South Ayrshire Clean-up Campaign

17/03/2022

Get involved!

The Big Annual Big Clean is on Sat 26 March 2022. It takes place over more than a dozen beaches on the Ayrshire Coast. Most of these are managed and led by Ayr Rotary Club but other beaches are organised by the Rotary Clubs of Prestwick and Alloway, SAC’s Belleisle Rangers, and other community groups.
Volunteers will be provided with bags but please bring your own litter-picker if possible since these will likely be in short supply. Please also wear stout shoes/boots and gloves.
Please check the link to see where you can meet. https://rotaryclubofayr.org/2022-rotary-ayrshire-coastal-path-beach-clean-3/

25/01/2022

In the first year of the campaign, volunteers removed 1,020,487 pieces of litter from South Ayrshire

📆 This incluides all litter recorded between the 25/01/2021 and 24/01/2022

This does not include:
🚮 litter removed by volunteers and not recorded with the campaign
🚮 litter removed by South Ayrshire Council from the road network and neighbourhoods
🚯litter not removed

17/01/2022

Why does our data matter?

Everyone has an opinion on litter, but how do we tackle it?

With over 1,600 recorded picks, we can start seeing the true picture of littering and the impact of volunteer litter picks.

For instance, on a half-mile stretch of one street in Prestwick, 37 unique picks have been recorded, with an average 371 pieces being removed each time. Most concerningly the trend line is starting to point up!

This is a distributor road, and data recorded throughout the year suggests as much litter is dropped out of vehicle windows (such as drive-thru wrappers) as is left on pavements by people walking. There are at least five bins situated along this stretch of road, all of which are frequently emptied.

So what is the solution? Would litter cameras work?

16/01/2022

We've reached a million pieces, but the count goes on.
In week 51 volunteers removed 32,001 pieces of litter from South Ayrshire.

Many thanks to the volunteers from Maybole, Crosshill, Girvan, Maidens and Ayr who turned out for the Ballantrae pick which removed over 10,000 pieces - remarkable!

16/01/2022

In the last year we have removed over 1,000,000 pieces of litter. Every sack pilled up would be twice the height of Ben Nevis.

If you add all the litter that public services remove, the litter mountain would be as high as Mont Blanc.

EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF LITTER CONTRIBUTES TO THIS MESS
please share and help us spread the message.

15/01/2022

Never take volunteers for granted

15/01/2022

Round of applause everyone!

15/01/2022

Volunteers have recorded 1,657 unique litter picks in the last 356 days.
This provides a big set of data.
Our first priority will be to clean it up to ensure any personal information is removed before making it publically available.
However, it is already telling stories...

15/01/2022

🏁🏁🏁Mission accomplished! 🎉🎉🎉

1,000,092 pieces of litter removed by volunteers in South Ayrshire in 356 days

14/01/2022

The sea has washed in huge amounts of plastic debris in the last couple weeks.

There will be a group pick led by Helen Currie Gallacher north of Ballantrae tomorrow - details below in case you can join in!

"Can you spare an hour or two help us? Just bring something to collect the rubbish in, good gloves and a picker if you have one. I will try and get some council bags from the recycling centre.
High tide is 10:15am but as the majority of the litter is well above the current tide line access to it is good.
We will be parking on the old road at the bottom of Bennane Brae, as you know there is good access to the beach there.
EVERYONE WELCOME"

12/01/2022

8,943 pieces to go!

Another huge day, with picks at Ayr Hospital, Troon, Barassie, Croy, Maybole, Prestwick and Ayr

We've got this 👏

09/01/2022

T-2 weeks - our bin is almost full!
20,444 pieces to go before volunteers will have removed 1 MILLION pieces of litter from South Ayrshire