Plastic Free Helensburgh Update

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PFH Report H&L CPP May 2023 
PFH continue to work with our Business Champions and Community Allies.
HCC and PFH 10 am last Saturday in the month beach cleans resumed after a January break.
We thank A & B for providing a 20 yard skip in February and March. PFH supplemented this with
a10 yard skip. Around 30 people and David Howie with his tractor clearer the 10 yard strip close to
the pier and hand picked plastics, wipes and other rubbish from the remaining 90 m to the Hendry
Bell Monument.
Nearly 50 people turned out for the PFH clean up of the grass and prom at the East Bay 661 kgs of
debris was removed. At least 60 bags of rubbish had already been removed from here post the
December clean up.
These early cleans are really important as it stops the high tides on windless day taking all of the
plastics , wipes and other rubbish to recirculate around the river and out to sea.
We attended KSB Upstream Battle anchor group meeting .to here what was happening up stream
and on the Forth and Tay.
We also attended the Coastal Communities and Scottish Island Federation Marine Litter Conference
in Mallaig in March. Here we lead a breakout session on Barriers to Disposal for Marine Litter.
Later in march the SAS Ocean Activists Conference in Swansea gave incite and perspective on
what is happening around Britain.
An outcome was that PFH lead on the formation of a Scottish group. The Conference delegates
along with other PF Communities we are already working with are now jointly looking at matters of
litter.
The first step is looking into better ways of disposal and information to take a ways on the lack of
facilities for products labelled as bio-degradable as there are currently no suitable schemes for
disposable in Scotland. 
As PFH we are continuing to look at and lobby for a way to sustainably dispose of the huge
quantities of plastic contaminated debris washed up in winter storms and encourage reducing use
and discouraging littering.