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."