In this episode we chat to Heather McLaughlin from Keep Scotland Beautiful, about Spring Clean Scotland, the campaign which brings together people from across Scotland to tackle the litter emergency.
We hear how this initiative rallies communities, schools, business and individuals to clean up and look after their local areas. She shares invaluable tips for taking part in, or organising, impactful clean-up events, the critical importance of data collection in driving policy change, and the need for a cultural shift to sustain environmental action all year round.
Then join us on the banks of the River Tay as we chat with Ross Dempster of Beyond Adventure, who reveals how initiatives like recycling, litter picking and carbon offsetting are integrated into their outdoor activities business. He shares stories of local cleanups, explains the benefits to both wildlife and individuals from volunteering in nature, and emphasises the ongoing need for community involvement in preserving Scotland's landscapes.
More Information:
Keep Scotland Beautiful
The Spring Clean Scotland 2024 held between 15 March to 28 April, brings together people from across Scotland to tackle litter.
Beyond Adventure
In this episode we chat to Heather McLaughlin from Keep Scotland Beautiful, about Spring Clean Scotland, the campaign which brings together people from across Scotland to tackle the litter emergency.
We hear how this initiative rallies communities, schools, business and individuals to clean up and look after their local areas. She shares invaluable tips for taking part in, or organising, impactful clean-up events, the critical importance of data collection in driving policy change, and the need for a cultural shift to sustain environmental action all year round.
Then join us on the banks of the River Tay as we chat with Ross Dempster of Beyond Adventure, who reveals how initiatives like recycling, litter picking and carbon offsetting are integrated into their outdoor activities business. He shares stories of local cleanups, explains the benefits to both wildlife and individuals from volunteering in nature, and emphasises the ongoing need for community involvement in preserving Scotland's landscapes.
More Information:
Keep Scotland Beautiful
The Spring Clean Scotland 2024 held between 15 March to 28 April, brings together people from across Scotland to tackle litter.
Beyond Adventure
Hi and welcome to Mixed Space for Nature from Nature Scott, the podcast that celebrates Scotland's nature, landscapes and species. I'm Kirsten Guthrie and in each episode we'll help you learn more about our amazing natural world. In this episode, tim Hancox and I chat to Heather McLaughlin, campaigns Coordinator for Keep Scotland Beautiful, about the Spring Clean Scotland Project, what we can all do to help clean up her beautiful country. I then head to the banks of the River Tain, aberfelde, to meet Ross Dempster, managing Director of Outdoor Adventure Company Beyond Adventure, to hear how they're integrating sustainability into their business and taking action on litter. So hi, heather, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for joining us today. So I'm just going to ask you first off, can you just explain to our listeners what Spring Clean Scotland is and what you're actually asking or encouraging people to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the Spring Clean is something Keep Scotland Beautiful have coordinated for a long time now. I've been at KSB for seven years and it predates me, and I guess it's our response to the litter emergency which we declared a couple of years ago. Now Our data is showing that litter is getting worse and we know through our polling that this is something people really really care about. So I guess the Spring Clean is our way of saying here's something we can all do together to tackle this problem. So this year it takes place between the 15th of March and runs until the end of April, 28th of April and we're simply asking people to litter pick in some capacity and, if they can't, help spread the message and help us collect data through some surveys too.
Speaker 1:Great, that sounds like a brilliant thing that everybody can do, and can you share some of the most impactful initiatives or projects, perhaps that have previously been undertaken, perhaps looking back at Spring Clean Scotland 2023.?
Speaker 2:Yeah, last year's Spring Clean went very, very well. We had over 30,000 people take part across the whole country, so that had an event in every local authority. I think it was around 1700 events that took place as part of the month of action and within that, I guess what we're seeing is a rise in. We're still seeing a rise in marine base litter picks, and that's sort of still coming off the back of Blue Planet 2, which feels like ages ago now, and our own upstream battle campaign. The other thing we're seeing is a huge increase in the number of businesses wanting to take part and wanting to join local community groups. So that's really encouraging to see and I guess what I like to see.
