Fife clean-up: Litter champions collected 14,000 bags last year

Members of a Fife litter group collected a staggering 14,272 bags of litter from across the Kingdom in 2021.
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The final figure for the year shows the effort that has been made over the past 12 months by approximately 200 active members of Fife Street Champions.

David Spence from Fife Street Champions, who was recognised with an award by Keep Scotland Beautiful for his commitment to cleaning up his local area last May, said: “If we assume an average weight of 12 pounds per bag, this equates to around 76 tons of garbage.

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"However this does not include the tyres, furniture, hoovers, fridges and other large un-baggable items that we have also discovered so the actual total will be many tons more than this.

"This figure is up from a total of about 10,000 in 2020.

"The past year has been particularly busy, especially during the Covid lockdown, but since people have had less time, activity has been declining a bit.

“However we are still attracting new members which will help keep the level of activity up."

David Spence from Fife Street Champions.David Spence from Fife Street Champions.
David Spence from Fife Street Champions.

He continued: "There are still areas in Fife that need attention and we come across them regularly but some of them are hard to reach such as forests which are not near roads or paths.

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"Despite there been litter campaigns up and down the country nothing seems to deter people from leaving a mess.”

He revealed that this coming year will see some changes in the group.

Fife Street Champions: Andrew Dunlop is pictured in the left with Keith Wotherspoon on the right with the bags of rubbish and tyres collected from the Den, Cardenden in the summer.Fife Street Champions: Andrew Dunlop is pictured in the left with Keith Wotherspoon on the right with the bags of rubbish and tyres collected from the Den, Cardenden in the summer.
Fife Street Champions: Andrew Dunlop is pictured in the left with Keith Wotherspoon on the right with the bags of rubbish and tyres collected from the Den, Cardenden in the summer.

David continued: “Next year we are going to encourage members to undertake other types of community action such as graffiti cleaning, weed clearing, sign cleaning and anything else they can think of to benefit the community and we continue to get good support from the council.”

He said the group has provided its members with support over a difficult two years: “Quite a few of our members have commented on how their membership of the group has helped them cope with life, particularly during the "lockdown" periods.

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"It gave them a focus and by meeting new people during group events, it has increased their social circle and enhanced their lives in general.

He added that there are no group picks planned at the moment but that individuals are out almost every day and group picks will start soon.

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