Huge haul of rubbish
Litter pick by volunteers
More than 100 bin bags full of rubbish were collected by volunteers from several groups in Blairgowrie and Rattray recently as part of a socially-distanced litter pick.
Sticking to government guidelines, representatives from award-winning environmental group Blair in Bloom, Blairgowrie and Rattray Access Network (BRAN), Blairgowrie and Rattray Community Council, Blairgowrie Rotary Club and Proactive Communities met at various locations in the town to clear rubbish from different areas.
And organisers created a challenge for the volunteers to find the largest piece of litter, the strangest item that had been discarded, something useful and something which could be worn.
The largest object – a huge tyre – was found by Derek Balloch, while the strangest item was a brass doorknob found by Brian Campbell.
The most useful was a perfect Christmas mug found by Sam Stewart and a wearable item was a child’s jacket, found by Christine Wastell.
Other items that had been dumped included a car bonnet, a set of car mats, a car bumper, a pillow, a wheelie bin, a bike, ‘L’ plates, a wicker basket, a t-shirt, various signs, phone charger cables, a camping gas stove and many more.
Commenting after the event, Mary Birch, chair of Blair in Bloom, said: “This was a fine example of teamworking at its best.
“But what an embarrassing amount of rubbish collected, which no-one should be proud of.
“We need people to start taking responsibility for their actions and the impact it has on their community.”
Ian Richards is the chair of BRAN. He said: “Sadly nothing seems to get through to the ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude of a significant section of the community.
“Scotland shares the shame with the rest of the UK – we are a dirty country!”
Phil Seymour, chair of the community council and Proactive Communities, thanked everyone who took part in the litter pick.
He said: “It was great to see so many people prepared to come out to clean up this blight on our beautiful landscape and sad that we still have people who think it is acceptable to use it as a rubbish tip.
“It is so disappointing that some people show so little respect for our beautiful countryside and wildlife.
“On behalf of the organisers I would like to say a big thank you to all the caring volunteers that made a huge difference and cleaned up the mess and to those that regularly clean up their patch.”
Blairgowrie and Glens Conservative councillor Bob Brawn praised the volunteers but was critical of those who choose to drop litter in the first place.
He said: “Many thanks to all those volunteers who came out to carry out a litter pick around Blairgowrie.
“Councillor Caroline Shiers and I worked our way along the Coupar Angus Road from Golf Course Road towards Myreriggs.
“In that time we collected seven bags of litter – I lost count of how many lager cans I picked up, but it must have been nearly 40 and all seemingly thrown from passing vehicles.
“All volunteers must be commended for their efforts but, quite frankly, it should not be necessary.
“Littering our town and countryside is sheer laziness. It costs nothing to put litter in a bin and if the bin is full then take it to the next one. It needs everyone to make the difference.
“Do we really have to resort to enforcement measures just to make people dispose of their litter responsibly?”