Upstream Battle Anchor Group Gathering
19 January 2023
On Tuesday 17 January, we had the pleasure of welcoming our Upstream Battle Anchor Groups to the Keep Scotland Beautiful office to celebrate their success over the past 12 months!
Upstream Battle is our award-winning campaign that tackles marine litter at its source, by raising awareness, gathering evidence and inspiring action. We could not run the campaign without our amazing Anchor Groups who play a key role, leading the way in gathering evidence on the levels of litter on stretches of the River Clyde and Tay and their tributaries.
It was a lovely way to thank volunteers from Broughty Ferry in Bloom, Broughty Ferry Rotary Club, Plastic Free Helensburgh, C406 Tackle Litter Group, Friends of the River Kelvin and Literati Guide to Inverclyde for all their hard work in 2022.
Many of the groups had not been able to meet in person since the pandemic and the gathering was a great opportunity to discuss the challenges they have faced throughout 2022 and share advice on how they can help combat these issues in 2023.
Volunteers like those in Anchor Groups, work persistently on the ground to help keep our local land and marine environments free from the harmful effects of our unsustainable consumption and carelessness.
Their continuous hard work can sometimes feel relentless and tiring, but without them the problem would be considerably worse.
In December we declared a Litter Emergency and our report showed that 87% of people believe that litter is a problem across Scotland, with a significant gap of the levels of litter in the most and least deprived areas.
During the gathering our groups felt united in their fight to save the ecosystems of Scotland’s waterways, Stephen Henry from Literati Guide to Inverclyde expressed …
“It's always great to meet Upstream Battle Anchor Group individuals and organisations. These are social and environmental entrepreneurs. They help underline the reason why we do what we can for the environment. Sharing experiences, learnings and failures. Collaborating and feeling part of a larger environmental community. Realising that we're not alone on the journey. That each of us really wants to make an environmental and social impact. Here's to 2023 and the opportunities which this is going to bring.”
We are calling for people across Scotland to take part in our Spring Clean from 17 March to 17 April and help tackle Scotland’s Litter Emergency. Learn more and sign up here.
