Over the summer we’ve travelled all along the north-east coastline celebrating the region’s Beach Clean Champions, and now it’s up to you to vote for the winner.
Over six weeks we’ve worked with the East Grampian Coastal Partnership (EGCP) to highlight six groups or individuals who have gone above and beyond to keep Scotland’s beaches in pristine condition.
And this weekend, one of the Beach Clean Champions chosen by our readers will receive the Really Rubbish Award, a trophy created by the Peterhead Men’s Shed using litter they collected from the seaside.
While it might not look like a traditional trophy to put on your mantlepiece, the award will stand as a symbol of the winning champion’s dedication to the environment.
Voting for your favourite Beach Clean Champion will last until the end of Thursday.
From schoolchildren to marine biologists, we’ve celebrated people from all walks of life who have made it their mission to keep Scotland’s seas spotless.
Here are their stories.
Pick Up Peterhead’s Theresa Richie
Theresa harnessed the power of social media to organise the local community and carry out group litter picks at nearby Craigewan Beach.
Membership numbers have ebbed and flowed over the years, particularly during the pandemic, but Theresa is as committed as ever.
“There’s just a sense of satisfaction seeing a really filthy area, and an hour later you turn around and it’s beautifully clean again, especially on a beach,” she said.
Zandra Taylor, the St Cyrus beach clean crusader
Four years of litter picking at St Cyrus Beach mean that the golden sands are now virtually rubbish-free.
But Zandra isn’t resting on her laurels.
Every day she walks the three-mile stretch of coast collecting anything which shouldn’t be there.
“Litter attracts litter,” she said and Zandra is determined that St Cyrus won’t return to how it used to be.
The children of Catterline Primary
In years gone by, being sent out into the playground to collect litter was a punishment at Catterline School.
But today’s pupils have grown so passionate about litter-picking in their local environment they now ask their teacher if they can go and collect rubbish from the beach in their spare time.
Harbour Energy
In just one day, 45 volunteers from the company collected more than four tonnes of litter and marine rubbish from one of the north-east’s most polluted beaches, Cairnbulg Beach near Fraserburgh.
It has become known as one of the worst beaches in the north east for pollution, with rubbish constantly getting caught under rocks and rotting seaweed.
Marine Biologist Lauren Smith and her war on nurdles
Marine biologist Dr Lauren Smith has been dedicating her free time to picking up nurdles – tiny pieces of plastic no bigger than a lentil – which have been washing up on the shore of Newburgh Beach.
“Sometimes it feels like just a tiny little drop in the ocean, or a tiny little pellet in the ocean I should say, but it’s so important to keep on top of this,” she said.
Cliff-scrambling Craig Leuchars
Craig Leuchars from Collieston has made it his mission to clear harmful marine litter from hard-to-reach beaches near his community.
He’s no stranger to scrambling up and down steep inclines with heavy bin bags of litter destined for recycling. “The amount of rubbish I can collect is limited to what I can physically haul up a cliff myself,” he said.
‘Every one of our champions has done a fantastic job’
Ian Hay, project manager with the EGCP said: “I think what the public have been doing is amazing, most of the beaches in the north-east are actually looking extremely good.
“The effort that people have put in during lockdown and beyond has been so impressive.
“Every one of our champions has done a fantastic job, we’re just so pleased with the hard work everyone has done it’s really made a difference.
“And we’re so grateful to the Peterhead Men’s Shed for their help, this trophy they’ve made for the project is very creative, and they’ve certainly made a very unique prize for the winner.
“It will be really interesting to see what champion they believe should win the trophy.”
The award itself
The Peterhead Men’s Shed carries out all sorts of important work for the local community, and when approached for help in creating the Really Rubbish Award for our Beach Clean Champions project, they jumped at the opportunity.
Using a piece of driftwood and litter collected from local beaches, the men fashioned a suitably rubbish trophy for the grand winner of the campaign.
Allan Shepherd, chairman of the Shed, said: “We do quite a lot of work for different groups but this one was really something different.
“The guys enjoyed working on it, it’s good that we can do our bit and help people out however we can.”