Volunteers clean up Scotstoun

On Friday 25 November, we supported 17 volunteers to help make a difference to the environmental quality of Scotstoun in Glasgow as part of our Upstream Battle campaign. The volunteers collected 32 bags of litter and out of these, 17 bags were general waste and 15 bags were waste eligible for the Scottish Government’s Deposit Return Scheme (DRS).

The scheme, currently scheduled to be implemented next August, will apply a small deposit of 20p on single use drinks containers which you will then get back once you return the empty can or bottle. The 15 bags of litter, composed of mostly cans and bottles, provided some insight into the proportion of litter that could be reduced through the implementation of this scheme.

We were joined by from Royal Bank of Scotland, Biffa, and  Upstream Battle funder BAE Systems,  and the event was supported by Glasgow City Council. The three groups of volunteers collected data on the type and quantity of litter through a litter survey of a 100m section in three types of areas: off road cycle paths, residential streets, and warehouse and industrial units.

There was also a large amount of fly tipping on the cycle path and the warehouse area, with interesting finds such as trollies, chairs, bins, a fridge and even a huge garden parasol!

Upstream Battle is our campaign which focuses on tackling marine litter on the River Clyde and its local waterways. With 80% of marine litter beginning on land, we aim to tackle litter at its source before it gets into the waterways.

If you want to take action, find out more on the Upstream Battle website.