Collective effort sees 325 tonnes of litter picked throughout campaign Almost 50,000 bags of litter were picked during this year’s Spring Clean Scotland as people across the country rolled up their sleeves to tackle the litter emergency.
Organised by environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful, Spring Clean Scotland is the country’s largest coordinated mass litter picking activity.
Taking place over four weeks from 21 March to 21 April, more than 33,000 people – including 18,000 young people – took part in one of 2,600 events covering every local authority area in Scotland.
Dalbeattie Primary School were the winners of the Litter League Scotland South award, with 23 children collecting 37 bags of litter.
The Litter League, a competition for young people to get involved and compete for clean-up glory, returned for a third year. The national trophy was won by B-Dale Explorer Scouts in West Lothian.
Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Darren Burns was recognised for his significant contribution to this year’s campaign success with a #SpringCleanScotland Heroes award.
Barry Fisher, Chief Executive at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “We know there is a litter emergency in Scotland, but we also know there are people in every community across the country who are determined to take action and deal with the issue.
“Spring Clean Scotland gives us an opportunity to spearhead a collective effort to make a noticeable difference, inspiring as many people as possible to help clean up Scotland and we thank Darren for his brilliant efforts.
“I’m so impressed to see that more than half of our volunteers this year were young people. It’s so inspiring to see the younger generation already taking notice and action of the litter issue in their communities. Congratulations to Dalbeattie Primary School for their Litter League win!
“A huge part of Spring Clean is recognising those who have taken part, told us about their activities and helped us understand the depth of the problem we’re facing. But we also know that there are thousands more who don’t share their efforts and have made litter picking part of their daily life.
“To everyone who has played a part, however big or small, thank you for keeping Scotland beautiful.”
Alex Howie, Depute Head Teacher at Dalbeattie Primary School, said: “We are really proud of our families and their young people in Dalbeattie who gave up their own time to make this possible. Everyone who took part did a great job seeking out the areas which most needed tidied. In particular we would also like to mention the help of Dalbeattie Scouts, The Rotakids and the Rotary Club, along with our eco committee. This is the icing on the cake of our recent 9th Eco flag award.”
Councillor Maureen Johnstone, Chair of the council’s Education, Skills and Community Wellbeing Committee said: “I’m delighted that our council provides local co-ordination the national Keep Scotland Beautiful Spring Clean campaign.
“Once again one of our schools has won the Litter League award for the Scotland South region, so I extend a huge congratulations to the pupils, staff and community of Dalbeattie Primary School.
“I am further delighted that our lead officer for the Spring Clean campaign in Dumfries and Galloway, Darren Burns, has received the Keep Scotland Beautiful Spring Clean Scotland Hero Award for his significant contribution the Spring Clean campaign.
“For the past three years, Darren has co-ordinated the Spring Clean campaign, with invaluable support from our council’s Community Assets, Community Safety, Environmental Health, Ward Working and Youth Work teams.
“However, we all know that the real success of the campaign lies with the thousands of dedicated volunteers who take part each year, cleaning up our pavements, parks, beaches and beyond. This year alone, we hosted 424 events with 9,476 volunteers collecting 1,315 bags of rubbish. We provided litter-picking kits and ensured every bag was collected by our Community Assets team.
“The volunteers’ commitment to keeping our communities clean and beautiful is nothing short of inspiring. My heartfelt thanks go to each and every one of them.”
The #SpringCleanScotland 2025 Report, celebrating this year’s fantastic campaign, is available to view here: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/sx1j2yrv/spring-clean-report-20205-final-040625.pdf
#SpringCleanScotland is one of our activities which compliments and supports the objectives of the Scottish Government’s National Litter and Flytipping Strategy and the Marine Litter Strategy.
Keep Scotland Beautiful has a Community Litter eLearning module to help people learn about littering issues in Scotland and how to investigate a first step to tackle litter in communities. A certificate of achievement will be received after completing the 90 minute course. Find out more: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/local-environmental-quality-training/community-litter-elearning-module/
The Community Litter Hub also has a number of resources for people looking to tackle the litter emergency: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/community-litter-hub/
