A volunteer group dedicated to removing rubbish in South Ayrshire bagged a staggering one million pieces of litter in just under a year.
The group, the South Ayrshire Clean-Up Campaign (SACC), reached its year-long target on Saturday, January 15, with a group litter pick by Ballantrae.
The intrepid group achieved their mission with 10 days to spare.
Campaign founder and volunteer, Christopher Johnson of Prestwick, said: “There is an amazing sense of achievement in reaching the million-piece milestone – there has been incredible community spirit in tackling a collective goal that has bought many different groups and individuals together.”
The campaign, which brings together individuals and litter-picking communities, was established on January 25 last year and has more than 400 followers on social media.
Their target, to remove one million pieces in the space of a year, served to both motivate people to get involved in litter picking and to collect data about the scale of the problem.
Volunteers recorded the removal of 1,000,092 pieces of litter, from as far afield as Barassie to Ballantrae, and Loch Braden to Lochside.
Most of the activity has been led by individual action, with volunteers logging the litter they collect with the campaign at saccmillion.org
In total, 1,657 separate picks were recorded, with an average of 608 pieces removed each time.
If all the sacks of litter were piled on top of each other they would be almost twice as high as Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis, or eight times the height of the Eiffel Tower.
Despite the relief of reaching the million-piece target, there is little to celebrate say the group.
Data collected by the campaign shows that littering is both a frequent and sustained activity across all South Ayrshire.
Volunteers in Troon removed a new piece of litter every two minutes.
In Maybole, volunteers removed 25 pieces of litter for every resident, while 100 pieces of litter a day were removed from a single park in Prestwick.
The campaign has received support from South Ayrshire Council’s neighbourhood services team, who’ve provided groups and individuals with equipment, arranged special collections of group picks, and even supported enforcement action following leads from volunteers.
Established groups including Friends of Troon Beaches, Don’t Trash Ayr, Maybole Community Clean Up and TAG Girvan have all been active in supporting the campaign.
However, as only data recorded on the Campaign website has been counted, the true picture of littering is expected to be much, much bigger.
In spring, the local authority led a drive to remove thousands of sacks of litter from the road network which was considered too dangerous for volunteers to pick, in addition to their regular work.
Data collected from the campaign will soon be publicly available for download, and the group hopes that it will be used to help influence decision-makers and leaders into enabling positive change.
However, littering is also an individual action – and reducing waste is one of the simplest actions that people can take to reduce our impact on the planet.
Christopher revealed: “Unfortunately, the litter isn’t slowing down but we now have a very rich set of data that is already starting to tell us stories. It is essential now that both politicians, and the public listen to the data, and act.
“During 2021, a volunteer removed a piece of litter from South Ayrshire every 30 seconds. This cannot be taken for granted, and is simply unsustainable.”
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