Speaker 2:The numbers are great. But actually what over the years? What we tend to see is, whilst we coordinate a national effort across Scotland and our efforts contribute globally and internationally too, within Scotland the sort of local efforts. So over in Inverclyde this year there's a big Clyde Beach Clean happening, coordinated by a local group there, and every year we see the Great Angus Beach Clean happening throughout our Spring Clean. So it's quite nice to see that whilst we coordinate nationally, there's pockets of activity throughout Scotland as well.
Speaker 1:And just when you talk about marine cleanups, does that cover beach cleansers?
Speaker 2:actually on the water, but we count everything. So we have a lot of people who obviously are getting to the local beaches and cleaning up there, but thinking more about the inland cleanups and stuff on rivers. 80% of marine litter comes from land, so we talk about actually preventing it from even getting out there in the first place and sort of going along a river path or getting onto the water itself.
Speaker 3:That's so great that there are so many people participating, and this clearly is a lot of people who care enough to try and keep things clean and avoid that kind of litter or pollution where possible. Could you let us know what you do to encourage communities or individuals to set up and organise their own cleanup events?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think, firstly, whilst the Spring Clean obviously is a month, a six-week period of action, there's litter picks happening year-round. Our campaigns act year-round and I know there's individuals, groups out there who have a monthly litter pick, for instance, but I guess the Spring Clean acts as the time of the year. If you're only going to get involved once, join now, or for those groups regularly doing it to use this as an anchor to get people involved. Surprisingly, maybe, it's not hard to get people to take action. As I said, we know people care about this issue and we know there's activity taking place across Scotland. So all we actually need to do is talk about the benefits and why people should litter pick and what the issues are.
Speaker 2:I guess if you don't litter pick, so litter beyond just looking unsightly damages local neighbourhoods, dangerous for wildlife, it's expensive to clean up for local authorities, so we're helping that and actually in having a clean neighbourhood. So, post litter pick, the benefits are beyond just that. It's about encouraging people to enjoy their local green spaces, enjoy going down to local beach, which has not a knock-on benefit to mental and physical health and wellbeing. So it's not hard to come up with reasons why to litter pick. I guess, more fundamentally and practically, we have the guidance to make sure people know how to keep safe. It is simple, but there are obviously things we encourage people to do to make sure they're keeping safe and beyond that, we incentivise people to get involved. Anyone who registers a litter pick this year goes into a prize draw to win vouchers for helping hand environmental. And then, finally, we're not afraid of inspiring a little competition. So we also have our litter league for young people across Scotland to get involved and compete to see how many bags they can collect.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's great, Something like a bit of competition to get the kids involved as well. So you say it's easy. I'm sure you're underselling some of the difficulties that you and your colleagues have. Could you let us know some of the common challenges that are faced to a group or community who want to set up their own litter, pick and or cleaning event, and how to overcome this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess the main question we get asked is where do I get the equipment from? How do I keep safe? So what we tell people to do is the first point of call is always your local authority Again, assuming that most places that you're going to litter pick is public land. So local authorities across Scotland are a key partner for the Spring Clean. A lot of them have equipment they can loan out to groups or individuals, and they're also the people who will organise an uplift of whatever you collect afterwards, to make sure it's not a sat out, but as well as local authorities.
Speaker 2:As part of our short response to the pandemic, a few years ago we set up a network of community cleanup hubs so there's 200 hubs across Scotland and these are groups, businesses, organisations like housing associations, who have equipment and contact details publicly available for individuals or groups to reach out to, to borrow equipment but also ask for support, and so that's what I would encourage people to do, and I guess what we want to see, rather than sort of pockets of action, is people speaking to one another so that they can collaborate, and if you're planning an event and the day before that same group are doing the same location, to think about how you coordinate that effort a little bit more.
Speaker 1:So you've covered the how you work with local authorities and local councils, but how do you work with private companies or organisations to try and help include more people in widen than ish? To even further.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I guess this emergency, this little emergency that we declared, isn't any one person's responsibility. We need every sector to get involved in trying to tackle this problem, both from source and preventive, also in picking it up. So we're seeing every year an increase in the number of businesses looking to take action, whether that's in isolation, as part of a COVID volunteering day or whatever it might be, or asking how they can join a local group, and that's music to my ears. That's the best way, I think, for them to get involved.
