The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Canoeist’s raft of rubbish gathered from Tay inspires national campaign.
OUTDOORS: Activity centre worker puts river rubbish in the spotlight for campaign
A canoe-load of River Tay rubbish has inspired a national anti-littering campaign.
Day-trippers and holidaymakers are being urged to keep Scotland “stunning” and leave beauty spots unspoilt.
The Zero Waste Scotland drive was partly prompted by worrying images of debris dumped in the Tay during lockdown.
Discarded plastic bottles, beer cans and polystyrene takeaway trays were scooped out of the water by staff at Willowgate Activity Centre near Perth.
Assistant manager Emily HamiltonPeach highlighted the growing problem by loading up the collected waste on her canoe.
“We regularly see litter that has floated down the River Tay from people leaving it in the park and this volume has recently increased,” she said.
“A lot of our customers come to us because they want to get close to nature, enjoy the sights and see the city from a different side, it can spoil it for them if the river and banks are left in a state.
“We try to pick it as we see it but there is only so much you can do.”
The issue of littering around Perth has led the local council to consider eye-catching new signs, such as the “Don’t Be a Tosser” posters that proved effective in York.
Publicly-funded Zero Waste Scotland hopes its new campaign – slogan: “Scotland is stunning – let’s keep it that way” – will inspire people to get out and about, but remind them to take their litter home. It comes as Scotland’s tourism sector reopens after lockdown, and businesses brace themselves for an influx of customers.
Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, said recent scenes of abandoned campsites and rubbishstrewn beauty spots were “hugely damaging” to the country’s reputation.
“People are understandably keen to enjoy everything Scotland has to offer as the summer holidays stretch out in front of us,” he said. “With tourism reopening in Scotland and many areas – from hills and lochs in rural Scotland, to city parks – expecting an increase in visitors, we want to remind people to bin their litter or take it home.”
Barry Fisher, CEO of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “Litter levels across Scotland are unacceptable, and in many places are getting much worse.
“Alongside this campaign we will continue to offer support to all those who have already stepped up to tackle this problem in their own communities with litter clean ups and projects to improve and protect the places they care about.”
There is no excuse for despoiling our wonderful countryside and river network by littering. It takes no effort to take items brought to a destination away again after use, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to take a long hard look at themselves.
A single drinks bottle or sweetie wrapper might seem very little to get worked up about, but it soon mounts up as Emily Hamilton-Peach’s canoe-load of litter from the River Tay demonstrates. Keep our country beautiful and put litter where it belongs. In the bin.