An Aberdeen man is calling on people to turn out this weekend and be part of the city’s potentially “biggest ever” litter pick.
Mike Scotland, 32 – who takes a litter picker with him wherever he goes – hopes plenty of volunteers will turn out tomorrow to help clean up the beach after the devastation left by Storm Babet.
Mr Scotland, who has been involved in clean ups for the past four years and founded Community cleanUP, was at Aberdeen beach with his five-year-old son Lucio last week when he realised that the amount of rubbish left behind was “not normal”.
The dad of three – a health and safety officer – did a Facebook Live from the “upsetting” scene to encourage folk to come down and help.
And that they did, with about 25 people from of all ages including the “Aberdeen Assassin” Lee McAllister and his boxers.
Mr Scotland told The P&J that the group collected 45 bags of rubbish, which weighed just over 500kg.
They collected plastic containers, buckets and milk cartons, as well as personal items such as clothes, hats, shoes, welly boots and glasses.
Marine life was also found, including fish caught in nets that were strangled by plastic, as well as dead octopuses and starfish.
First litter pick ‘barely scratched the surface’
Despite their efforts and success, Mr Scotland said it “barely scratched the surface”.
“It was a shame there was so many people walking past on the beach and looking at it,” he said.
This “prompted” him to set up tomorrow’s event.
Despite needing an “army of people” to clean up the city’s beach, the 32-year-old is ready for the challenge and is expecting a minimum of 100 people to attend the clean-up.
150 litter pickers and high vis vests are at the ready, as are gloves and over 600 rubbish bags.
Litter pick aims to ’empower’ people
For Mr Scotland, it is not just about picking up the litter – he also wants to “empower” people.
He explained: “It’s about bringing people from all the areas of the city together, joining as one group all for the right reasons.
“I know it helps the environment, but it brings so much people together. It gives them that sense of purpose in life, it empowers them to make a positive difference in the world.
“There’s not much bigger things or challenges in your day-to-day life than there is to clean up the world.”
Mr Scotland has started collecting old crisp packets that he has found during his litter pick and found a Golden Wonder one from the 1960s that cost four D (pence) in old money.
From this, he found that crisps used to be weighed in drams, not grams.
Learning from litter
“It’s amazing the amount of things you can find from litter and what it teaches you and what you can learn from it,” he said.
Explaining the benefits of litter picking, he says: “It’s one of those things when I feel down or I feel bad or annoyed about something, when I go out litter picking I feel better.”
Tomorrow’s event will take place between 10am and 12pm, with participants to meet opposite Innoflate on the Beach Esplanade for a safety briefing.
Conversation