‘If we all picked up a bit of litter we would see a big difference’: Ullapool family’s remarkable beach clean record
An environmentally conscious family of four living on the NC500 tourist route have removed a staggering 15 tonnes of mainly plastic rubbish from beaches in the north west Highlands.
They managed it by regular eco-friendly family days out during the last five years.
Geoff and Rachel Pringle, their son Finlay (17) and daughter Ella (15) began by picking up rubbish near their home at Ullapool in Wester Ross and even celebrated their love of beaches on Valentine’s Day with a partial clean-up of Balchladich in Assynt.
Even then, two hours of work resulted in 144.87kg of plastic pollution being removed.
Geoff (58) said: “Over the last five years we have now reached a new milestone as a family, removing just over 15 tonnes (15048 kg) of beach litter from 368 beach cleans.
"If we all picked up a bit of litter we would see a big difference. We do need to reduce the amount of plastic that is produced, but responsible disposal, whether ashore or afloat, would also help to stop pollution on our beaches.
“We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of Scotland, increasingly enjoyed by more and more people thanks to the NC500 route, with a little bit of effort from locals and visitors alike it will continue to be so.
"Much of the plastic pollution in the North West of Scotland comes from industrial marine activity - commercial fishing and aquaculture - the family will continue to campaign on this issue until government policy changes."
Remote beaches on islands in the west of Scotland are being covered by mounds of litter as high as 90cm, researchers have previously found.
Teams who scoured 100m stretches of 27 beaches gathered 278kg of plastic refuse and almost 40,000 items.
Environmental campaigners want to see more resources given to beach clean-ups to protect the Scottish coastline from discarded fishing gear, crisp packets, bottles, shopping bags, cutlery, pens, toys, wet wipes, sanitary products, facemasks and buckets, as well as shotgun cartridges and car parts.
Hotspots where the weight of plastic recovered was up to 20 times the average elsewhere in Scotland were pinpointed in a study by the Scottish Association for Marine Science and Marine Scotland, the Scottish government watchdog.
Researchers scoured 100m stretches of the high-tide lines at beaches from Ayrshire and Kintyre in the south to the islands of Islay, Tiree, Mull and Skye, plus mainland sites near Oban and on the Clyde. They picked up all the litter they found, which ranged from tiny objects weighing 0.1g up to hefty fishing nets and buoys.
The Marine Conservation Society is campaigning for laws to ban wet wipes and also fit filters to all washing machines to capture plastic fibres.
Finlay is one of Scotland's leading young environmentalists - who has been hailed by TV wildlife presenter Chris Packham and campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Every Friday for nearly the past six years, Finlay has given up an hour to stage his school strike protests - normally in his home village of Ullapool.
Through rain, snow, gales, heatwaves and lockdown, the young eco warrior has protested over the lack of action on climate change.
Even travelling or on holiday he has still staged a protest - including at Glasgow City Council's offices.
And when the strike coincided with Christmas Day that did not stop Finlay. He still went ahead as normal.
In lockdown he held his protest online for three months.
Finlay started the first of his protests on December 14, 2018.
Finlay, a global shark ambassador for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was previously selected as one of 10 UK 'Change Makers' by the Children's Media Conference in Sheffield.
The youngster has also won numerous awards for his conservation work. He was made 'Young Marine Conservationist of the year' by the Marsh Christian Trust - in conjunction with the Wildlife Trust - in 2018 and last year won the Daily Mirror 'Young Animal Hero' of 2019.
Finlay hit the headlines when he was "sacked" by a group as an ambassador for sharks and subject to scout leaders trolling him after he simply posted online his opposition to a controversial sea adventure project by TV survival expert Bear Grylls.
But he was hailed as a hero by BBC Springwatch presenter Mr Packham for standing up to the intimidation.
