Hero of the Month Award Announced for Clean Up Scotland

 

Former Scottish Government Minister, Jim Mather, was presented with the prestigious Clean Up Scotland “Hero of the Month Award” award in recognition of his tireless efforts to clean up roadside litter.

The current Homes for Scotland chairman has, for a number of years, witnessed the detrimental impact that roadside litter can have on Scotland’s precious scenery. This has led him to regularly collect rubbish from local beauty spot Drynie Hill on the A861 – improving what he considers one of Scotland’s most stunning landscapes.

On receiving the award, he commented: “As a keen cyclist I see the litter accumulating at the side of the road up close and personal. I collect rubbish from some of the most stunning and precious landscapes in the West Highlands – particularly Drynie Hill, above Acharacle on the A861. That road perennially wins hearts and return visits – however in recent years those visits can be soured and spoiled by litter and other detritus.

“I welcome all the endeavours of Keep Scotland Beautiful and others, and hope that we can get the issue of roadside litter much further up the public policy agenda, triggering much more effective interventions.”

The Clean Up Scotland Hero award is supported by Helping Hand Environmental which provides each Hero with a Clean Up kit – including a new Scottish litter picker and handy hoop.

He was also commended by Derek Robertson, Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, who said: “I would like to congratulate Jim for setting a fantastic example and demonstrating how an individual’s commitment to litter picking can go a long way. His efforts have helped to deliver outstanding results and have helped to protect and restore our precious landscape.

“I welcome his call for further intervention in order to change behaviour towards littering. National and local politicians need to seriously consider whether Scotland can continue to neglect such an important issue and Scotland would benefit from strong leadership to ensure that behaviour is changed nationwide.”

 

 

Helping Hand & Aston Villa Football Club Join Forces for Great British Spring Clean

 

The Aston Villa Foundation linked up with Helping Hand Environmental, Birmingham City County for a community action event as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s ‘GB Spring Clean’ initiative.

Young people and adults came together from Birmingham City Council Ladywood Neighbourhood office Housing and Street Scene teams, Helping Hand Environmental, Sanctuary Supported Living, Aston Parish Church Boys Brigade and Beacon Youth Club, to collect litter in the area around Villa Park, following the victory against Sheffield Wednesday the previous day.

The GB Spring Clean initiative started in 2015 with the aim of bringing together people to clean up the litter in villages, towns and cities across the country.

With local events for this year’s GB Spring Clean aiming to get 500,000 people involved, the Aston Villa Foundation and Birmingham City Council were keen to promote social responsibility and a sense of pride among young people living around Villa Park.

Guy Rippon, Head of Foundation said “This was a fantastic event, which brought young people and adults together from several organisations – all from a variety of different backgrounds.

“All of them had one thing in common, in that they wanted to be proactive in making the local area cleaner.

“It was a really good example of how a number of organisations can work together and have an impact, purely through a willingness to just get on and make things happen.

“The Aston Villa Foundation want to make community action programmes regular calendar events throughout the year, all with a view to having a positive impact on the community in and around Villa Park.”

In total the volunteers collected 43 sacks of rubbish in just 90 minutes, leaving the streets around the stadium noticeably cleaner.

Helping Hand Environmental Product Manager, Rachael Cordell supported the event along with her daughter Millie who became the campaign mascot!

Anti-Litter Poster Competition Earns School £600 Worth of Prizes

 

Caring and creative, Sean Hughes of Bankhead Primary School, has won £600 worth of prizes in an anti-litter poster competition.

Sean of P7/6 bagged the prize for his school after designing the winning entry in the competition run by city’s Environmental Task Force. He will now see his poster emblazoned on a banner to be erected at the Knightswood school urging people to take pride in their community and to bin their rubbish.

The Caldwell Street school has also won two planters made from recycled wood by Community Safety Glasgow as well as a fantastic Handicart and litter picking kit donated by Helping Hand Environmental.

Four other schools from the Drumchapel and Garscadden areas which took part in the competition have also won 15 litter pickers and kit bags costing around £150 each. They are Knightswood Secondary School, Yoker Primary, St Clare’s Primary and Corpus Christi Primary.

Almost 300 entries were received from schools in the Drumchapel and Garscadden areas. The contest was funded by the local area partnership via the Integrated Grants Fund.

Councillor Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of the Environmental Task Force, congratulated the pupils on their fantastic posters.

He said: “All the posters were brilliant and I’d like to thanks the schools for taking part. Special congratulations to Sean for creating the winning design and taking the top prize. I know about all the hard work that schools do around sustainability and the environment and it is great to see the city’s young people spreading the message that it is never OK to drop litter. Well done to everyone who took part and for supporting the work of the Environmental Task Force.”

Glasgow’s Environmental Task Force was launched last June and in its first six months, staff removed almost 3000 tons of rubbish which had been dropped in the city and almost 12 acres of graffiti. The Task Force has also enhanced 500 sites and removed 14,000 fly-tipping incidents. During the same period, the city’s pupils also carried out 500 litter picks in and around their schools.

Alistair Burnage of Helping Hand Environmental said: “As a business who pride ourselves in supporting community engagement initiatives across Scotland. We are extremely honoured to be involved in this competition which recognises and inspires young people to keep their local environment clean; highlighting the instrumental work of the Environmental Task Force.”

Save The Cow Project

Limberg.net is joining forces with Plattelandsklassen and The Helping Hand Company to save Belgium Cows! The project Save the Cow will encourage outdoor education and an improved awareness of environmental issues effecting rural areas in Flanders and will be sponsored by Flanders Public Waste Agency OVAM.

Annick De Pape, Limberg project coordinator said “A key goal of the project is to highlight the problem of roadside litter ending up in the food chain of livestock. This results in many dead animals and is particularly prevalent in the around rural farming areas of the Limberg province in Flanders.

We are keen to increase the public’s awareness of this issue by organising big clean ups from 17th-19th March in all of the 45 cities within our jurisdiction. This action will encourage children between the ages of 9 and 11 to focus on the environmental impact of littering and provide a greater understanding of the regional problem of cows and other livestock dying because they are consuming debris. Children will be issued with limited edition cow design litterpickers supplied by The Helping Hand Company and certificates with local schools being encouraged to produce a film of their activity. The school that produces the best film will be awarded a winning school banner and group school clean up kit courtesy of The Helping Hand Company”.

More than 21,000 volunteers over the course of the three days are anticipated from school children to youth movement (scout, sports, clubs, cultural organisations etc)

Limberg.net is an intercommunal organisation of 45 cities in the Flemmish province Limburg, founded in 2005. Responsible for waste collection but also for the provision of information and organising activities throughout the year to promote litter prevention and sustainability.