Down in the Dighty dumps

From mattresses to microwaves, Dundee’s Dighty burn has become a dumping ground for fly-tippers. Gayle helps a group of volunteers to tackle the problem...

It’s a chilly Tuesday morning and I’m standing in the middle of Dundee’s Dighty Burn fishing out all sorts of junk. Among the waterlogged finds are a mattress, a door, dozens of plastic bottles and aerosol cans, footballs, huge chunks of insulating foam... the list goes on. I’ve joined volunteers from conservation group Dighty Connect to help them tackle one of their regular burn clean-ups.

It’s a cold, messy and seemingly never-ending job, with flytippers dumping all sorts of rubbish into the waterway, which then gets blocked.

Supermarket trolleys, microwaves, bikes, road signs, barriers and traffic cones have all been pulled from the Dighty this year alone.

Back in July, a few days after rubbish, including trolleys, was fished out and left on the burn bank until it could be taken away, yobs chucked it back in.

It’s soul-destroying and shows a total lack of respect for the environment and the people who would otherwise enjoy the space.

Getting the haul out of the burn is no mean feat, as I very quickly discover.

First up, you need to wade far out into the chilly water, which is deep in places and potentially dangerous if you fall.

Then you need to lasso a metal hook attached to a rope in a bid to pull in bigger goods, like strips of wood, tyres and doors.

There’s also a bit of tree felling required as overgrown branches threaten to poke out eyes.

As for the mattress, well, that requires a whole lot of manoeuvring and muscle power.

Today the group is clearing a stretch of the Dighty in Douglas near the police station, but there are many other sections which have become flytipping hotspots.

I keep asking the question – why? Who on earth lobs plastic bottles, microwaves and mattresses into a burn?

I guess I know the answer – ignorant, selfish, disrespectful idiots.

“We’re desperate for more volunteers to help with burn clean-ups,” says project coordinator Jane Wilkinson, passing me a rusty can of Tennent’s.

“This takes a lot of time but many people’s attitude is ‘I’ll throw stuff away and someone will deal with it’.”

Dighty Connect is all about the environment and Jane is hot on recycling.

Pointing to the chunks of insulating foam under my arm, she tells me she’ll use them during a raft-building session at a local primary school.

The wooden planks we find – and a rather nice green door – will also be put to good use.

As well as clean-ups, the group also does tree planting and makes paths, ponds, dry stane dykes and bat and bird boxes.

They also plant wild flowers and run wildlife surveys and art projects.

“We’re a Jack of all trades, really,” says Jane.

Recent statistics showed that fewer than 50% of the world’s plastic bottles bought in 2016 were collected for recycling and just 7% of those collected were turned into new bottles.

Instead, most plastic bottles produced end up in landfill or in the ocean... or in the Dighty.

Once we’re thoroughly frozen and have a big load of rubbish, we hop into Jane’s van and head to Baldovie Recycling Centre.

On arriving, we’re told we need to take our haul to the nearby waste plant, where the rubbish will be incinerated, rather than recycled.

In time, this should change, and the group should soon be allowed to sort and grade the rubbish.

“Landfill creates methane which is really bad for global warming so incinerating waste is better, but to see everything dumped in one pile is quite depressing,” says Jane.

“It makes me want to do everything I can to recycle, and avoid plastic at all costs.

“It really changes the way you think about waste.” Pictured, below left: Jayne Wilkinson, Gayle and Catherine Rice pull out plastic bottles, footballs, tennis balls, wood, and general rubbish from the river. Pictures: Steven Brown.