At the head of beautiful Loch Long in Argyll sits one of Scotland’s biggest plastic problems. A combination of prevailing winds and the rotation of the earth drive litter up the loch to create what is known as the Arrochar litter sink. About 62,000 items wash up on the beach each year, much of it from the waterways in and around Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. It is estimated that 11% of the rubbish which enters the River Clyde – which flows through the city – and its tributaries is eventually washed up at Arrochar. The local residents can’t clean it up fast enough. Lots of the waste is tangled in the seaweed which was once an asset to the community. It used to be collected by the bucketload to fertilise farm land, but that’s no longer possible because of the pollution. Campaigners say the only solution is to stop the waste entering the water in the first place – and that the introduction of a deposit return scheme for bottles and cans would play a major role in doing just that.
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