Speaker 2:So what we can do is sort of help join the dots a little bit between the groups that we're aware of across Scotland and, whenever a business gets in touch, who they can maybe work with the other. I guess the other mechanism to ensure that sort of collaborative approach is we do work with other NGOs too. So we work closely with the Marine Conservation Society you know, the opposite time of the year have their beach clean and weekend and we also work closely with Sustrans Scotland, who have obviously a network of volunteers looking after the National Cycle Network, and so really the spring clean has been built to be something that everyone can get involved with, whether that is, as you mentioned, corporates getting out on the ground, or whether that's NGOs or anyone else with networks of people that we can reach out to.
Speaker 1:Sounds like you're covering all bases there, from skills to individuals to, you know, kind of local community groups, which is which is brilliant. And you know you've spoken about the litter emergency and you know, at NatureScot we're always kind of and certainly for the makespace for nature campaign, focusing on trying to get people to do more for the kind of the climate and the nature emergency. However, it can be slightly depressing and overwhelming for some people, but you know taking action really can help. So what's your advice for people when they feel helpless about, you know, these kind of emergencies?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think yeah. So you mentioned the Nature Emergency, the climate emergency and I've mentioned the litter emergency, and I think it is worth saying that. You know these aren't three different emergencies. They're all interconnected, and I guess we use the term.
Speaker 2:You know there is a debate as to why, and if we wanted to use the term, we would be first declared it, but I think this is something that we, as a charity, have been tackling for a long time.
Speaker 2:We know that there's community groups who've probably been acting longer than we have on this issue and, as I said, our polling shows that 90% of people think this is a problem across Scotland.
Speaker 2:So I think the term emergency has been used to make sure it's given the standing it deserves as a problem that needs to be tackled. But on the reverse of that, I guess we don't want people to think this is beyond their reach. Every action that anyone can take as part of the spring clean or beyond can help us, and so, whether that's lifting one bottle off the street that an animal can get stuck in, whether that's picking up a piece of broken glass a dog or something could walk over, anything can actually help, and taking away from the fact that you're picking up a piece of litter or a piece of waste, people seeing you take action actually can have quite a big, quite a big impact on them. You know they're seeing that it's not a council officer who's going to pick up litter. That is a local volunteer, someone they might even know, and taking a small step to potentially have a big impact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's also what we try and encourage people to do with the makespace for nature. We always have kind of like top 10 tips, so it's kind of breaking down the bigger asks to individual actions and just trying to just trying to encourage people to do their bit, for whether it's litter or nature, it's all, as you say, it's all linked. So, yeah, just any kind of action makes a difference at the end of the day.
Speaker 3:So yeah, heather, at the risk of sounding like I'm about to quiz you on your KPIs, but which I'm really not sure, can you let us know how you measure the success and the impact that these initiatives are having?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the spring clean. As part of the spring clean, we ask people to register their activity with us and I say activity quite lightly, because sometimes it is an individual going out every day collecting a bag, or it can be these sort of mass cleanups with 50 odd people on a beach. But we ask people to tell us what they're doing and use our Cleanups Scotland member sites so they can register an event, whether in advance or retrospectively, and say there was 10 of us, we went out and we did it in this location for this long, and that's how we get the data that we need to say look, there's 30,000 people out there. This wasn't how many bags we think were collected across the whole country, and I think that that's that can be challenging. People understandably want to just get out there rather than sit at a computer and tell us what they've been up to.
Speaker 2:But we can't emphasize enough, I think, the importance of having an understanding of what's happening across the country. And you know we there's this data out there on the cost to the public sector, that the amount of money they spend dealing with litter and waste. But then we also have this increasing number of volunteers litter picking, and so it's really important to understand that, even with that huge cost of stuff that volunteers are doing, rather than the local authorities or the other duty bodies out there. So we really are urging people. If this is the one time of the year they tell us what they're up, they're doing, this is the time to take it.
Speaker 3:And interesting. I'm sure some of the data that comes out as far as the types of litter and rubbish that's getting picked up with can only be useful for local authorities or anybody else. As far as the kinds of waste, I immediately start to think about things that other people who've joined us in the podcast or talked about, like the used vaping things and stuff like that that we are picking up and are causing frustrations.
