Johnny was recently asked to do an article for The Countryside Jobs Service, and we thought we would share…. “The only conservation task in the world to both provide unadulterated grade one instant gratification, something to talk about at tea break & outright despair”
Or at least that’s the sales pitch I’d make for litter picking, no matter what the age or physical ability, with a pair of gloves, litter picker and a bin bag it is possible to change the world very quickly. Even better during a tea break you’ll have something to talk about, many a volunteer across the country has become good friends over their shared hatred of discarded dog poo bags, crisps packets and cans of red bull in the undergrowth.
Now I’m not making any promises about what you’ll find on your litter picking journey, some of it will be really disgusting that will make your toes curl and even though it glitters it’s unlikely to be gold. I am going to say though over the long term it is going to be worth it, that time might well be more than 30 years though.
The reason I say that is because I’m a ranger with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust, looking after the river that runs through Edinburgh. It is where I have been based for the past 5 years and during that time, I’ve led over 250 practical conservation tasks, and every one involves a rubbish pile at the end. I wish sincerely that it didn’t, but it’s an important tradition that’s been going on since the Trust was founded 36 years ago as the first river charity in Scotland.
For the Water of Leith has never been the kind of Wind in the Willows river that some might imagine with such a fancy name. Instead since the 12 century it was the original power source for the capital of Scotland processing goods that arrived at the port of Leith. A variety of industries including grinding grain, wood, spices and snuff, paper making, washing and waulking cloth, tanning hides, and cutting stones flourished along the banks to its peak of 77 mills along a 24-mile stretch.
During these industrial times, the river was grossly polluted. However, as the mills closed, sewers were constructed, the introduction of the clean water act in 2003 and the dedication & hard work from volunteers, the river has been able to regenerate and recover into an amazing green corridor for nature.
Charlotte (a member of staff for the Trust for 25 years ago) recounts “when I first started leading clean ups, the council would need to deliver a skip as there were so many metal objects coming out from oil drums, prams, bikes, scaffolding poles and more”. Nowadays the flow of litter into the river is much more plastic waste like wet wipes from the sewage overflows, traffic cones & cans/bottles and many a dog poo bag.
At the Trust we target this waste on dry land, wading in the river and in a small boat in the basins down in Leith. Over the course of the year, we spend almost 3,000 volunteers’ hours dedicated to reducing the flow of waste into the river and getting washed out into the sea. It’s a life work staying on top of the rubbish and we get considerable help not only from our volunteers but also local businesses, uniform groups and other charities.
From a personal perspective I don’t notice that flow getting less, and it’d be easy to get discouraged about putting energy into such a repetitive task. Especially when at the higher-level incentives to reduce littering like the bottle deposit scheme seems to be moving further and further back to currently October 2027.
At our regular Leith community clean-up, we separated and recycled 133 aluminium cans which would have otherwise gone to landfill.
But as I said at the start of this article it’s worth it and in the Water of Leith, we have two resident female otters, lots of kingfishers, badgers, deer and countless other animals supported by a healthy ecosystem due to not having litter polluting it from generations and generations of volunteers’ hard work.
So, if you’ve the time to lend a hand to litter pick your local area, go for it, enjoy the grade one gratification, connect with someone during it and try to leave the despair of dog poo bags until you’ve a cup of tea in your hand.
