James cleans up at enviro awards
Honoured for litter pick-ups in Fair City
A young Perth resident has been presented with the prestigious Clean Up Scotland‘hero of the month’ award for his commitment to supporting litter picks across the city.
The award acknowledges the hard work of James Luke-Wardzinski, a waste services trainee at Perth and Kinross Council, who has been instrumental in supporting Zero Waste Perth and its work with local volunteers - helping them to keep the Fair City looking spectacular.
The award is part of the national Clean Up Scotland Campaign, organised by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful.
The project aims to work with individuals, community groups and businesses to reduce waste around five key themes: Food waste prevention; Reuse and repair; Recycling promotion; Resource efficiency; And promoting circular economy opportunities with the ambition of creating a community where waste is minimised and resources remain in circulation for as long as possible.
Said James: “It truly is an honour to receive the ‘hero of the month’ award.
“Perth and Kinross is well recognised as one of the most beautiful places to live in Scotland and I am delighted to have been able to play a part in keeping the Fair City looking spectacular.
“Working with local community groups and schools to co-ordinate litter picks has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my role within the council and it really is inspiring seeing so many young people like myself engaged and enthusiastic in preserving the local environment.
“We are always keen to support communities in taking a pride in their local area and we will continue to encourage local groups looking to clean up their localities to get in touch with us so we can help.”
Zero Waste Perth is an urban behavioural shift campaign being delivered by a consortium of partners, including Beautiful Perth, Perth and Kinross Council and Perth College UHI. It is funded until March 2020 by Zero Waste Scotland through the Resource Efficient Circular Economy Accelerator Programme and part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
Sam Martens, one of the project co-ordinators for Zero Waste Perth, nominated James for the award.
Sam said: “James has been a delight to work with, particularly when arranging our Blue Tay for a Blue Planet litter pick across Perth as part of the Zero Waste Perth project, ensuring that we have been able to supply a large number of community groups with litter pickers, arranging the uplifts of waste and maintaining the litter pickers for future picks.
“If it wasn’t for the vital work of the many voluntary groups in Perth ably supported by James, Perth certainly wouldn’t look as beautiful as it does now.
“I’m delighted that James is being recognised with this award on behalf of the collective efforts of the Perth community.”
Donna Rigby, waste services coordinator from Perth and Kinross Council, said: “As part of his waste trainee position James has helped support these groups in their efforts this year by arranging free clean-up kits and ensuring the sacks of litter collected are removed following any litter picking activities.
“This assistance is invaluable James was presented with his award from Sam Martens from Zero Waste Perth and it’s great for this work to be recognised by James being selected as the Keep Scotland Beautiful Clean Up hero – what an honour.”
Visit www.keepscotland beautiful.org/cleanupscotland to find out how you can help with the campaign’s ambition to make Scotland the cleanest country in Europe.
To get involved with the Zero Waste Perth campaign head over to the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ zerowasteperthscotland or email zerowasteperth@gmail.com