Speaker 2:Yeah and lots. So I guess what the members like can also be used for is to collect data through services and science and as part of the spring clean this year we're also asking people to take some time and it doesn't even need to be as part of a litter pick. You know, if you're walking down to the shops you can probably do this. We have 12 categories that we're looking to tally against and to help us and people across Scotland collect evidence that we need to try and get some of the legislation over the line. So the vaping is a good example of where this has succeeded. You know the lower young ourselves at Ash Scotland, at MCS, working together to amplify the problem and talk about the problem and using data to back up those anecdotes. We've obviously now got our equipment to ban over the line. There's other pieces of legislation out there that, as a charity, we're trying to advocate for to make sure they happen, so they tackle this litter problem from source.
Speaker 3:That's brilliant. Do you also have any memorable moments or success stories from past cleanup events that have made you particularly happy or proud that you could share with us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess every year we tried to, within the spring, clean, obviously as staff get out and about and join groups where we can. A few years ago we had one of the biggest events and it was a full week of events rather than one event. We had a plastic fishing pump come up from England, from a charity called Hubbub, and we worked with Scottish Canals and McDonald's to sort of do an east to west water and land base litter pick. So we had every day we're in a different place along the canal network and in the canals I'm sure they don't want to say this. There's always something exciting to find and whether that's, I think we found a trike one of those days and I don't know what else. So that's one of the.
Speaker 2:I guess that was a public facing event that we went along to. But internally at KSB we also do our own litter picks and this year, rather than doing a full staff litter pick near our offices, we've taken inspiration from I think you say Spagomi that's how it's spelled and Spagomi World Cup, which is a real thing that happened I think it was in Japan last year where teams of four have an hour to collect as much bags of waste as possible. So internally we've been competing and my team went out last week and have 11 bags on the table.
Speaker 3:The most bags or most interesting find, is that one.
Speaker 2:We've got most bags as the official winner, but the most interesting find gets another prize or thing.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea. I think we should all do that challenge, to be honest, even within my household. That would be quite good fun. And I'm just thinking about how do you keep the momentum going. I know this is obviously a campaign and we're trying to push as hard as you can for everybody to get involved, but you want this to be happening year round, as you said. So how do you keep it going? I mean, I've got into the habit of picking up litter whenever I'm out, but I do sometimes feel that people are that's not my litter, I'm not picking it up. Why should we have to clean up after others? But is that kind of attitude? I suppose that we do need to try and change as well, and I think it is changing. But what's your advice for that side of things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's I mentioned the team which we did last week. I found our hotspot or a grotspot or whatever you want to call it, and we went down and thought this is actually really bad. How on earth are we the four of us going to tackle this in an hour? So our approach was actually to almost siphon off the small section that we could take up before and after football and make a difference. So I think otherwise you can get stuck in this rut of I'm picking up. I spent three hours here and I look around and nothing's changed. And we have heard, you know, that actually a school kids cycle passed us and stopped and said, oh, we did this last year and it's a year later in the same state. So it can get really difficult.
Speaker 2:I think what we try and do is, you know, we do celebrate the spring clean. We have a report that goes out sort of in May sometime that talks about the amazing effort, thanking volunteers, and I know local authorities and other duty bodies will do the same thing. And I think what I would say to volunteers who are maybe feeling that petite or a bit frustrated there's nothing wrong with stopping for a bit and sort of recollecting yourself. If you're frustrated, that's totally fine and taking a break, because I think that is needed and we are seeing and I don't think it's just litter picking volunteers, and I think there's a bit of volunteer fatigue across the whole country at the moment.
