As we celebrate another brilliant #SpringCleanScotland and the excellent efforts of our volunteers all over Scotland, Rachael Pirie, our Campaigns Support Officer, has reflected on her first experience of being involved in the campaign and how much she’s enjoyed attending events across the country.
Before I joined Keep Scotland Beautiful in December last year I had made an effort to tackle the country’s litter issue, both individually and as part of various charities’ efforts. Seventy-two per cent of people believe litter is a problem locally and I was definitely one of them; living in Glasgow I have seen my fair share of litter and know first-hand how detrimental it can be to both a community’s appeal, our own well-being and sense of pride in where we live.
When the opportunity came to join Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Campaigns team it was a role I felt I could fit right into, bringing a mix of my previous experiences in the sport and fitness world alongside my increasing passion for litter picking.
#SpringCleanScotland is the country’s biggest mass litter picking event. In 2025 more than 30,000 people rolled up their sleeves and made an effort to get out and pick as much litter as possible and clean up our environment. I was well aware of the dedication and ambition of Keep Scotland Beautiful and the amazing volunteers across Scotland, and delighted to get stuck in and join events across the country.
During the campaign I joined 12 different events in some brilliant locations and, more importantly, met a variety of groups, businesses and organisations who are just as passionate as we are about improving local environmental quality.
We kicked off the 2026 campaign at Glasgow’s Science Centre where we unveiled a Citylink branded bus, set to take off and encourage people all over the country to get involved in the campaign. Despite the dreich weather it was a fantastic launch event and we did a small litter pick with the Citylink team around the Science Centre, and Jim Ellis from Glasgow City Council supplied us with litter picking equipment for the day.
This was also my first – but definitely not last! – opportunity to wear one of our brilliant mascot costumes. Chances are if you’ve seen any mascots in some Spring Clean photos then I’m likely inside it!
Events followed with Holytown Environmental, at our office hub in Stirling – supported by Stirling Council, our neighbours Target Fund Managers and Sunbelt rental group – and throughout the Raploch, and then off to Letham in Perth with local schools and Jim Fairlie MSP.
I then coordinated another litter pick at our hub, this time with members of our Board and it was inspiring to have so much enthusiasm and support, reiterating the desire of people all across the charity for a cleaner Scotland.
More events took place on Musselburgh beach in collaboration with the Scottish Coastal Clean Up and the Scottish Seabird Centre, with the East Kilbride Litter Pickers (winners of our early registration prize!) and at Portobello with Active Scotland.
I was back in Glasgow for an event with HP then returned to Edinburgh to join up with Clermiston Litterati. I ventured off to North Ayrshire to join Three Towns Ardrossan, back to Glasgow to join Glasgow Lost Rivers and then to Largs to join staff at a newly-opened Dominos for a litter pick along the beach.
We then wrapped up the campaign with the wonderful Grangemouth gLitter Team, collecting over 100kg of litter in Grangemouth.
The thing that’s struck me most about #SpringCleanScotland is how much fun I’ve had. There aren’t many jobs where your role includes dressing up like a coffee cup, a bottle or a crisp packet. But while that’s a part of it, getting out and meeting people who are determined to make a difference to our environment, and do it with a smile on their face, has been so inspiring.
I’ve loved joining people from all backgrounds and of all ages too. Litter picking has no age limit, we encourage everyone to grab a picker and get involved if they can. With so many young people involved this year – like every other year – they will hopefully grow up knowing that littering is wrong and this will feed through into their friends, family and others. With everyone pulling in the same direction we’ll be in a much better place in years to come.
While we work away in the background to tally up the numbers for this year, and we’re still hopeful of passing last year’s 30,000 total, I’m so sure that we’re on the right track. The mix of passion and dedication from people across Scotland to tackle the issue, blended with the upcoming Deposit Return Scheme in 2027 and reaffirmed commitment from Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy Gillian Martin MSP to ensuring the extension of the Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) scheme, makes me hopeful that we’re very much heading towards a litter free Scotland.
We know that we can’t keep asking people to pick litter up year after year. While we get that taking part in a litter pick can open people’s eyes to the scale of the challenge, and can engage people with the issue who walked past before, we ultimately want to be investing our time in supporting communities to do more to address the root causes.
We want to see a reduction at source of single-use items, particularly food and drink packaging that is such a highly visible litter item. A shift in the behaviours that lead to waste become litter needs to happen, we have the tools, the knowledge and the experience, but we need collaborators, funders and partners to help us invest in a cleaner Scotland. We’ll continue to support the delivery of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy and Marine Litter Strategy action plans to help address some of the challenges.
In the meantime #SpringCleanScotland may be over for another year, but litter picking doesn’t stop. We will keep supporting people with litter picks, campaigns and training. And we must all continue to do the right things: reusing where possible and encouraging others to do the same, taking our litter home if there are no bins available, finishing the jobbie when we pick up our dog poo – and putting it in a bag in a bin. If you’re a litterer you don’t have to be forever and now’s the perfect time to quit.
As much as I enjoy being a part of #SpringCleanScotland, it would be wonderful if we didn’t need it. As long as I still get to wear the costumes every now and then.
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