Children and Young People

Tackle Marine Litter as part of your Duke of Edinburgh volunteering!

You can either do the volunteering by yourself or you can join a local litter picking group to do your volunteering! Its a great and easy way to volunteer but you will also contribute to cleaning up your community and contribute to a national data set for Scotland.

Please read our Duke of Edinburgh Guidance on how the volunteering works. Then read our survey guide and create an account with us to start logging data about what litter you are finding on your local river- you can access all your surveys via your account which will be great for reporting on your volunteering.

Contact UpstreamBattle@KeepScotlandBeautiful.org for any help with this process.

Scouts Scotland helping us take action on marine litter.

We know Scouts are passionate about the environment. Our Upstream Battle campaign, where you can do litter surveys as well as a clean-up activity, is a great way to work towards Beaver, Cub and Scout badges and give back to your community. Not only that, you will be contributing as a citizen scientist to the first ever national river litter data set for Scotland.

Read our Scouts guidance pack for more information.

Citizen Science

We know that 80% of marine litter is estimated to come from land and we need your help to build a detailed picture of source to sea litter.

Your school can help contribute by completing a litter survey at your local waterway. We have put together a large format surveying guide and accompanying teaching resource for you to download. Once you have completed a survey submit your data to the Clean up Scotland portal or email to UpstreamBattle@KeepScotlandBeautiful.org.

Large format surveying guide

Presentation for young people on marine litter and surveying

Activities for at home

For families and young people, you can download our Activity Sheets for the Clyde and Tay, to complete tasks all about source to sea litter.

Next time you go for a walk near a waterway, why not complete the Riverside Walk Spotter sheet to investigate what you see and consider how they impact on the environment.

Clean Up Scotland

We are challenging all schools across the Clyde Valley and Tayside to join in a Clean Up event as part of Upstream Battle.

80% of marine litter comes from land. We want to stop it at the source. Organising a litter pick near your local waterway you will not only make a difference in your local area but also prevent litter from making its way to sea.

Find out more on organising a Clean Up activity

Ocean Plastics Live Lesson with Doug Allan

Doug Allan is a natural history cameraman and presenter on programmes including Blue Planet. Doug went 'live' on our YouTube channel to share his experiences, talk about his work and his own career pathway and answered questions from pupils submitted ahead of time.

Watch lesson on marine litter