Coming together to inform future action on litter

This week we welcomed 42 external attendees who joined us to discuss public perceptions and future action on litter at our online seminar - Litter in Scotland.

Our Chief Executive, Barry Fisher opened the event by outlining future action we would like to see taken on litter and littering behaviour, and presenting the key areas which will underpin our response to Scotland’s National Litter and Flytipping Strategy consultation.

Diffley Partnership presented analysis on the findings of our Scottish Litter Survey, published late last year. The survey highlights the publics’ perceptions and attitudes to litter and littering behaviour. We also heard an update from the Scottish Government on the progress of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, which is currently open for consultation. We would like to thank our speakers Nick Heslop, from Diffley Partnership, and Dr Sarah Letsinger, from the Scottish Government.

A large proportion of the event involved attendees, whose representation included local authorities, housing associations, transport providers and government bodies, separating into groups to talk about three themes: changing behaviours, the value of data, and community action. All attendees are thanked for their excellent participation in these discussion sessions, which explored potential barriers and solutions to litter. The quality of discussions demonstrated the appetite for attendees to continue to network and collaborate in future events.

This event will help instigate future action and partnership working as well as informing responses to the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy consultation, including our own. We aim to be collaborative in our approach and believe that this is a key requirement to improve local environmental quality. As we all know, no one organisation is able to address this issue alone, and events like this allow us to network, share ideas and bring our skills together in a shared strategy.

Learn more about the consultation and how to have #YourSayOnLitter at www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/litter