Speaker 2:A lot has been asked of volunteers over the last few years and we do appreciate that. But the other thing I would say is, yes, we're litter picking and, yes, we have a spring clean every year, but we are, as a charity, trying to prevent the need for litter picking. Now, that is a long journey, but you know, as I said, as part of this spring clean, we're asking people to collect some data on food packaging so that we can start pushing our way through to the government, to elected members, to talk about a reform on the extended producer responsibility to ensure that people putting these materials on the market pay. So there's a few different approaches that we're taking and we want to take people on that journey with us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and it's so important to celebrate, you know, the before and after of whatever area you're covering is absolutely. You see, it is such a great feeling I think everybody gets when their area is cleaned up, and you've spoken about some of the initiatives. Are there any other initiatives you know that are going on, that we're aiming to keep Scotland beautiful that you want to talk about as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think for us. So the spring clean is happening now, but year round we have our upstream battle campaign. So we constantly see this increase in the motivation behind people who want to tackle ocean litter, marine litter, and in fact 80% comes from land. So our upstream battle campaign looks to tackle that from wherever you are across Scotland and we kind of see it as a vehicle to connect people who are maybe right in the centre of Scotland with the coast and with the ocean and know that they can make a difference without having to travel out to wherever the nearest beach might be. So upstream battle sort of has been tapping that on the Clyde and Tay rivers and actually over the last six months and we've started building that nationally as well.
Speaker 1:That's great. It's great to hear about all these initiatives, and we'll actually be speaking to Ross from one of these anchor groups in the second half of this episode.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for coming on today, heather. It's wonderful to hear about this initiative and I think it's inspiring for all of us to head out and be more aware of the litter, not only to make sure that it gets put in a bin if it's your own, but to pick up what we see and join any initiatives happening, because, at the end of the day, we'd all love to keep Scotland beautiful.
Speaker 1:So I'm now standing on the banks of the River Tain, aberphale Day, and hopefully you can hear the river in the background. It's a little bit dreary today, a bit of rain, but we can see the docks. It's absolutely stunning here and I'm here to meet with Ross from Beyond Adventure to hear more about initiatives taking place to help Spring Clean Scotland. So, hi, ross, thanks for joining me today. We've heard from Heather about Spring Clean Scotland and she's also highlighted some of the litter cleanups that you do here at Beyond Adventure. But first off, can you tell me a bit about the company and what outdoor activities are on offer here, please?
Speaker 4:Good morning. Thanks for having us on the podcast as well. Yeah, we do a bit of everything, to be honest, quite a busy wee place. So we've been open for 25 years this year and, yeah, we started off running a lot of expeditions throughout the Scotland and the wider world. But also we run day activities, half day taster activities, lots on the water like canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding. We're up in the hills, a lot hiking, doing that kind of thing. We take school groups out with Duke of Edinburgh and like outdoor education. And, yeah, also mountain biking, mountain biking, mountain biking, e-biking yeah, plenty to keep us out of trouble most of the time.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. It's a fantastic setting here as well, and why not get outside? Even if it's a rainy day, you can still get outdoors and enjoy what's going on. And can you share some specific initiatives or you know practices that Beyond Adventure has implemented to help the environment.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. I think when we're working outdoors as much as we do, you have a real affinity with nature, a real affinity with the environment as well. I'd say looking after that environment is a thread that runs throughout the whole company. So everything that we try and do is adding to that ethos, and we don't ever want to do something that's going to be detrimental to nature. So, yeah, we've got lots of initiatives from relatively straightforward things like recycling everything, reusing packaging, that our products come in, stuff like that. We make sure we carbon offset everything. We've got some interesting projects coming up, some local companies to do that, and also, yeah, we've already talked about our kind of litter cleanups as well. So looking after not only the river banks but in the water itself to make sure that doesn't turn into marine pollution.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. We were talking about that earlier with Heather as well, and I noticed you're an official plastic patrol partner, so what does that mean?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so Planet Patrol are an organisation that are based down south and we were approached by them back in 2019, I think it was. Obviously we didn't do much because, yeah, it was a bit of a thing in 2020. So, basically, being a Planet Patrol partner, we organised water clearups using paddle boards, so we set dates, people come along and join in. It's all for free and, yeah, we basically take to the water and we clean up everything we can find during the morning or afternoon whenever we choose to go out. So we've done some on Loctay, some on Loctfascally. We've used RiverTay quite a lot as well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's really good fun, but it also makes a massive impact. Planet Patrol are really interesting because you use their app to collate everything that you collect and you put that into their database and they actually take that to a governmental level as well, and so they can put pressure on these companies that you know. So if you find I don't know if I should be naming names, but if you found like 50 Coke cans, you can go to Coca-Cola and kind of go, come on, guys, do something about this. Yeah, it's an interesting one, but yeah, it's good fun, but got real purpose as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and Heather touched on that as well is actually trying to, I suppose, report the types of litter that is out there and trying to get to the kind of source of that as well, which is important.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, it makes our life a lot easier if you can get to the source of the problem instead of us having to pick everything up all the time. But yeah, I think it's always going to be a need for cleanups as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And so what role do clean up efforts? Like you know, the spring clean events playing beyond adventures, commitment to the environment.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think, like I say, we've got lots of initiatives to try and help the environment.
