Sadly there’s no truth in the myth that Inuits have 87 words for snow (according to yesterday’s radio there are just as many English words for the white stuff) but who has more words for rubbish? On Saturday while snow covered much of the UK, the sun shone on volunteers picking litter out of Pilrig Park. That’s litter, rubbish, trash, garbage, junk, detritus, gubbins, yuk…you name it, Greener Leith volunteers found it. And filled 48 bags full of it.
Ellie Mills and Julian Sian, two Greener Leith volunteers
Altogether around 20 volunteers (include one Leith Open spacer) turned up on a frosty afternoon to support the second Pilrig clean up organised by Greener Leith. A sign in the local Scotmid store tempted a few helpers to join in before retreating to the pub or the telly. Prize for the longest journey goes to Adrian who came from Heidelburg in Germany (returning to visit friends made on a student exchange last year, he somehow found himself wielding a litterpick and digging up half a car on the edge of the park).
And there was much, much more, especially just over the wall separating the park from Pilrig Road. A quick tally at the end of the afternoon by Charlotte Encombe, Greener Leith secretary, found: “2 front car seats,1 back car seat, 1 bathroom cabinet, 1 chair, 10-12 meters of gas pipe, 2 bicycle wheels, 1 cannibalised bicycle, 1 computer monitor, 4 traffic cones, 1 duvet, 5 pieces of clothing, 1 mangled car bonnet, 3 sand bags, 1 wicker basket and a dead cat.”
At the end of it all, apart from a nice warm glow and some very dirty boots, there was the satisfaction of looking round a beautifully clean open space. As both Charlotte and Ellie put it: “Now we know that splash of white over there is a clump of snowdrops and not just another plastic bag.”
A real spring clean