A rubbish tale

Loch Lomond NNR

Please don’t toss your rubbish away but take it home and dispose of it responsibly. Tossers are not welcome on the reserve.

Spring is a good time to clear up all of the accumulated litter on the reserve as the vegetation is down so it is all the more obvious. So staff and volunteers have had a couple of clear-ups, out on Torrinch and Cerinch and also along the shore of the mainland reserve at the Crom Mhin. and you won’t believe how much rubbish we have had to pick up. 21 bin bags f rubbish. That is a whole trailer full. Every single piece has been carelessly discarded by someone. Much of it is plastic which if left will breakdown into tiny pieces and is then absorbed by micro organisms and then accumulate in larger creatures on the reserve.

So please, please take it home.

Here is a list of the rubbish collected to give an idea of what people dump:

Rubbish found on the islands of Torrinch and Creinch :
Tins – 61, + handful of foil, 1 cake tin and 1 rod stand.

19 glass bottles + 4 broken bottles.

6 Plastic sweet etc wrappers, 2 coffee cup lids, 3 plastic cups, 7 crisp packets , plastic rope + string, 3 lumps of polystyrene, 1 drinks packet, 4 carrier bags, 15 plastic bottles, hard plastic stool, 3m of fishing line, 3 helium balloons with streamers, 3 hard plastic lumps.

1 sleeping bag, 1 boat fender, 3 tennis balls, 1 football, 2 shoes, 1 foam mattress + 3 smaller lumps of foam, 1 door mat, 1 blanket, 7 wet wipes.

Total  – 8 large bin bags of rubbish.

This is Steve taking one for the team and crawling under a root plate to fetch out rubbish that was either hidden there or was washed in there by winter storms. 

Always we find helium ballons released by unthinking people. 

Below is the total amount of rubbish cleared from the Crom Mhin – someone decided to decorate a tree with it!!!
Plastic bottles 73
Metal cans 61
Glass bottles 34
Camping chairs 2
Sleeping bags 1
Plant pots 13
Tupperware boxes 8
Buckets 14
Bait bags 8
Drain pipe 1
balloons 4
Shoes 2
Footballs 2
Tennis balls 4
Golf balls 1
Ball cocks 2
Fishing floats 4
Fishing line 2 metres
Wet wipes 10
Fender 1
Crisp packets 6

13 bin bags of rubbish from about 1km length of the loch shore.

21 BIN BAGS IN TOTAL

More helium balloons washed up – “sigh”. 

Fishing debris – rusting hooks included. 

Everyone helped pick up rubbish.