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Registration for Keep Scotland Beautiful’s 2012 National Spring Clean has now opened!

In 2011, 100,000 Scots joined the campaign to make Scotland cleaner and greener. We now need your help to meet our ambitious target of 200,000 volunteers in 2012. Please sign up now – and together we can make a difference.

If you want a fun day out, between 1 April – 31 May with family, friends, work colleagues or school mates, you’re only a step away – click on the “Register” button to get started or, if you have taken part before, login to your National Spring Clean account and start planning your event now!

Through National Spring Clean, Keep Scotland Beautifulencourages people to get together and help pick up litter from their neighbourhood each spring: a time of year when Scots traditionally give their homes a clean sweep and starting spending more time outdoors again after a long winter.National Spring Clean was re-launched as a month-long campaign in April 2007 after a six year break and has grown from year to year. Now, due to popular demand, the participation dates have been to include litter picks taking place over a two month period: 1st April – 31st May 2012, to make it more accessible to a wider number of participants.

Many groups take part in voluntary clean ups or litter picks throughout the year but National Spring Clean enables them to unite in a common cause and make a concerted effort to clean up the whole of Scotland as part of a bigger, coordinated campaign. To help groups get started KSB provides group organisers with a free Clean Up Kit to help them get started and they can request additional assistance from their local council.

Since 2007, thousands of public gardens, school grounds, woodlands, nature reserves, river banks, loch-sides, beaches, coastal paths, country parks, villages, city centres and road verges, have all benefited from a real spring clean – just in time for the summer.

Timeline

National Spring Clean 2007

• In 2007 more than 11,500 volunteers took part in 273 clean up events as part of National Spring Clean during the month of April.
• The average quantity of litter collected per person was one and a half black bags each – that is enough, if tipped out, to cover the grass of Hamden Stadium with at least half a metre of litter.

National Spring Clean 2008

• In 2008 more than 366 clean up events were registered with Keep Scotland Beautiful, with 20,503 volunteers taking part during the month of April.
• Enough black sacks of litter to line the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, from the castle esplanade to the Scottish Parliament, 12 times over, were collected as part of National Spring Clean 2008 across Scotland.

National Spring Clean 2009

• In 2009 more than 57,639 volunteers took part in 1,082 clean up events as part of National Spring Clean during the month of April.
• The average quantity of litter collected per person across Scotland was one and a half black bags – that is enough to fill 28,819 standard wheelie bins.

National Spring Clean 2010

• In 2010, 83,668 volunteers took action to spring clean their neighbourhoods, at 1,406 clean up events. That is more than seven times as many participants as in 2007: 1.6% of the Scottish population.
• Between them, they collected enough litter to line full bin bags end to end from Edinburgh to Ayr – or to fill 42,000 standard domestic wheelie bins.

National Spring Clean 2011

• Almost 100,000 volunteers came out to participate in 1,538 clean up events across Scotland.
• Between them, they cleared enough litter to fill almost 150,000 street litter bins.