We are calling for an urgent commitment to make Scotland ‘litter-ate’
We've published a new report on Scotland’s local environmental quality highlighting an avalanche of evidence from its audits from the past two decades which points to a looming litter emergency – hidden in plain sight.
We are calling for eight urgent actions to make Scotland ‘litter-ate’ and are urging key stakeholders and communities to join efforts to change the way we behave to tackle unacceptable levels of litter, dog fouling, graffiti, weeds and detritus.
The report ‘Time for a new approach to tackling litter’ highlights an accelerating decline in standards from 2013 to 2020 - with only 16% of audited sites being recorded as litter free last year compared to 31% in 2013, and dog fouling now found on 3% more streets that in 2013. In addition, results also showed a more marked decline in Scotland’s poorest neighbourhoods.
Local environmental quality standards in Scotland were already in decline before the pandemic, now nine months on, as we rely on good quality neighbourhoods for our health and wellbeing, our polling has highlighted that 30% of people believe the overall condition of their local neighbourhood deteriorated during lockdown.
Yet, despite the impact of this ‘lockdown effect’, where people have noticed an increase in the severity and prevalence of poor environmental quality, improved connections have been made with the environment and local neighbourhoods. And, positively, we have worked with others to tackle the rise in flytipping, dog fouling and littering during a challenging year. Building on this as we enter a new year is key to tackling the behaviours behind the looming litter emergency.
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Posted On: 15/12/2020