More education needed amid claims Kirkcaldy litter emergency is getting 'worse'

Gerry Booth, who is a member of Fife Street Champions and Litter Claws Fife, joined the groups after moving to Kirkcaldy from Burntisland in 2020. He has helped clean up the streets around the Lang Toun since and he said education is needed to ensure that the mess doesn’t appear in the first place.

He said: “We have a good number of volunteers between the two groups I’m in and the others I see. But it's just education for everyone to know that it doesn't take any effort at all to take your litter home with you.”

Historical waste is also an issue. A recent pick uncovered a soft drinks can dating back to at least the late 1980s, with the possibility that it is even older. However, there are also issues around bulky goods being tossed.

Gerry explained: “It's not just little things like old cans of juice or wherever. It's the big things where people have actually gone out of their way, got a big truck and instead of driving it to a recycling centre, they’ve driven it somewhere else and thought ‘I’m just going to throw that’.

“So, education is needed for everyone to be taught ‘this is right and this is wrong’”.

And Gerry said he thinks the situation might be getting worse.

He said: “I think the current couple of generations just don’t seem to care and then you’ve got people like myself who really care about the environment and litter picking. So we’re doing this and trying to do our bit.”