Services show how we are working together for a Sustainable North Ayrshire

Throughout April and May, these included Streetscene features on: the Adopt-A-Spot scheme; encouraging residents and businesses to dispose of their household and commercial rubbish responsibly by not putting it in public litter bins and backing a Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) drive on using responsible waste carriers.

Adopt-A-Spot supports groups of friends, workmates and neighbours to organise regular litter-picks in a beach, park or housing estate area of their choosing. Volunteers simply choose a spot – on Council-owned land, not private land – in a street, park, beach, path, business frontage or school route and keep it tidy.

You can find our more and register for Adopt-A-Spot,  online at  Voluntary litter picking (north-ayrshire.gov.uk)

The Streetscene team also highlighted Council street bins should not be used to dispose of household or commercial waste as this is classed as fly-tipping and lead to a Fixed Penalty Notice.

And there was backing for a SEPA campaign reminding residents not to use illegal waste collection companies who advertise on social media. Many of these are run by corrupt operators who dupe people into handing over money then dump their items in country lanes and beauty spots.

If you suspect someone is operating illegally and may be fly-tipping waste, you can alert SEPA here: Report an environmental event | Beta | SEPA | Scottish Environment Protection Agency

The campaign promoted the launch of a free North Ayrshire app that offers rewards to encourage people to bin litter responsibly. LitterLotto, organised by Keep Scotland Beautiful, offers users the chance to Bin it to win it! by winning a monthly prize and weekly jackpots.

You can download the app here: https://litterlotto.com/ or through your app store.

The Business Growth team has been involved through promotion of the Net Zero Nation Accelerator Programme for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

This is specifically designed to help companies start their Net Zero journey by working as a collective with support from both the team at Net Zero Nation, which is a social enterprise that was set up to help businesses accelerate their transition to Net Zero, and the Business Growth team.

Benefits for businesses include Expert advice on reducing their carbon footprint through energy efficiency improvements and adopting renewable energy sources and making cost savings by implementing energy efficiency measures and reducing waste.

And a press release for local media and social media posts helped promote our annual free compost – created from food and garden waste – giveaway for residents.

Gardeners and growers were invited by the Waste Services team to collect some compost for their gardens or allotments at seven sites.

Jennifer Wraith, Senior Manager for Sustainability, said: “Through the Sustainable North Ayrshire campaign, which is being led by our Communications team, we are helping residents – and, of course, colleagues – see that we all have a part to play when it comes to climate change”.