With 15,000 tonnes dropped every year, litter is a major problem in Scotland, . That’s 50 pieces of litter per person per year and 745 items of litter dropped every minute! It’s surprising then we’re not knee deep in the stuff, but then we have the Community Caretakers, various community minded groups and individuals, as well as the Council willing to fight the ongoing battle.
Having spent a busy August Sunday doing part of the Caretakers’ rounds of Fort Augustus; removing the full bags from the bins outside the public toilets and by the Monster Fish & Chip Shop and putting in fresh bin-liners, swapping the full wheelie bins for empty ones around the carpark, and then removing the full bags from the canal-side and putting in fresh bin-liners, and taking these all the way up to the large waste bins at the top of the locks by the upper basin, I really got to appreciate how much litter is generated in just one day in the height of the season and how much thanks we owe our Community Caretakers. To get a real understanding, you should try it one time.
In fact, I would lay down a challenge that each restaurant or gift shop owner, or retailer in Fort Augustus village should do this at least once. Not the staff, the decision makers at the top. You learn a lot from picking litter and collecting waste; which types of used packaging are easy to handle, which not so; which type of products make easy handling waste and which can leave you frustrated and cursing as you try for the fifth time to catch it in your picker’s jaws. It doesn’t seem like much but when, like the Community Caretakers, you do it twice a day every weekday and once a day at the weekends, you can see how small changes in how items are packaged, by thoughtful local retailers, could accumulate and make someone else’s job a lot easier over time.
Saving time that our Caretakers could spend on all the other good jobs they do around our community; like cutting and strimming the grass, planting up flowers and shrubs, weeding and pruning, tending the communal areas in the village, maintaining fences or pavement and gutter clearing, along with the occasional one-off bit of maintenance and repair. All of which make Fort Augustus, and the other villages, look attractive and well kept; making the right environment for your visiting and local customers to liger more and spend more.
So why not give it a go! Do the waste products your outlet creates help or hinder the local caretaker? Is there a way you can stop some of the waste at source? Perhaps there are items you wouldn’t have thought would turn up regularly? Can you contribute to a better community by making the smallest changes that don’t cost anything or could even improve your bottom line?
Chris Rose, Convent Land Development Officer
Fort Augustus and Glenmoriston Community Company 