools in our toolbox to tackle this problem.
It is true that our work is underfunded. It is also true that duty bodies responsible for roadside litter are struggling to keep on top of removing and disposing of it. It is very clear that we need to do more – to pool resources, to consistently approach the issue collaboratively, and to shame those who litter from their vehicles, until we can consistently issue fines to them.
Alongside our campaign work, and mostly behind the scenes we have continuously raised the issues brought to us from members of the public - frustrated by what they see as a lack of action, a disjointed approach, and a relentless source of new litter by our roads – with elected members. We’ve listened to, and worked with, local authorities and duty bodies to understand the challenges they face – and we’ve used our data and evidence to push for policy changes to assist with enforcement – the final and missing part of the jigsaw.
Awareness raising and infrastructure are key in the long-term prevention of roadside littering but effective legislation and enforcement is essential – and currently the model we use is broken.
We have consistently called for a small amendment to the wording of current legislation, which would make the registered keeper of the vehicle liable for litter dropped from a vehicle, as is the case for flytipping. This would significantly improve the effectiveness of the legislation by removing barriers to enforcement.
Where we are now
The Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 has powers to strengthen enforcement to address roadside litter. We look forward to the forthcoming introduction of a civil penalty charge for road users that litter from vehicles. This is something that we called for back in 2017 as part of our roadside litter campaign and we secured support for this change from more than half of Scotland’ s local councils. We also know from research with the public that 88% of people agree that the owner of a car should face a fine when litter is thrown from a vehicle, by them or a passenger (ScotPulse, 2016).
Legislative change takes time, and we know that there are many challenges associated with enforcement include low payment rates of fines, the lack of non-payments taken to court and if it gets to court, encouraging the Procurator Fiscal to progress and issue a fine level above the original Fixed Penalty Notice.
In spite of littering from vehicles being a crime, and a range of interventions and campaigns being delivered rates of littering have not decreased.
With an increase in consumption of food and drink on-the-go and the associated generation of packaging, and with people feeling such a lack of connection to the places they drive through, it is no wonder that litter levels by our roadsides are not decreasing.
Roadmap for the future
But, we have hope that change is coming and cleaner roadsides are on the horizon. Why, because:
- The legislation change we called for is coming through the introduction of the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024, which modifies that Environmental Protection Act 1990.
- People see roadside litter and don’t like it. There is an appetite for change from the communities which our roads connect. 81% want to see increased action to clean up litter in their communities.
- Organisations, duty bodies, businesses and charities are talking together about solutions and lobbying elected members for change.
- Elected members of the Scottish Parliament are beginning to become more engaged in discussions about tackling litter.
- Policies like Extended Producer Responsibility for packaging may encourage businesses to rethink packaging used for food and drink on-the-go and the forthcoming Deposit Return Scheme will help divert bottles and cans from the potential litter stream.
No single organisation can solve the problem, it is only collaboration across sectors that will deliver the results we all want to see. And bringing together some of these key players – including local authorities, road operators, VisitScotland, businesses such as McDonald’s, Enterprise, and Rabbie’s Tours - alongside passionate community representatives, in Perth will hopefully reset and outline an agenda for change.
We need to focus on what we can achieve and remain optimistic. We are committed to:
- Creating a coalition of organisations willing to work together to reduce roadside litter in Scotland;
- Continuing to test interventions and messages to create collective ownership of behaviour change campaigns; and
- Facilitating collaboration between coalition members and communities to increase knowledge transfer and to share good practice.
We are also setting out a five year road map of action and if you would like to support this do get in touch. But, campaigns and coordination or action costs money. Funding that we as a charity don’t have going into the new financial year. If you are in a position to support our work to tackle litter with funding, or make a £25 donation to our £25 for 2025 appeal, please do.
In the meantime - our message is simple: Give your litter a lift, take it home! Respect those who live by our roadsides, who are tasked with keeping them clean and who are passionate about keeping Scotland beautiful.
