The response so far to this year’s #SpringCleanScotland campaign has been fantastic, with tens of thousands of volunteers grabbing litter pickers, gloves and bags and picking up litter from the communities and places they care about. But what about litter by busy roadsides? We don’t encourage volunteers to litter pick verges and busy roadways, yet we know that this is where large volumes of single-use food and drink packaging – from plastic bottles to cans, from cups to crisp and sweet packets – gather alongside larger detritus.
Last week I took part in two roadside litter clean ups – one with my local community along the verges and laybys of the A85 near St Fillan’s and another on the A1 with Bear Scotland and East Lothian Council.
This is what I want to share:
Scotland is a beautiful country. Our roads are how we travel and explore it. They are part of the landscape linking communities across Scotland, but roadside litter damages our reputation.
88% of people think roadside litter is a problem, with more than nine in ten believing that litter on our roadsides creates a negative impression of our country.
Scottish Litter Survey 2025
It is also dangerous and expensive to clean up, and it poses a real threat to Scotland’s, already depleted wildlife and livestock. It can accumulate and block drains resulting in flooding. Additionally, it impacts the wellbeing of many communities, landowners and businesses.
So just how does litter build up along our roadsides? There are three main ways we have identified:
1. As people drive through places they pass through but often aren’t connected to litter is tossed out of vehicle windows. People want clean vehicles, clean spaces – they don’t think, or perhaps care, about the places they drive away from. They aren’t impacted by the waste they chuck away and there is a sense of anonymity and protection while in a car – people that litter from vehicles may not litter while walking; conversations with people reveal different behaviours in different situations. They don’t see the impact on those who live nearby, the landscape or nature, businesses off the route who depend on visitors or the financial and human cost of cleaning it up.
2. Waste escaping from vehicles on the road – including waste disposal trucks as they transport waste from collection to recycling or landfill. We know this is an issue specifically along key routes as evidenced by those collecting litter.
3. Waste blown in from other areas accumulates in hard-to-reach roadside vegetation, particularly light weight plastic films, single-use carrier bags, and industrial or agricultural plastics.
The number of complaints we receive from people about the state of our roadsides is substantial. The volume of waste collected by local authorities, road operators and communities is difficult to quantify, but we know that across Scotland people and organisations are trying to address this issue.
From the Real Food Café through its litter ‘pick n chips’ events, collecting a whopping 1,851 sacks of litter to date, to members of the Berwickshire Anti-Litter Group, it is just brilliant to see so many communities and businesses getting involved, talking about the importance of the issue of litter, but also getting out in our villages, towns and cities to remove it.
The A85 runs through the village where I live and can be badly affected by roadside litter, discarded road maintenance signs and food and drink cartons in particular. At the weekend I was joined by local residents and we collected 16 bags of waste – including a number of courier delivery bags – a new litter item to me.
But it isn’t just rural roads and verges impacted by litter and where people are working hard to clean it up.
On Monday 23 March I was able to join teams from Bear Scotland and East Lothian Council collecting litter on the A1 between Spot roundabout and Thistly Cross roundabout south of Dunbar. I learnt more about the challenges, the logistics involved in keeping workers safe alongside what is an incredibly busy and very fast-moving road.
The road had to be closed to make it possible for the litter picking team to gain safe access – causing disruption to local communities, businesses and road users using that vital section of road. But it is so important to keep this area clean – it is a major gateway to our country and creates an impression to visitors coming up from south of the border.
It was depressing to see how much waste was collected – more than 120 bags in just a few hours – but it is vitallythat this litter clearance is done. We know that litter breeds litter.
While all this litter picking and clean up activity is crucial to keep Scotland beautiful and we commend all who give up their time to make such a difference, the big question is, and always will be, how do we stop this at source?
We do know what works – we’ve carried out campaigns nationally, and at a regional and local level.
But we are under resourced. As are the local authorities tasked with removing litter from roads in their areas, and the road operators responsible for our main arterial routes.
We know we do a great job with the resources we have available; we do reduce littering behaviours and litter recorded where our campaigns are active.
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 lists of, what feels to them, excuses about why things apparently can’t be done differently. We’ve been pushing hard for policy change – through the Circular Economy (Scotland) Act 2024 to drive forward changes that will assist with enforcement – the missing, and arguably most crucial, part of the jigsaw.
Effective legislation and enforcement are essential and currently the model we use is broken. We urgently want to see 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 and allowing a civil penalty charge for road users that litter from vehicles to be issued.
Following a summit on roadside litter, held jointly with Perth & Kinross in March last year, we set out a roadmap for the future which included:
- 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.
Additionally, in our policy priorities for the next Scottish Parliament we have called for an investment of at least half a million pounds to help raise awareness of and reduce roadside litter via a national campaign across the next parliamentary term – to which 85% of people asked supported.
Our efforts to tackle roadside litter are part of our commitment to supporting the Scottish Government’s National Litter and Flytipping Strategy. We know we need to focus on what we can achieve and remain optimistic.
Simple things like popping a bag in your car to collect rubbish on journeys, or using your reusable coffee cup as a bin for fruit peeling and apple cores, can reduce the mess that eating and drinking in a vehicle can create.
We continue to work hard to put the brakes on roadside litter - in the meantime - our message is simple, so help us share it: Give your litter a lift, take it home!
Download resources and let’s get the message out there and reduce litter landing on our roadside verges.
You can also check out a wee news summary of other activity we supported along roadsides during #SpringCleanScotland.
We support the 