The litter problem is finally being tackled by groups like NaeTrash, says Mark Smith

It doesn’t take long to pile up. Paper. Wrappers. Boxes. Plastic (lots of plastic). Bottles, big and small. Some stuff I was expecting, like discarded vapes, and stuff I wasn’t, like a set of plates, and cutlery, and a carpet, and a chair; we could furnish a flat with this trash. By the end of the session, there’s a small black hill of bin liners full of rubbish, and we stand beside it and wonder how we got in this mess.

In all, the team is out on the street for an hour or so, a group of people that have seen the rubbish in their community and decided to do something. They’re called NaeTrash and it was started by Scott Martin and Lindy Brits, who could see the litter from their flat in Kinning Park and decided to organise regular littler picks. It’s now started gathering momentum and become a bit of a movement and the streets are cleaner as a result.

I got involved myself when I saw Scott, in vivid pink NaeTrash tabard, picking up litter on Paisley Road West and got chatting to him about what he was doing. He told me about his group and I volunteered to help and that’s why I’m out on a Saturday morning on Shields Road with a bag and one of those grabby picky-uppy things, who knows what they’re called, picking up vapes and bottles and God knows what else. We do the stretch of Shields Road from the underground station down to Houston Street and I must say it’s satisfying, seeing the pile of bin liners grow and the street become a little bit........

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