Speaker 4:But one of the really cool things with you know the Keepscotland beautiful campaigns that were part of the Planet Patrol campaigns that were part of it's really just raising awareness as well.
Speaker 4:So you're not only getting out and you're helping out the environment directly, but if, say, 10 people come on a cleanup, they'll be talking about it as well, they'll be telling their friends about it and something like especially, you know we're in a pretty rural setting on the lovely part of the River Tay and to look at it just now, you think it was absolutely pristine. But it's not until you get on the water and you can actually see the amount of rubbish that's in there. And it's quite surprising sometimes the stuff that you pull out the river, you know, on the banks or on the water itself. And, yeah, it's a bit of a wake-up call for some people and especially you know we're quite proud to live in Aberfell do quite this section of Highland Persia. We always think it's absolutely stunning and unspoiled. But when you, you know, get the magnifying glass out, it's a lot can come out.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I'd say that raising of awareness is really important yeah, and just on that, what's the most unusual thing that you've found?
Speaker 4:now that you said that, I'm gonna have to ask you that, yeah, I mean all sorts of stuff we pull out from, like you know, bikes and things like that, and hundreds of bits of plastic and litter and everything like that. I mean, we did. We had really bad floods here in October and it wasn't part of a initial sorry, I wasn't part of an official litter pick but me and Frenchie, who met earlier, basically jumped on the water with her canoes and cleared up two canoes full of stuff. The caravan site up the upstream had got flooded and tents and tarps and everything got washed into the water and it was just unbelievable. So we're pulling out things like model boats and bale barrels and everything like that as well.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it was quite interesting and we're definitely reusing some of that so, yeah, well, in our stores there, well done you guys for getting out there and doing that. That would that would certainly be worthwhile doing.
Speaker 4:I mean, that's a that'd be a huge cleanup, that wouldn't it a whole tents and whatnot yeah it's, it's pretty disgusting, yeah it's manky work and but again, you see what you've taken out and you get like kind of sense of pride. You get that real sense of that you've done something good for the local community, because you can see everything hanging up in the trees after the floods receded again and it was it was a bit of an eyesore, but also you know, the environmental impact of that being washed down in the next flood would have been pretty catastrophic as well. So yeah it's, it's manky work, but we don't mind doing it absolutely.
Speaker 1:And how do you get you know people involved with the, the letter picking? Do you put posters up? Do you put online? You know how? Is it community obviously you know your staff participate or is it actually people you know doing the activities themselves, or all of the above?
Speaker 4:it's all the above. Yeah, so myself or staff are really keen to get involved as well, and it's really nice way to kind of give back to the area that gives us so much, you know. So it's where we play, it's where we work as well, and it's kind of the least that we can do and we put it on social media, it's on our website, everything like that, and I know keeps getting beautiful and planet patrol user on social media to put them forward. But I would say there's a there's a really nice community and really nice core of people in Aberfelde that keep on coming back as well and they see it as their responsibility to clean up the place that they live in as well. And so, yeah, word gets around and yeah, there's always people keen to roll their sleeves up, get on the water and, yeah, have a bit of a giggle while we do so. You know there's lots of. There's always tea, coffee and cake on offer.
Speaker 1:So it's a way to say. It's always a great incentive, isn't it? The, the teas and the coffees, yeah, and and how do you keep all this good stuff going? What do you do to educate and, I suppose, inspire your, your participants, to take action for nature? Obviously, they're seeing things out, you know when they're out on the water, but but how do you keep it going?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's. You know you can get a bit hacked off if you see you're particularly after that flood in October I talked about. It was, it was fairly disgusting, and you can get a real yeah, you can get a bit fed up. You don't want to go out there much more, but again you get a lot of kudos, a lot people say, oh thanks, guys, we've been looking at that, we've been wanting to do it and once you feel that kind of sense of appreciation that you're going out there and doing it, that gives you a bit more energy to go out there and do it again and I think as well it's. You know, it's funny.
