Fife Street Champions is an enthusiastic group of members of the public who volunteer their time to clear up the litter that blights our local landscape.
Supported by the Safer Communities team at Fife Council, who can provide litter pickers and waste bags to willing volunteers (just email the team at safercommunities.team@fife.gov.uk) the Street Champions keep track of the amount of litter collected in their thriving facebook group. The group estimate that in 2020 they filled 10,397 bin bags of rubbish, and in January this year they collected 1,918 face masks, of which 130 were reusable.
Thanks to this committed crew of litter pickers our streets are cleaner and safer. Whether picking up discarded PPE or dog poo bags, everyone volunteering their time to help tackle local litter is bringing a huge benefit to our communities.
At the same time it is shocking to see how much litter has been collected over the last 12 months. It's the equivalent of nearly thirty bags of rubbish being thrown on the ground every day of the year. Every piece of litter in every one of those 10,397 bags has been deliberately dropped by someone who just doesn't care about the mess they're making, or about the risks many kinds of litter can cause to wildlife and sometimes to pets. I would encourage others to get involved with the group, but even more so I ask all Fifers to clean up after themselves and either bag and bin their rubbish, or take it home to be disposed of safely.
In the meantime I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say to our Street Champions: thank you for all your hard work.