SNP candidate for Renfrewshire North and West Natalie Don is calling for people in Renfrewshire to keep the county looking tidy and clear of litter. Councillor Natalie Don is warning that with drive thru restaurants beginning to re-open we may begin to see an emergence in roadside rubbish from drive thru takeaways.
Big chain restaurants in Renfrewshire such as Burger King, KFC and McDonalds along with coffee shops such as Tim Hortons and Costa Coffee are beginning to reopen for limited drive thru access. After being in complete lockdown for the last 8 weeks Renfrewshire’s big food chain stores have not been open to the public. However with more and more drive thru facilities implementing social distancing measures we are seeing a rise in these stores re- opening.
Renfrewshire Council launched the Team Up to Clean Up campaign in 2017 to help reduce the amount of litter across Renfrewshire and roadside litter has been a major focus of the campaign. The Scottish Government have made roadside litter a priority with new legislation planned which will make it an offence to litter from vehicles.
Keep Scotland Beautiful found that 54% of roadside litter came from people eating and drinking on the go. A recent YouGov poll also found that just 9% of people want things to go back to how they were before the lockdown citing environmental benefits as a major factor.
Councillor Natalie Don is asking that we take a renewed pride in our local areas following lockdown and keep our roadsides tidy, she said,
“Since lockdown began there has been a noticeable reduction in the amount of litter on our streets and roadsides. Our natural environment has flourished while we have been locked away; there has undoubtedly been less litter, we have cleaner air and wildlife is flourishing. I really hope that as restrictions ease over the coming weeks or months, we might continue this trend.”
“People don’t want to see our roads a mess with litter and recently they haven’t been. There are many lessons to be learned from lockdown. If any good at all can come out of this devastating situation it would be great if we could put an end to our throwaway culture once and for all. ”
