Scottish hospitality businesswoman calls for new national anti-litter campaign ahead of 50th litter pick

More than 520 volunteers have collected 12 tonnes of roadside rubbish over five years, but Sarah Heward says the problem is showing little sign of improving. 

A Scottish cafe owner whose volunteers have removed at least 12 tonnes of roadside rubbish is calling for a new sustained national campaign to change attitudes towards littering.

Sarah Heward, founder of The Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum, is making the call as the cafe prepares to hold the 50th litter pick in its Pick ’n’ Chips initiative on Thursday 22 October.

Since Sarah launched the project in May 2021, more than 520 volunteers have taken part, collecting 2,103 sacks of rubbish as well as larger discarded items, with the total amount estimated to weigh at least 12 tonnes.

Yet five years after the first Pick ’n’ Chips event, Sarah says she has seen little evidence that the underlying roadside litter problem has improved.

She is calling for a new, sustained, high-profile national behaviour-change campaign to make littering socially unacceptable, alongside greater investment in rural infrastructure and more joined-up action between government, local authorities and other organisations.

Sarah said: “Five years of doing this month after month tells me that we still haven't achieved the fundamental change in behaviour that is needed.

We can keep picking litter up, and we will, but we also need to tackle why it is ending up there in the first place.

There have been various campaigns and strategies around littering, but I would like to see a new, sustained national campaign with real ambition behind it, designed to change the way people think about dropping or abandoning rubbish.

We have seen attitudes and behaviour transformed around issues such as drink-driving. I would like us to have the same ambition for littering; to reach the point where throwing rubbish from a car or leaving it behind in the countryside is regarded as completely socially unacceptable.”

Sarah started Pick ’n’ Chips shortly after The Real Food Cafe reopened following the second Covid closure in spring 2021.

Commuting between her home in Killin and the cafe in Tyndrum, she became increasingly frustrated by the amount of rubbish she saw along the roadside.

“I was depressed by the state of the roadside and eventually thought, rather than just moaning about it, I should do something about it,” she said.

“That was how Pick ’n’ Chips was born. I don't think I could possibly have imagined then that five years later we would be approaching our 50th litter pick, with more than 500 people having volunteered and at least 12 tonnes of rubbish collected.”

Over the past five years, volunteers have recovered everything from discarded drink cans and food packaging to bras, underwear, shoes, car parts, false teeth and even entire abandoned encampments.

Red Bull cans are among the most common items they encounter.  Volunteers also regularly find nappies and human waste.

Sarah believes the latter demonstrates the need for greater investment in facilities for people travelling through rural Scotland.

She said: “There needs to be much more joined-up thinking between policymakers, local authorities, the national park and government about both prevention and infrastructure.

There is no doubt that building more public toilets and creating better rural facilities will be part of the answer. When we are finding human waste and nappies at the roadside, that surely raises questions about whether the current infrastructure is adequate to cope with the number of people travelling through some of Scotland’s busiest visitor areas.”

Pick ‘n’ Chips has created a community of regular volunteers, some of whom travel considerable distances to take part.

Among its most dedicated supporters is a couple, Jo and Jonty Hull from Bridge of Earn, near Perth, who have travelled to Tyndrum for every Pick ’n’ Chips litter pick bar one.

Jo said: “We’ve been visiting this area for over 40 years, and we’ve regularly stopped off at The Real Food Cafe to refuel. Like Sarah, we were both saddened and disgusted by the amount of litter we saw when we visited. So, joining the Pick ‘n’ Chips every month is important to us, and it helps preserve this amazing place. We’ve found dead mice trapped in bottles, disgusting amounts of human waste, fly-tipping, and emptied countless bottles of urine, in addition to the usual plastic waste.

Each time, it saddens us that people can treat our country like this, but we keep coming back because of the amazing camaraderie among the litter pickers and the huge sense of achievement of seeing how much litter and other waste we remove from the environment. 

We can’t imagine what it would be like if we hadn't picked all of that up. Sarah is an inspiration, and she and her amazing team make even the most wet, cold litter pick enjoyable.”

Other regular volunteers travel from Fort William and Killin, while members of Our Spectrum Adventures travel from Aberfoyle to take part.

Visitors to Scotland have also chosen to join a litter pick while on holiday as a way of giving something back to the area, while one young volunteer has used his participation towards his Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

Sarah said: “One of the most important things Pick ’n’ Chips has achieved, beyond physically removing the litter, is raising awareness of just how extensive the problem is.

The fact that we are doing this in and around a national park makes it particularly striking. These are landscapes that people travel from all over the world to experience.

But there have been some really positive things too. We have people who return month after month, and visitors who have chosen to spend part of their holiday picking litter because they want to give something back to the place they are visiting.

That, to me, is responsible tourism in action.”

The 50th Pick ’n’ Chips event on Thursday 22 October will begin with a celebratory cake before volunteers head out for the litter pick, followed by fish and chips at The Real Food Cafe.

Volunteers will also receive a special goody bag featuring products from Scottish food and drink businesses including Brodies, Cobbs, Greencity Wholefoods, Summerhouse Drinks, IRN-BRU and Aromark Tablet.

The campaign will continue beyond the milestone, with the 51st litter pick planned for November and a festive 52nd event in December for which volunteers can sign up at The Real Food Cafe Pick N Chips Litterpicking 2026 Tickets, Multiple dates | Eventbrite