McDonald’s cleans up Govanhill

McDonald’s in Glasgow rallied staff and four primary schools in the Govanhill area – St Bride’s, Holy Cross, Annette Street and Cuthbertson - to take part in a mammoth litter event on Wednesday 14th September.

Arlene from McDonalds, said: “It was fantastic to see so many school kids and McDonald’s volunteers turn out on the day and the sunshine!! The kids are all really keen to collect the litter and it will be great now the schools have their own litter pickers donated by the stores.”

Thanks from Keep Scotland Beautiful to all involved.

Bye for now

The National Spring Clean blog will be closing down shortly, but don’t worry, it is being replaced with a bigger, better, and more comprehensive Keep Scotland Beautiful Community Blog.

The new blog will give you information about the best beaches to visit, how to get involved in Scotland’s biggest annual litter pick – National Spring Clean, tell you how you can reduce your carbon footprint, and inform you of how to improve your community through our Beautiful Scotland campaigns and Community Action and Support Programme.

Keep checking back here to find out when it goes live!

More money up for grabs

If you are planning an environmental activity using volunteers or you think you can come up with a good project that improves biodiversity in your area, then you could be eligible for a CSV Action Earth grant.  CSV want to empower people to take action in their community, and their campaign offers three easy-to-access grants ranging from £50 to £500 to cover materials tools and expenses, and can make a big difference to an event.  The CSV Action Earth campaign is supported by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

CSV aim to help projects and groups attract new volunteers to their work.  Last year over 10,000 CSV Action Earth volunteers were involved in projects such as improving wildlife habitats by clearing and planting, turning derelict wasteland into bee-friendly wildflower meadows, creating ponds and footpaths, tagging sharks, building and installing bat and bird boxes, improving woodland and a whole range of other environmental tasks.  Already this year they have almost 100 active projects, and hope to almost double this number.

Grants will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so please register quickly.  Projects can apply NOW.  You can apply on-line, download forms or get more information including details of current projects at www.actionearth.org.uk.  If you wish to discuss project ideas or any issues relating to the campaign, please contact Robert Henderson on 0131 222 9083 or by e-mail on rhenderson@csv.org.uk.

Is flytipping spoiling your view? Support is available!

This could be a thing of the past

Is flytipping blighting your land or neighbourhood? Do you need some help to remove the waste and dispose of it properly, or to prevent it happening again? If so, support is now available.

Zero Waste Scotland has launched a new flytipping grant scheme, which will allow communities to apply for small grants to help clear their land of flytipped material and create long-term, innovative deterrents to flytipping. 

Details of who can apply, what the grant can be spent on, and an application pack are available now by clicking HERE. For more information, contact the litter and flytipping team at Keep Scotland Beautiful, who administer the grant scheme on behalf of Zero Waste Scotland, at flytipping@ksbscotland.org.uk or on 01786 468 788 / 243.

The youngest beach clean up team!

Ardrishaig Church Eco Group in Argyll & Bute organised a clean up of the Ardrishaig fore-shore on May 14^th – and wonder if they had the youngest beach clean team ever?!  Nathan, Jodie, Callum, Anya, Dillon, Logan, Ruaridh and Lucas range in age from 16 months to 7 years, and took part in the event along with Mums, Dads, Grans and other volunteers.  They all did a tremendous job – donning high visibility tunics and work gloves, and wielding black bags and litter pickers.  11 bags of rubbish, plus an assortment of larger items were cleared from the south shore by the eager team.

The hard working youngsters were rewarded with juice and cakes, (tea or coffee for the adults).  The Eco Group thank them, and the other volunteers, including the “kitchen staff”, for all their hard work, helping to Keep Scotland Beautiful.

Edinburgh’s Princes Street McDonalds’ organises a marathon litter pick

Today, 25 brave volunteers from the Princes Street McDonald’s are walking the streets of Edinburgh, around all the McDonald’s restaurants, covering a staggering 25 miles picking up litter as they go AND raising money for charity at the same time! Read all about it on the STV news website.

What a fantastic way to do something good – the team here at Keep Scotland Beautiful would like to pass on a huge thank you to Andrew Watson from the Princes Street branch for organising the event, and to all the hardy souls who are right this minute taking part! If you see them today, do give them a cheer.

 

And the winners are…….

Dunbeath Primary's winning image

I’m sure you’ve all been dying to know who has won the three National Spring Clean Competitions…….

The feedback form drawn out of the ‘hat’ was submitted by the River Carron Fisheries Management group in Falkirk who won £100 worth of garden vouchers.  The photo competition was won by Dunbeath Primary School in Highland, and Beeslack Community High School in Midlothian, who both receive a digital camera.  The final competition saw 30 schools and nurseries being drawn at random – they will all receive £100 vouchers to help their on-going eco-work.

We would like to say well done to all the winners, and many thanks to Greggs and Wrigley for donating the prizes.

And the Clean Ups continue!

National Spring Clean may be over, but as these two groups show, you can still organise a litter pick for any time through the year – apply for your clean up kit here!

The Edinburgh International Conference Centre held a Big Street Clean Up on Wednesday 14th June, in the city centre. Their plan was to raise awareness to the public and to businesses regarding litter in the street having a negative impact on the tourism industry. Marina Fortucci, one of the staff volunteers said of the day: “Our Morning was very well organised, starting with a Health and Safety Briefing from a member of the EICC Green Team, distribution of High Visibility Jackets, Red Baseball Caps with EICC written across them, disposable gloves and of course the all important Litter Picks and bin bags! We split into 2 groups to allow us to clean each side of the roads efficiently.

“We managed to fill 16 bags with all sorts of litter from pizza boxes, empty cans, train and bus tickets, plastic bags and bottles. A member of the public asked me who we were and why we were cleaning, when I explained, she said that it was a wonderful idea and we were doing a great job!

“The thing that struck me most was the amount of cigarette ends on the streets – hundreds and hundreds. Ron Dymond  from The City of Edinburgh Council explained that since the no smoking ban came into place the amount of cigarette ends on the streets has increased enormously – surprisingly especially outside bars ! It made me think how easy it is to be negative about how our council performs in keeping our streets clean but they have a MAMMOTH never ending task and it is up to ALL OF US businesses and residents alike to take responsibility and action to keep our Beautiful City clean.

“I had a positive experience taking part in this morning’s Clean Up and would have no hesitation taking part in this sort of thing again.”

Annette Street Primary in Glasgow are carrying out a litter pick in Queens Park on Monday 20th June – 200 pupils will be out with Glasgow Community & Safety Services staff, picking up litter and recycling.

If you do have a clean up event, please do let us know about it – we’re always looking for good stories to tell! email info and photos through to juliette.camburn@ksbscotland.org.uk

And the National Spring Clean results are now out!

A huge thank you from Keep Scotland Beautiful to the 97,237 wonderful Scots who gave up their time to spring clean their own special areas of Scotland – as a result, more than 1,000 tonnes of rubbish has been removed from 1,538 of our parks, roads, villages, towns, cities, school grounds and tourist hotspots.

Thanks also to all the local authorities who mucked in and helped ensure all the clean up events ran smoothly – we couldn’t have done it without you!

Culter is cleaned up!

One of our Beautiful Scotland groups – Culter in Bloom – donned their gloves and litter pickers and cleared roads, woods, the railway line, a public path, and the River Dee path as part of their National Spring Clean event.

Many thanks to the 24 volunteers who took part – we hope you enjoyed the day – and thank you for making your part of Scotland more beautiful for others to enjoy too!