A Scots couple have made litter-picking part of their daily routine and start teaching their eco-warrior kids the ropes aged just one so it becomes “a way of life”. Mike Scotland started removing rubbish from the streets while in his 20s in a bid to improve his mental health after having suicidal thoughts.
Mike, now 33, started spotting litter everywhere he went, so he began going out more and more, using a grabber and bin bags to clean the streets. Eventually, the health and safety adviser, from Aberdeen, started a weekly community cleanup organisation called Community Clean Up.
Dad-of-three Mike started taking his six-year-old son Lucio litter-picking at the age of one, and later, his four-year-old daughter Milania did the same. These days, Mike and his entire family — which includes their 16-month-old daughter Lexi and his 34-year-old wife Nikki Dalton, a health and safety assurance manager — take their litter-picking tools with them everywhere they go.
Even little Lexi rides her tricycle and Mike is confident she will soon start taking up litter picking as well. As a family, Mike thinks they have collected “thousands” of bin bags’ worth of rubbish – and they have no intention of stopping.
Mike said: “We pick up litter everywhere we go – when we go to the park, we pick up the rubbish we see before going to play. I recently took Lucio to football with Milania and we spotted some rubbish in the car park – we collected it all before Lucio went to play.
“People do thank us but the kids have always done it – they don’t really know why they’re being thanked. They know littering is the wrong thing to do and picking it up is the right thing to do. They don’t need an incentive or encouragement – it’s just our routine and a way of life for us.”
In 2019, Mike found himself by the River Don in Aberdeen, his hometown, after battling mental health issues. He was surrounded by litter and on the verge of ending his life when he was fortunately distracted by a timely phone call which snapped him out of it.
He said: “After that, whenever I’d walk past that area where I’d wanted to end my life, I felt like a dark shadow was haunting me. One day, I took three black bags and went down to the riverside and just started picking up litter.”
He was even asked what he was doing one day by a cyclist who ended up joining in. Mike formed the Community Clean Up group the following day, and for the next few months, the group met once a week to remove rubbish from the river.
It became a passion for Mike – who loved doing his bit for the planet. When he had children, he was quick to get them on board with it – and they took to it like naturals.
Mike said: “I remember taking my Lucio to the park when he was 18 months old, and he spotted an empty bottle of Lucozade. Even then, he went and picked it up and put it in the bin. Ever since then, he’s always done litter picking.
“One of the things we used to do as father and son was go out dressed as Batman and ‘fight the litter’. It’s a great way to get him outside and teach him about the environment.”
The five members of the family now carry their litter-picking tools with them everywhere they go, enabling them to act at any time. Some of the items he finds on the floor, like crisp packets, date back to the 1960s.
Using it, he teaches his kids the value of disposing of waste properly since “the choice you make today could affect someone in 60 years time.” And he claimed that because he has instilled such an eco-conscious mindset in his kids, they pick up litter naturally, even his toddler daughter.
He said: “It’s a way of life for us and for them. It’s just our routine. Kids know what they’re not supposed to do, but if you tell a kid not to do something, it makes them want to do it – like littering. If you educate them on why littering isn’t good for the environment or animals, they understand the bigger picture.”
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