School and adventurers take part in litter pick

30 September 2016

School pupils, council staff and a team of adventurers took part in a litter pick today (30 Sept) by canoe alongside a beautiful stretch of river near Aberdeen city centre.

The four youngsters from Riverbank School, the ACC Environment Service, and from ACC’s Adventure Aberdeen showed how a little bit of effort can make a big difference to the banks of the River Dee.

Despite huge efforts from the public, land owners, councils, canoe clubs and corporate interests over the last year, there was still debris in the river from Storm Frank and litter also easily gathers in rivers and ends up on the banks.

The Clean Up Aberdeen team picked litter off the banks of the River Dee and put it into canoes to be taken away and sorted.

Aberdeen City Council Communities, Housing and Infrastructure vice convener Councillor Jean Morrison said: “This is a fantastic effort by the pupils at Riverbank School and the two City Council teams.

“We really appreciated extra effort put in by community groups, organisations and companies to help keep our city clean and beautiful.”

The council’s Environment Services team undertake a litter pick every month in different parts of the city, and it along with Adventure Aberdeen spend a lot of time working with the public and schools on the importance of keeping Aberdeen litter-free.

Clean Up Aberdeen is part of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s national campaign to encourage communities, businesses and residents to join forces to help stop litter from being dropped on the ground and to make it a socially unacceptable practise in our city. The national campaign is aimed at making Scotland the cleanest country in Europe.

People or groups wanting to take part should register via www.cleanupscotland.com/pledge. For more details, or to get help organising an event in the city, call 01224 219281 or email cleanaberdeen@aberdeencity.gov.uk.