Glasgow City Council - the first to trial our innovative community-focused education programme

We have teamed up with Glasgow City Council to pilot an innovative community-focused education programme - Litterate - aimed at empowering city communities and strengthening their ability to tackle Scotland’s looming litter emergency.

As the first local authority in Scotland to sign up to Litterate, Glasgow City Council is piloting the programme in the north-west of the city. This spring the training will be delivered to council workers working with communities to tackle litter, community groups and councillors.

Our Scottish Litter Survey shows that 88% of Scots agree that litter is a problem across Scotland and 70% are concerned about the issue in their own neighbourhoods. We are already successfully working with Glasgow City Council on a number of projects to clean and green neighbourhoods across the city. Building on this, Litterate will encourage participants to think about what they can do personally, locally and as part of their workplace to help change behaviour and tackle the litter emergency.

Keep Scotland Beautiful Chief Executive, Barry Fisher, said, “A key question in the current consultation on a new national litter and flytipping strategy for Scotland is whether people support the establishment of a community-focused litter education programme. We believe such a programme is vital and that is why, based on the work that we have done with communities across the country, we have developed Litterate. We are pleased that Glasgow City Council is leading the way and working with us to pilot Litterate, building on the ongoing work we do together.

“We want to make it easy for people to play their part in keeping their neighbourhoods clean and believe a community-focused programme of education and behaviour change to create a ‘Litterate’ Scotland will make a real difference.

“Through our award-winning Eco-Schools programme, we already educate children up and down the country, but learning shouldn’t be confined to the classroom. It should be embedded in communities across the country so that every member of society, young or old, can access and benefit from it.”

Councillor Anna Richardson, City Convener for Sustainability and Carbon Reduction, said, “Our Clean Glasgow campaign is clear that education is a key part of any effort to tackle litter and so I am pleased we are getting involved with KSB’s Litterate programme at such an early stage.

“Our experience is that the vast majority of people dispose of the litter in the right way every time and so we have to find ways to reach those who think dropping litter is okay.

“The Litterate scheme will carry information on the impact of litter into communities all across Glasgow and help to highlight the difference that individuals can make to the litter problem.

“Glasgow has a long term aim to reduce the amount of waste produced in the city. Encouraging people to reflect on how they consume the vast array of packaging currently available in society will start to make a dent on the litter we all see in our day to day lives.”

Communities in Glasgow are also being urged to support Spring Clean Scotland from 21 March to 21 April as volunteers across Scotland join together to pick litter in their neighbourhoods restoring pride in the places they care for. Find out more on our Spring Clean Scotland webpage and join the UK-wide #BigBagChallenge.