Speaker 4:You're keep on coming back to this phrase of be bothered and you know, if you see something on the banks, you see something in the river, it's really easy just to turn a blind eye to it and just kind of go. Someday I'll still deal with that and but to be honest, it doesn't take a lot to just go out for half a day and to, you know, to be bothered to go out there and do something about it. And yeah, I think it's the state the the world is in general with environment and, you know, climate change. I think more people that will be bothered.
Speaker 1:It's going to make an improvement to everything, so let it by little yeah, yeah, absolutely spot on, and you know, we spoke about that as well, because even if, for instance, you're on a dog walk or you're out at lunch time, you know picking up one, two bits of litter, it's not a massive ask and and I think some people do think, oh well, it's not my litter and, as you say, somebody else will pick it up. But actually, just just pick it up, it's, it's easy. You know, be safe about it, obviously, but yeah, absolutely so. No, that's, that's really good to hear and obviously you've got a fantastic company here. How do you, how do you balance adventure and exploration with the need to to minimize the environmental impact?
Speaker 4:yeah, it's a really interesting one as well, I mean. So obviously we use vehicles to get to locations for you know our expeditions and for going out for day trips or whatever it might be, so using carbon offsetting for that and is really important to us. But I think the main one for us is also that kind of you know policy of leave no trace wherever you travel and choosing the locations that you go to. Obviously, after COVID there's a lot of suppress out there about hotspot areas that everybody was flocking to, places getting trashed and all the rest of it. Thankfully, there's been some great work to educate people about how to use the kind of rural areas of Scotland. But I also think because we're a commercial provider, it's we've got a huge responsibility to show best practice wherever we go and that could be simple. It's like you know going to you know proper car parking sites. It can be making sure that gets shut behind us.
Speaker 4:But if we were moving through the rural areas of Scotland and like camping along the way, it's like making sure you take everything out with you again, it's a really you know you carry all your stuff in, bring it all back out again. It should be a lighter rucksack or a lighter boat afterwards anyway, and yeah, I guess the everything is. It's like there's so many amazing places in Scotland you don't have to flock to the same place and so take, for instance, the Great Glenway and it's a beautiful. So it's a beautiful canoe trail, but just a couple of glands over. There's a really similar kind of journey that you can do there and you might not see anybody. I'm quite a social person, but you know, when I'm traveling through like an area like that, I like to be by myself or be with my group as well. I think it adds into that experience. So it's almost. We always try and choose areas that aren't getting overused, and that makes a real difference and I'm just thinking about other organizations, or you know the community.
Speaker 1:You've spoken about working with the community, but are there any other partnerships that you have going with local businesses or organizations that that are councils as well, that support your sustainability efforts?
Speaker 4:yeah, absolutely, and so I talked about carbon offsetting there as well. So there's a fantastic new company opening just down the river from us, called Call of the Wild, and so Hamish and Liberty are starting rewilding their estate that they've taken over there as well, and we've always used trees for life, which is an amazing work up in kindergarten Africa area and replanting the native woodlands, but I've always been wanting to do something locally as well, so we're working with Hamish and Liberty to choose the trees that we plant really carefully, so we're not only offsetting our carbon, but creating habitats for the wildlife up there as well. So I think we're going up there in two weeks time to start planting for this year, and so we've got something something crazy about 400 trees that we're putting on the ground, but doing it in a way that is actually improving the area for the local wildlife as well.
