STEPHEN Henry from Literati Guide to Inverclyde writes about the impact that the environmental community organisation is having on the district.
Here’s one of nature’s hunters, the heron, at Murdieston Dam in Greenock, sitting atop a discarded bin bag. This photo was taken by one of the team earlier this month.
We’re not writing this column to preach about societal norms and the impact each of us are having on our local environment. No, no, no, that would be far too easy. No, we’re writing this to ask you to think about change; to help understand and educate what each of us can do to positively influence and affect our local wildlife/environment; and also take the time to thank everyone across Inverclyde for their support to date.
Literati Guide to Inverclyde has been in existence now for more than six years and is now an anchor organisation with Keep Scotland Beautiful.
To put the impact that environmental volunteers have into context, let’s focus only on the four months from July to October this year.
During this time, there have been 46 group-based events across Inverclyde, including Port Glasgow, Greenock, Gourock, Inverkip and Wemyss Bay, to help remove single-use plastics and other detritus from having an impact on both our wildlife and our environment.
At these events, 236 people have attended and lifted 326 bags of detritus OUT of our environment -– that’s a massive 1,640kg. The equivalent weight of eight adult bottlenose dolphins in just four months. Just how cool is that? Now that’s what I call IMPACT.
We would love you to join us at one of our events, check these out online at our Facebook page or our website:
The benefits of volunteering at one of these are also pretty cool too. You get to:
— Meet like-minded people.
— Do some light exercise.
— Spend time in and with nature.
— Feel pretty good about the positive aspects of helping our environment.
Education 101 -– did you know that hedgehogs get ill if they eat pumpkins? The Inverclyde Shed are composting used pumpkins at their community gardens in Gourock and Port Glasgow to help grow delicious vegetables for next year. Please help the hedgehogs by disposing of your used pumpkins responsibly.
Over the next few articles, we will look to cover some of the help we have received from local business, continue with some hints and tips to support the circular economy and your change process (reduce what you need, reuse what you have and recycle more effectively) and also shine a wee light on some of our volunteers and why they do what they do.
We’ve moved beyond opinion, it’s now about action -– tell us what you do to support our wildlife and environment. Let’s share the stories and inspire others.
