Get trashed this week?!

Have you seen the ‘Flingin’s Mingin’ slogan this week?

It’s promoting the first ever Litter Week of Action (19-25 August) – a campaign aimed to clean up, and promote awareness of, the amount of litter built up around the country’s transport systems.

Litter is a growing problem around the UK’s transport infrastructure, did you know…

• In total, more than 13,000 tonnes of litter is picked up from the London Underground each year – the equivalent weight of 50 Metropolitan line trains
• In Britain 23% of people are likely to litter from their car
• On average, over 1800 tonnes of litter are cleared from the sides of Scotland’s road and rail routes every year – enough to fill two Olympic-sized swimming pools
• In April 2013, almost 4,000 hours were spent clearing litter from motorways in Glasgow and the surrounding area alone. Coming in at a cost of around £60,000 for just one month, enough to resurface around six kilometres of road

The negative impact and cost of transport litter is astronomical and needs addressing and there’s no better time to focus on it!

Why not consider your own activities – targeting staff, customers, the community or students.  This may be as simple as adding a web banner to your website, or covering the topic on your Facebook page.

Zero Waste Scotland is leading the campaign and can provide a range of supporting messaging and materials to help support your action. Visit Zero Waste Scotland for more information.