Grab Trust Update
Argyll and Bute Council · 19 August 2025
Back to Helensburgh and Lomond Area Community Planning Group — 19 August 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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CHALLENGE ARROCHAR! Environmental Charity, The GRAB Trust, has been named in a national initiative to find an innovative solution to the marine ‘litter sink’ at Arrochar, Argyll and Bute. CivTech Round 11 has officially launched this month (July 2025) with eight exciting Challenges and £5.5 million in funding opportunities! Among the eight diverse challenges The GRAB Trust is calling for environmental innovation, with a contract worth up to £650K + VAT to solve the issue of marine litter at Arrochar. The Scottish beauty spot at Loch Long, was designated a ‘litter sink’ by the Scottish Government in 2017. The problem of litter gathering at the head of the Loch has been getting worse over decades and has reached a point where it creates a damaging effect on the area, its environment, wildlife, visitors, and on the Local Community. Recent Deutsche Welle news article highlighted the current situation: Scotland: Loch Long's hidden pollution problem – DW – 04/07/2025 Arrochar is perhaps the most publicised but far from the only ‘Litter Sink’ in Scotland. Manual mechanical methods are challenging and costly, and so this Challenge seeks to develop new, sustainable ways of tackling a national issue, starting with Arrochar. CivTech is inviting innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, SMEs, and established businesses to take on its latest set of public sector Challenges. Quite simply, if you have a great idea, they want to hear from you! Why apply? £5K for the Exploration Stage £35K for a 15-week Accelerator to build your Minimum Viable Product
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Work with a public sector customer from day one Keep 100% of your IP — CivTech takes no equity Receive support from Challenge Sponsors and the CivTech team CivTech is ready to hear your brilliant ideas. Arrochar is one of eight diverse Challenges spanning: ● Digital health solutions (£650K) ● Language technology for Gaelic (£650K) ● Environmental innovation (£650K each for marine sustainability and litter reduction) ● Public service innovation (£1M for reducing teacher workload and £350K for improving government impact assessments) ● Festival infrastructure solutions (£350K) ● Cyber security and robotics (£1.2M) Catherine Gemmell, of the Marine Conservation Society said, 'The Marine Conservation Society has always supported the brilliant work of The GRAB Trust and completely support their application to tackle the chronic litter sink at Arrochar.’ The initiative has local support too, “The communities of Arrochar and Tarbet are pleased to be working with the GRAB Trust and a number of other organisations and interests, on proposals to address the huge problem we have, of large amounts of marine litter from the Atlantic and the Firth of Clyde ending up at the Head of Loch Long. Renewed efforts to provide public info and raise awareness of the problem is
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greatly appreciated, along with encouraging and promoting efforts to reduce plastic waste at points of origin and society in general. We fully endorse all the efforts of Marine Scotland, the Grab Trust and our local Authorities to tackle this annual blight on our community.” Duncan MacLachlan (Trustee) Arrochar & Tarbet Community Development Trust, Friends of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, Argyll & the Isles Coast & Countryside Trust. Speaking about the CivTech Challenge for Arrochar The GRAB Trust comments, “The development of technology to deal with the Arrochar Litter Sink will be truly transformational for the area with benefits to the environment, marine fisheries and local economy. Currently the only way to deal with the scale of littering we find at Arrochar, (which extends over approximately 800 meters around the head of the loch) is by ‘mechanically cleaning’ the head of the loch. This involves getting diggers on the beach and filling skips and trucks with seaweed mixed with litter and sending it to landfill. This is prohibitively expensive and is clearly not an ideal solution with all the natural material also being stripped from the foreshore and ending up in landfill.” The Scottish Government intends to introduce a ban on sending biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) to landfill in January, 2026. Without a method of removing the accumulations of litter/waste, deposited at Arrochar from all over the world, and separating or otherwise dealing with this material, plastics will remain on the beach and continue breaking down into micro-plastics, which could end up in the food chain. GRAB continues, “The potential for quantities of microplastics entering the food chain at this location is cause for real concern both for the hobby fishermen as well as for commercial fishing. Finding a daring, innovative solution through CivTech could have enormous environmental benefits not just for Arrochar but for Scotland and around the world.”
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The Grab Trust would like to acknowledge and thank our funding partners for their support in helping to bring this Challenge; HIEF, SSEN Transmission, Omexom UK, Sea Changers and Loch Long Salmon. More details on the current CivTech Challenges are available on their website and through Public Contracts Scotland. CivTech Challenge 11.3 — Reducing the environmental and social impact of litter on arrochar — CivTech View Notice - Public Contracts Scotland Further Information: Arrochar Report.docx - Google Docs Argyll and Bute Beach Litter Report - MCS Beachwatch Data - Google Docs Arrochar-and-the-Waste-of-the-World.pdf Arrochar Litter Sink Education and Art Competition
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Photo credit: The GRAB Trust Photo credit: The GRAB Trust
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Photo credit: Caledonian Horticulture
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Photo credit: Caledonian Horticulture