A big clean up of rivers in the Scottish Borders is taking place this weekend.
Tom Rawson, a teacher at St Mary’s School in Melrose, is leading the campaign to help clean plastic pollution from the region’s waterways.
This Sunday will mark the first Great Borders River Clean with over 20 towns and villages across the region helping clean litter from six different rivers. The aim is to engage riverside communities across the entire Tweed catchment in a synchronised river clean to highlight the issue of plastic pollution on our rivers and waterways.
The last effort (7Towns1River) saw 196 people clear 2.2 tons of rubbish. This year is expected to be even bigger.
Tom said: ‘Plastic pollution is a real issue, we are the cause of it and it is our problem to solve. We have all seen images of beaches in Bali covered in rubbish or albatross chicks in the South Atlantic feeding plastic pieces to their chicks but how often do we look to see the damage done to our own streams and rivers?
‘We need to realise that plastic pollution affects us all. The 7Towns1River clean in April was a real success and I would like to do everything in my power to keep this issue in the public eye.
Tom Rawson
‘There will be organised cleans in over 20 Borders towns on six different rivers for you to join. Alternatively, you and your family can do your own litter pick on your local stream or river.’
The Great Borders River Clean is part of a broader effort to reduce the use of single-use plastics across the Scottish Borders.
Tom’s school, St Mary’s School in Melrose, was the first primary school in Scotland to successfully eliminate single-use plastics and the town is also making good progress to reduce plastic consumption becoming one of Scotland’s first towns to be accredited as a ‘plastic free community’ by the marine conservation charity Surfers Against Sewage.
Follow the event on Instagram at @greentweedeco
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