Washed Up Plastic Waste to Spinning Tops

Publish Date: Friday July 19, 2019

Fife Coast and Countryside Trust (FCCT) have been working in partnership with Charlestown, Limekilns & Pattiesmuir (CLP) Nature Conservation Group, to raise awareness of the impact of plastic pollution on their community and to encourage a culture of recycling.

At a recent community litter pick event held at Iron Mill Bay in Charlestown, near Limekilns significant amounts of plastic waste were collected and removed from coastline, making the natural environment safer for wildlife and more enjoyable for the many people who visit the area.

As part of the process of promoting environmental awareness in young people, Robbie Blyth Operations Manager (FCCT) has been invited by the CLP Nature Conservation Group to speak to children from Limekilns Nursery and Primary school.

Robbie explained ‘Each child will receive a plastic spinning top made from recycled polypropylene plastic, as a way of raising awareness of the importance of how plastic can be recycled rather than it just thrown away. I was delighted to present this small gift to each of the 160 children as a way of saying thank you for helping to clean up our beaches in Fife.”

Jo McFarlane from the CLP Nature Conservation Group agreed, “The primary school has done amazing work to reduce their single use plastics and played a big role in our community becoming the first Scottish mainland community to achieve the Plastic Free Award from Surfers Against Sewage for efforts made to reduce our single use plastic. This is a thank you to the staff and children for all they have done as well as helping reinforce circular economy messages of reuse, recycle and do not use which the children have been learning about.”

Limekilns Primary School, Head Teacher Anne Marsh, commented,” Through working with Jo and watching documentaries like ‘Drowning in Plastic’, our learners are increasingly aware of the dangers to our environment caused by our use of single use plastics. We are also thinking more about what recycling really means. This is the next bit of the journey for us.”

In the last calendar year FCCT have supported corporate, community and educational groups to carry out 107 litter picks and beach cleans, including those done by the CLP Nature Conservation Group in Charlestown and Limekilns.