Clean-up nets a large litter haul

LITTER destined to spoil the Ross-shire landscape has been carted off to landfill after a team of offenders on community service took to sites across the area to tackle the rubbish menace.

More than 100 bags of rubbish were removed from open areas around Ross-shire over the course of a week thanks to the scheme which allows offenders to work for the benefit of communities.

The Community Payback Team based in Alness had specifically targeted plastic in its latest clean-up blitz, with offenders who have signed up for the scheme supervised throughout.

The programme allows offenders given community payback orders through the courts to carry out the unpaid work close to where they live.

Due to the large area covered by the team, it was decided to extend the clean-up over the period of a week.

A spokeswoman for the scheme told the North Star: "Although a lot of the work was carried out on beaches in the area, it was not limited to this.

"Plastic was the target, but we obviously picked up other types of litter as we came across it.

"A total of 110 bags were collected."

The clean-up came amid growing awareness of the damage single-use plastic is doing to the marine environment.

Publicity generated by the BBC series Blue Planet II sparked a host of campaigns across the country aimed at cutting back on the plastics.

In Ullapool, local school children were successful with their campaign for businesses in the village to scrap the used of straws and other single-use plastics.

And elsewhere, a growing number of people are now picking up at least three pieces of plastic every time they visit a beach – an idea which has generated plenty of talk online and won the backing of some of the Highlands’ countryside rangers.