Close to 1000 bin bags worth of lockdown litter picked up in Elgin

A volunteer group are taking Elgin's litter into their own hands.

The Positive Action Group was started by Paul Hay in January, after getting fed up of the amount of rubbish left out across the town's streets and pathways.

They've been filling 80 bin bags worth of litter each week, and say their total now stands at 957 since starting.

Despite being annoyed at the amount of litter, Paul's happy to see the group expand to 30 volunteers.

He said: "A lot of people are really angry about it because a lot of this has either been fly-tipping or just general waste that is being chucked away.

"Juice bottles, face masks, just anything, we're finding it all over the streets.

"Even though we're picking up rubbish, everybody seems so happy.

"A lot of people in our group are maybe single and have been isolated a lot during this covid lockdown.

"They're getting to go out for a walk, even if it's just to say hello to someone different.

"We've done the local parks, we've done the local forestry as well.

"Since the start of the year we have collected 957 bags of rubbish.

"That's not including all the bicycle frames, bed frames, everything else we've taken.

"We're picking areas where it's really bad, where it has been neglected for a few years.

"So in these bigger areas we're getting bigger amounts of rubbish.

"Once we get back round them, the volume of bags will become smaller because we've already kept on top of these areas."

He also praised Moray Council for helping the group out by providing litter picking tools and a slot at their recycling centre.

Moray Council’s Waste Manager, Mike Neary has thanked the group.

He said: "We supplied the group with litter-picking equipment, and guaranteed slots at our recycling centre to dispose of the waste.

"A huge thanks for their hard work – of course the most helpful thing everyone can do is to take their litter home with them if there’s no bin, or bins are full."