Speaker 1:That's brilliant, that's great to hear, and obviously these partnerships are so important, you know, for the benefit of nature and climate, and you know, I suppose you know litter picking is a great way to clean up areas. But you know, it's the question we could all ask anyone and everybody. But how do we, how do we stop people littering in the first place? I mean, schools obviously play a part, education does too, but it's not just kids. So what else can we do?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's always a tricky one, isn't it? I think, through Keeps Calling Beautiful, I've been to quite a few the local schools around here, so I give it my time. We take all the litter picking stuff going out. The kids absolutely love it. I mean it's like they have an absolute hoolly and it's like a competition to see who can get the most in the stretch of river. But to be honest, I don't know if it's because we're in a rural setting, but the kids are pretty clued into it already. You know they don't drop litter. They understand the importance of keeping the area play sorry, the area they live in tidy as well. You know, obviously we've got a road just behind our base that leads into Aberfelde and a lot of stuff that gets chucked out a car window still is absolutely unbelievable, and for me it's the people that do that. They won't be following our social media. They won't be following, you know, the government advice about what to do, how to tidy up or anything like that. I think that's the real challenge. It's getting through to the people who, yeah, sorry, we've got Heron getting attacked here in front of us absolute carnage yeah, heron is actually getting chased by seagulls, and there's another thing there's an oyster catcher in there somewhere, as well
Speaker 4:but wow yeah so watch your microphone. But I think for us it's it's finding ways of reaching those people. But there's after COVID, you know, with the whole dirty camping problem that you mean. The ranger service up here is fantastic now and they'll. You know we work closely with them so if we see a campsite that's been abandoned or a place that's been trashed, we can in contact them. They'll go and clear that up, which isn't a way it should be, but it's a great step in right direction. But they can also walk up to people are camping by roadside or by locks and start chatting to those guys as well and say there's a binge just over there. Or, you know, take you, fill up your car again as you drive back out again, and it's just a little by little. Hopefully that word will spread, yeah, but it should probably talk about the new facility just behind us as well, and so we've worked with the person.
Speaker 4:Can Ross council visit Scotland and the countryside trust breath, can Ross countryside trust, and that is a facility and not only for getting changed in the things. So if you come off the river and you finish the Rob Roy where the River Tiwi and you can get changed, have a shower and things like that. There's public toilets there. There's camper van waste disposal, because that was a big thing that was lacking in the area and I didn't want to know where people were pouring their waste before that, but that's an opportunity for people to do that, and there's also public bins there now as well, so instead of people just having to put in a rucksack, there's one. These stops along the way that you can actually get rid of that as well. So it's been a fantastic project with lots of people working on it, and to give that infrastructure to Scotland's, because it's getting more popular and popular. You have to get here as well, and it's giving people the the right tools for doing the right thing as well.
Speaker 1:So, yes, it's providing them, making it easier for them as opposed, yeah, definitely okay, now that's great and they're lovely facilities I did have a wee nosy about earlier. So yeah, looking good and. But yeah, and what about any success stories or memorable moments you know, related to litter picking? Obviously you've said about finding various things in the water and whatnot, and also, has there been a noticeable difference in the area?
Speaker 4:yeah, I think. Certainly after COVID we saw lots and lots more people camping here. That was a big problem back at the time and back in 2021 seems like a million years, years away now. But I think, generally speaking, it is getting a tidier place. It is, you know, we're saying that. We're sitting next to the river. There's a yellow bin bag cut off on a tree. It's driving me insane. I keep on looking. I'd rather get my boat and go and get that later on, but generally speaking, it is getting like a tidier area and I think pollution is lower every year and our cleanups also make an impact on that. But hopefully that is people that are starting to use area properly.
Speaker 4:In terms of success stories, it's yeah, obviously, when we cleaned up after the flood, that was a huge thing, because I've been driving the whole community and saying the amount of rubbish that was in the river. But I think also just after every litter pick, it's seen people's faces and you know that kind of sense of satisfaction that you've spent two or three hours you've been outside, you've had a bit of a giggle and tried not to take things too seriously, but also, at the end, whether the council comes and picks up the rubbish or we put it into recycling or put into the bins, wherever it might be. It's just that kind of glow that people get afterwards that they've done something really worthwhile with their day.
Speaker 1:That's brilliant. It's been lovely meeting you, ross, and you know I wish you all the best with the, with your business and what's going on here. It's fantastic and it does look absolutely amazing and the Sun has come out, we have blue sky, there's blue sky. It's official yeah, so thanks again.
Speaker 4:You're more than welcome. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying makespace for nature, please follow it on your podcast app and leave a review or rating. We'd also love you to tell more people about the series. For more ways to connect with and help protect Scotland's natural world, go to naturescot.