Dundee SGN workers help clean up Fife beaches

A 12-STRONG team of volunteers from Dundee helped clean up beauty spots with nearly 15 bags of rubbish.

Working on behalf of Fife Coast and Countryside Trust, the group from gas distribution company SGN picked up an assortment of litter that had been washed up on the shore at Fife’s Lower Largo beach and Shell Bay.

Doing the work as part of SGN’s community action programme, the maintenance team from Dundee gathered various items, including old car tyres, yoghurt cartons, buckets, spades and oil containers.

The idea of cleaning up the beach came from SGN maintenance manager John Forsyth.

He said: “I was shocked by a documentary I saw on Sky a few weeks ago called The Plastic Whale.

“It was about a stranded whale whose stomach was found to be full of plastic packaging when they opened it up.

“A few weeks later, I saw a similar story on the BBC news about another whale stranded off the Isle of Skye that had four kilos of plastic debris recovered from its stomach.

“The fact this happened so close to home made me determined to try and do something.

“SGN gives everyone one day off each year to make a difference in their local community.

“I had a chat with my team and we thought this would be a really good use of our time.”

“It was also a great day out for the whole maintenance team.”

Some of the team with one of the tyres they found.