We also know that lots of you litter pick without telling us about it during #SpringCleanScotland, you just get on with it, because you care, because litter frustrates you. And that’s great! We’re so thankful for everyone who goes out of their way to pick up even just one piece of litter.
But, this year, part of our plea to you is that you take an extra step and log your activity with us on our website.
Why are we so keen on that? Here our former Campaigns Support Officer Lucie Rofé explains the importance of logging your litter picks with us.
As #SpringCleanScotland draws to an end for 2025, we’ve been reflecting on the inspiring stories of people litter picking that have filled our social media feeds. Smiling faces of people of all ages and background standing proudly beside piles of black bags of waste removed from our parks, beaches and streets. Almost 30,000 people have already told us what they have done, shared with us how many people got involved, what areas of Scotland have been cleaned, how many sacks of litter they collected, and shared the unusual and most common items found.
This data is crucial for us to understand the true extent of Scotland's litter emergency and the effort we're taking to tackle it. Here's a few reasons why it's so important.
Be part of something bigger - contribute to the ever-growing number of people who litter pick.
Hearing about the litter emergency, the climate emergency and the biodiversity crisis can all feel overwhelming. It can be hard to find the light, and the joy, and all too easy to think nothing is changing. But things are – a few months ago, we published a blog celebrating the first decade of the bag charge. I’ve lived most of my life without a bag charge, and yet I can barely remember a time without it. It feels normal. In 10 plus years, hopefully children and young people will be incredulous when we tell them that people would throw litter out from their car windows or leave their food and drink packaging in the park when they leave. Hopefully the new normal will be a clean Scotland. The biggest drivers of these changes are volunteers – the more of us who show up, the more we inspire others to show up, and the more change is possible.
Show the minority who litter the impact of their behaviour.
Of all the environmental actions you can take, removing litter is the most obviously visible, and should also be the easiest. We all have it in us to put the rubbish we are finished with in a bin, to take it home and recycle it, or not to use the packaging in the first place. We all have the ability to pick up a piece of discarded waste and dispose of it properly.
While national government and charities work with industry to reduce packaging at source and encourage others to recycle and reuse, litter picking is a vital part of the approach needed to reduce litter in the environment – and is something every one of us can do. Something we know so many of you do.
Most of my colleagues would say they can’t walk past a piece of litter without picking it up and binning it. I know that a lot of you feel the same way.
What would happen if all of us who litter pick silently, daily, weekly or annually collectively stepped up and recorded what we are doing? Would those that litter see that their friends, family, colleagues and neighbours were cleaning up after them? Would they feel slightly uncomfortable? If we could show the litterers that they are the minority and that the norm is to pick litter up not drop it, would it help?
Help us build evidence.
When I was a kid we would litter pick on family walks, and despair at the amount of litter found every weekend in the same roadside spots. So, we would weigh our bags and send the weight and pictures to the local authority. Where I lived at the time, there was no other way of reporting it. I don’t know that they ever did anything with these emails. But I can assure you that we use your data here at Keep Scotland Beautiful. We use it to inform our campaigns and our policy work. We know communities hold precious knowledge (as well as many bags of litter!) We use the information you gather to help us understand where there’s the biggest need for litter campaigns, what litter items need to be targeted, and what policy or regulation needs to be called for.
#TeamKSB monitors and records litter on approximately 14,000 sites each year – so we have evidence of the scale of the litter problem. Yet, as your charity tackling the issue of litter nationally, we need the evidence of how many people are picking litter up, and how much litter is being collected, to demonstrate that people, communities and businesses across Scotland do care and are taking action in huge numbers. In turn this evidence will help us call for more funding to support and inspire further action and run much needed public awareness campaigns to stop litter in its tracks.
If we could show national and local government how important this issue is to us, the silent army of litter pickers, would the issue finally be prioritised as we know it needs to be if the behaviours that cause litter are to be addressed?
Your activity, collectively, also helps us to evidence the scale of action being taken, and help us push harder to ensure that Scotland gets a Deposit Return Scheme and campaign for packaging producers to make litter payments to help deal with the problem as part of Extended Producer Responsibility regulations.
Don’t let your efforts go unacknowledged.
We love celebrating positive stories. It keeps us going, and reminds us why we run #SpringCleanScotland every year. But if you don’t tell us what you are doing we can’t help celebrate your efforts.
Our aim this year is to get more than 50,000 people litter picking for the Spring Clean. We know that the volunteers are out there, that action is being taken daily. But we need you all to register your efforts.
Be part of something bigger than you, your community and help us tackle the litter emergency nationally and join Scotland’s biggest litter picking network.
Thank you for keeping Scotland beautiful.
