top of page

This article was done after I had had enough of people throwing their litter down the hillside beside a stone bench located on the main path between the green gates at Campbell Avenue in Dumbarton and Overtoun House (which was featured in the 2012 Blockbuster 'Cloud Atlas') at the top of the path. It read:

 

Headline: "Swat the litter bugs"

 

"Since mid-August last year (2014),

I have been clearing away 

litter from the Overtoun

Estate woods because it is

blighting the area.

Passers-by have complained 

to me that it is a shame that West

Dunbartonshire Council took away

the bins from the main path between

Overtoun House and the green gates 

at Campbell Avenue.

Since taking up this task, the

amount of litter seen in the woods

has gone down significantly, but for

other parts, there is still a long way

to go.

There are different theories for how

the litter ends up in the woods

in the first place, in particular the

hillside beside the stone bench.

These include careless hikers or

tourists not putting their litter in the

bins, junkies and neds (non-educated deliquents) drinking on the

bench and deliberately throwing

their litter down; people starting

camp fires in the woods and not

taking their litter home; adolescents 

trying out alcohol but leaving the 

containers lying around; dog walkers

either deliberately or accidentally

leaving poop bags lying around;

and children dropping the litter because 

their parents do it.

Apart from the fact that I recently

had to go down the slippery hillside

to collect the tons of bottles and

cans that are currently beside the

stone bench (they were since cleared 5 days later by the Council), I was featured in a 

Facebook post on the Project Schone

Schie Facebook page which has

so far attracted 230 likes and an

overwhelmingly positive response in

the comments section.

Project Schone Schie is run by

Dutchman Tommy Kleyn, who was

featured in a news report that has

gone viral all over the world to which

he was so sick of seeing his canal 

near Rotterdam being littered that

he took it upon himself to clean it up

for 30 minutes every day and soon

he recruited over 180 people to do

the same thing. Since contacting Mr

Kleyn about my efforts to clear away

the litter, I have become the first Scot

to be featured in his news feed.

I am raising awareness of the

environmental problems are in these

woods and, hopefully, we can all take

action to take care of where we live

as well as help to clean up the place

you are more proud to see in its pure

beauty."

 

bottom of page