Community Litter Hub
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Litter emergency
What is litter?
Litter is defined as “waste in the wrong place”.
There are multiple ways we may end up with litter. Items may be thrown down, dropped or left by someone in a public place whether on purpose or as an accident. Windy weather, birds and other animals can cause once contained waste to become litter too. With increasing single-use items and societal consumption habits we are seeing a worsening state of our local environment.
Litter items vary: those we see in our streets, parks, roadsides and beaches can range from commonly seen items like cigarette butts and sweet wrappers to more unusual items such as toys and clothing.
How much litter is there?
Work by Zero Waste Scotland shows that 15,000 tonnes of litter are collected each year – that is 250 million items equating to 50 pieces of litter for each person in Scotland.
In partnership with local authorities, Keep Scotland Beautiful has been monitoring litter and local environmental quality on our streets and roads in Scotland for almost 20 years. In 2022/23, litter was found to be widespread, over 70% of streets and roads have some presence of litter. While most sites with litter recorded small amounts, one in ten sites in Scotland were observed to have a significant presence adversely affecting the cleanliness of the area. The only years where this measure was higher was during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 audit years where the Covid-19 pandemic restricted the ability to provide regular cleansing services. You can explore this data yourself or see more highlights below.
Data also shows litter is more likely found in urban, high footfall areas. There is also a social injustice issue with a correlation between litter and deprivation. Using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, one in five sites have a significant presence in the areas of Scotland deemed most deprived compared to just one in 44 in the areas deemed least deprived.
It isn’t just the monitoring data that shows us how big an issue litter is right now. The Scottish Household Survey shows the proportion satisfied with street cleansing has been declining, with an average of 58.3% of adults satisfied between 2020-2023, reported in the Local Government Benchmarking Framework. The Scottish Litter Survey in 2024 found that 87% of respondents believe litter continues to be an issue. 77% of those in Scotland’s least affluent neighbourhoods view litter as a problem locally compared to 68% of those from Scotland’s most affluent areas.
A lot of litter ends up in our marine environment. This could come from surface water drains, sewage discharge, wind blown from the land, carried down waterways, washed in from the sea or simply dropped there. The Marine Conservation Society reports annually on litter data collected by volunteers and in 2023 recorded an average of 188 items per 100m stretch of beach surveyed in Scotland. This was a 17% increase from 2022, showing there is still much work to be done to tackle the issue.
What makes up the litter?
On our streets the latest data shows us that nearly half (46%) the litter counted was smoking related. These small items are less obvious to the eye but contain harmful materials and can easily make their way into our waterways.
Over 12% of items were drinks items and another tenth were confectionery items. It is obvious this shows food and drink on the go is a major contributor to the litter problem.
A huge amount of marine litter comes from inland, making its way to our seas via rivers and roads. Smoking-related, confectionery and drinks items are common across both terrestrial and marine environments whilst some are more specific to marine environments.
- Common litter types on our streets -
Data collected by volunteers from 2022 shows the top 10 items recorded on surveyed beaches in Scotland are:
- Plastic/ polystyrene pieces (small)
- Plastic packets
- Plastic caps and lids
- Plastic string/ cord
- Rope
- Plastic bags
- Plastic bottles
- Plastic/ polystyrene pieces (large)
- Metal drinks cans
- Clothing/ shoes/ towels
Why is there so much litter?
Littering is due to many reasons and is why it is a complex issue to resolve.
Consumption and the levels of single-use items such as packaging have been increasing over time and the effects of this can been seen on the ground. At the same time, there has been a significant decline in public resource and budget to tackle litter. You can find much more on the Causes of litter page.
What are the impacts of litter?
Litter affects us all in multiple ways:
- Physical wellbeing – less likely to want to exercise or spend time in our local environment
- Mental health – feel less comfort, pride and sense of life satisfaction
- Crime and perception of crime – high levels are associated with increase in crime and social disorder
- Local regeneration – makes local investment less attractive
- Tourism – harms the scenery and landscape which are the draws to Scotland
- Costs – at least £53 million of public money spent on dealing with litter and flytipping which could be used elsewhere
- Biodiversity – litter can disturb, injure or even cause death of our local wildlife
How to teach about litter?
One way to help prevent litter is to ensure everyone knows their responsibilities using education and awareness. There are specific resources that can be used to share information about the litter emergency to young people including in a school environment. Litter and waste is one of the 10 topics for Ecoschools, a free sustainable schools programme and many resources can be found in the Climate Actions School Resources page. You can also use the schools filter in the resources to find more.
