Interventions
Local and national campaigns can be effective in reaching a greater audience and they often showcase how littering is socially unacceptable. It is important to know what audience and behaviour you want to target as this will inform what platform you use, whether that be on social media, in person or in a newsletter or even installing signage in the local area.
Its also important to consider what messaging you would like to get across. Do you want to stop a negative behaviour, promote positive behaviour, target a specific action, or target a specific item?
It is best to not guess or assume what is causing the litter, you could conduct surveys or observations to understand the issues you want to target. See the Collect data pages for more ideas for collecting litter data.
Have a look at the range of links below to find information and resources relating to interventions and campaigns undertaken around Scotland to tackle litter and flytipping.
Marine litter
The Marine Litter Strategy looks at reducing all types of marine litter with strategic direction 2 being “Reduce marine and coastal based sources of litter, with a focus on the most problematic sources, in co-ordination with land sourced litter being reduced by the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy” and strategic direction 3 being "Support the removal of marine litter from the marine and coastal environment".
Actions include supporting the development of trials of new tools or technologies that could help in the retrieval of lost fishing gear, investigating legislation to ban the manufacture and sale of wet wipes containing plastic and the reduction of upstream litter to reduce the likelihood of litter travelling from 'source to sea' to the marine environment.
Roadside litter
As part of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy Year 4 Action Plan (2026/2027) Keep Scotland Beautiful is working alongside partners to develop and deploy targeted behaviour-based interventions on roadside litter. Working with key stakeholders (local authorities, duty bodies and businesses) Keep Scotland Beautiful is collaboratively deploying innovative roadside litter interventions. Previous interventions include work on sections of the A1, A9, A90 and A801. These were built on both Keep Scotland Beautiful’s historic ‘Give Your Litter A Lift’ campaign as well as the 2024 Roadside intervention in Perth and Kinross. In year 4, Keep Scotland Beautiful is looking to target the M74 and A725 in Glasgow.
Flytipping
From October 2026, Keep Scotland Beautiful will be running a flytipping campaign to raise awareness of flytipping in Scotland and help people understand how they can prevent it.
The campaign will focus on making information about flytipping easier to understand and giving people practical advice on what they can do with their waste.
We'll also be sharing real-life examples and case studies to help show what flytipping looks like in communities and why preventing it matters. If you would like to learn more about flytipping, this can be found in our Sources of litter page. If you would like to learn more about preventing flytipping, including the checking of SEPA's waste register, this can be found on our Preventing Waste page.
If you would like to get involved in our flytipping campaign, you can find materials and help on Keep Scotland Beautiful's Handy Resources page.
The Community Litter Hub is delivered in partnership with:
