Hundreds of volunteers collected thousands of items in a 24-hour litter pick across dozens of areas in Aberdeen.
The annual event – with the aim of making the city more sparklingly clean in the summer months – had 37 separate clean-ups from organisations including primary and secondary schools, community groups, and individuals.
It involves litter picks starting every hour over 24 hours from midnight to midnight and included Tall Ship volunteers doing a session to ensure the city is ship shape in time for next month’s event.
Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader Councillor Ian Yuill said: “It’s good that so many groups came out to help keep our city looking sparkling clean.
“Council staff work hard to keep our city clean and tidy. Unfortunately they cannot be everywhere at the same time so the action taken by these communities, groups, workplaces, and individuals makes a big difference.”
Aberdeen City Council Net Zero, Environment and Transport Committee convener Councillor Miranda Radley said: “We’d prefer if people didn’t litter in the first place as it is bad for the environment and makes our city look unattractive. We are all responsible for keeping our city beautiful. This effort can be as simple as picking up litter outside our front gates every day, or a bigger effort such as litter picks carried out by dozens of groups throughout the year.
“These organised litter-pick events really do make a huge difference to local communities and help foster pride in our beautiful city.”
The 393 participants in the Aberdeen City Council-organised event managed to fill 197 black bin bags across the 37 clean-ups.
This year’s event was started by ACC’s library services team at midnight on Wednesday followed by ACC’s environmental services staff, countryside rangers, and tree squads doing the early hours and then by the other groups every hour.
Areas which benefitted included Morningside, Garthdee, Mastrick, Hazlehead, Summerhill, Tillydrone, Kincorth, Bucksburn, West End, Airyhall, city centre, Heathryfold, Garthdee, Cove, Powis, Torry, Seaton, Rosemount, Stockethill, Donmouth, Northfield, Fittie, and the beachfront.
Other groups taking part this year included Riverbank School, Kirkhill School, Bucksburn Academy, Bright Horizons, Airyhall School, Phoenix Futures, Hazlehead Primary, Keep Middlefield Clean, Tall Ships volunteers, Charleston School, St Machar Academy, Loirston School, Boat Club, Fresh Community Wellness, Friends of Victoria and Westburn Parks, Ashgrove and Stockethill
Community Council, ACC Green Champions, Northfield Community Centre, Kincorth and Leggart Community Council, Friends of St Fittick's Park. Members of the public took part in litter picks at Torry Battery, Fittie, and the beachfront.
The places the groups picked litter up from included school grounds, pitches, car parks, golf course woods, streets, green spaces, parks, along the River Dee, community centre grounds, and near the Tall Ships site.
The event is part of the year-round Clean Up Aberdeen campaign which encourages people not to litter in the first place, and also provides equipment for groups wanting to organise a litter pick. For more details, or to get help organising an event, go to Clean Up Aberdeen | Aberdeen City Council.