Get Involved

There’s lots of positive action you can take by reducing your use of plastics, and getting involved with the clean up. With the majority of the litter originating on land we’re all responsible, so help us to clean up our act!

The Scottish-wide ‘SCRAPbook’ – Scottish Coastal Rubbish Aerial Photography – involves pilots and observers taking to the skies to photograph areas of the coastline where they spot litter or pollution. This concept, first devised by the Moray Firth Partnership, has developed into a national collaboration with Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol and the Marine Conservation Society.

Take a look at SCRAPbook to see where the worst of the coastal litter is.

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Get out and clean up

There are a number of local groups running beach clean events, or you could make litter picking part of every beach outing.

We encourage all volunteers to follow the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) Beachwatch method and making a note of the type of litter that you find for a 100 metre stretch of your clean. Using the Beachwatch method means that all the information gathered becomes part of a valuable data set that shows what the litter is, and where the priorities for action lie. The MCS Great British Beach Clean report for 2017, gives a breakdown of what volunteers collected.

As a result of 20 years of data gathering MCS have been able to see that legislation can rapidly have a positive impact, with the 5p charge for plastic bags resulting in a 40% drop in the number appearing in beach cleans.

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Organising a coastal clean up

Carry out a site check to see what access is like and the type of litter you’ll be collecting.

2. Identify your rubbish

Small items like you would put in your everyday rubbish, can be bagged up and your local authority will usually be willing to collect it from an agreed point. BUT you must contact them several weeks BEFORE your planned clean up, so that they can schedule in an uplift.

In Highland contact: www.highland.gov.uk/request The Waste Awareness team is available to provide information on waste and recycling. This includes presentations to community groups and Schools while incorporating fun activities to increase awareness about effective waste management. The team also has litter picking equipment which can be borrowed with prior arrangement, all services on offer are of course free of charge. Please get in touch for more information at recycle@highland.gov.uk

In Moray contact: waste@moray.gov.uk

Large items will have to go in a skip or taken to a local recycling or scrapyard. This will cost money – but the small grant funders or local business sponsorship might be able to help.

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3. Advertise with posters, press releases and social media to make sure everyone knows about your clean up plans.

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4. Let us know what you’ve done

Post a picture to the MFP facebook page, or drop us a line and a photograph to tell us about your clean up and we’ll help to spread the word.

Take a look at the Cromarty Firth litter action page for some ideas of what might work in your area.

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Fundraise

You might find that you have costs for your clean up – for example, litter pick up equipment, containers, bags, printing and collection costs if you have large items in your coastal rubbish. We’ve put together a handy guide to some of the small grants available that can help you to buy the equipment you need to run your coastal clean up . If you’d like to do a more thorough search Funding Scotland is the place to look.

Coop bank Community Donation Fund As long as you’re a Community Directplus account holder you’re eligible to apply for up to £1,000 from the Customer Donation Fund to support special projects and fundraising activities.

Greggs foundation Local Community Projects Fund awards grants of up to £2,000 to enable not for profit organisations to do something they otherwise couldn’t afford to. The foundation only works with specific communities of interest – which you can check on their website.

Macleod and MacCallum, Inverness solicitors and estate agents. Awards annual grants, in 2018 this is “Mini Mac” Grants of £500 each and one “Mighty Mac” Grant of £1,000.

Neighbourly A fundraising giving platform connecting charities, businesses and communities

Pebble Trust Based in the Highlands, the Pebble Trust has a vision of a more sustainable, equal and low-carbon society, where constraints on fossil fuels lead to a more localised economy with stronger, more resilient, communities, and where human activities take account of climate change and the wider environment. Grants of up to £5,000 are awarded

Scotmid Cooperative community grant fund Small, one-off grants of up to £500 are available for the benefit of local communities around Scotmid stores.

Sea Changers Has a specific fund to address marine litter issues, with the following objectives:

To address the root causes of marine litter in the UK.
To prevent or reduce marine litter impacting on UK coastal and marine environments and/or species.
To add to the body of knowledge about the nature and impact of marine litter in the UK.

They allocate grants twice a year. Deadlines are 31st March and 30th September.

Tesco Bags for Help grant scheme accepts applications from community groups, schools, local authorities and not-for-profit organisations. You can now apply at any time for funding between £1000 – £4000 for a wide range of indoor and outdoor projects that benefit your local community.

WHSmith Trust The WHSmith Trust is an independent registered charity (registered charity no: 1013782) that aims to support good causes in the local communities where WHSmith operates, and also to promote literacy and a love of reading. The WHSmith Trust offers grants of up to £500 to voluntary organisations and schools from the proceeds of the compulsory carrier bag levies across the UK. Grants are awarded every six months to charities, schools and community groups of any size, provided they support the community in the UK.

WREN Offers funding of between £2,000 and £100,000 to projects through the Scottish Landfill Communities Fund. You must be within 10 miles of a current or former landfill site to be eligible for this fund.

Let us know if you find out about other funders.

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Other marine litter campaign groups

Join other MCS marine rubbish campaigns or campaigns run by other organisations including:

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Get in touch

You can find out more about how to get involved by emailing your interest in helping around the Moray Firth to info@morayfirth-partnership.org

We can help with promoting beach cleans if you send details to us by email, or post them directly to our facebook page.