Who is responsible for this mess? The sad state of a once-loved public path |
This article appears as part of the Winds of Change newsletter.
The rusted frame of a mattress, so decayed that all that is left now are its springs, has been hauled off the edge of the path by the time I arrive. People, with bin bags, are gleaning over the route with long-clawed pickers.
This is a public path I sometimes run, on my way on a Sunday, along the back of Seafield sewage treatment plant, to swim at its easterly end. It’s also next to a notorious fly-tipping spot, a road grandly called Marine Esplanade, but, years ago, dubbed Mess-planade, by the now folded group Leithers Don't Litter. Often, when I run past, I have thought, ‘someone should organise a litter pick here’, but then I have jogged on with my day and done nothing about it.
Now, though, the recently formed Edinburgh Trash Club, are doing something about it.
It’s a group that has been created by Marine Conservation Society volunteer, India Stephenson, and journalist and campaigner, Rachael Revesz. Not only does it clean up litter, but is highlighting the way private companies and landowners turn a blind eye to the rubbish on their land, and calling on them to take more responsibility and clear it themselves. They are saying this is “not good enough”. But the problem in this case, is who are the landowners?
Stephenson is a volunteer with the Marine Conservation Society and has set up beach cleans on the Forth coastline. She tells me: “We're aiming to meet up regularly to get outside and meet more people while also trying to make a difference. I go swimming on this coastline, at Wardie Bay, so it feels quite close to my heart when you see rubbish all over the beach. We started to realise that we need to do more clean ups throughout Edinburgh. So we made Edinburgh Trash Club.”
The path, she observes, is popular with walkers. “You can see from the amount of dog poo that this popular dog walking spot,” she says. “But it has become a fly tipping site. And if no one does anything about it, it's going to exacerbate because the more rubbish there is here, the more people feel like they can throw rubbish.”
Rachael Revesz has, she says, contacted both the City of Edinburgh Council and Forth Ports, who she thought were likely owners.
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“It's just not good enough. This is a public access path and what should be a nice walk around the sea wall is just depressing. It’s grim."
Stephenson echoes her call for the owners to clear it up. “We thought we would come here and do what we can. We definitely can't get it all today, but we'll do what we can, and then hopefully it will encourage them to clean it up a little bit.”
I tried Forth Ports to see if they were responsible, but a spokesperson said: “Litter and fly tipping present issues for all landowners, however in this instance this is not Forth Ports’ land. We passed on Rachael Revesz’s original query to City of Edinburgh Council who we hope will be able to resolve it.”
Leaving the gaping question of who does own it, and who should clean it?
I’ve often covered the community of litter pickers, those committed to going down to their park or their local shoreline and. But sometimes it can feel like they are on Sisyphean personal missions, clearing a spot, only for the litter to return the next day.
It’s not that there’s no point in this. It does make a difference, particularly when data gathered can be used to help inform policy, but the cleaning is endless. What is interesting about Trash Club is this call to ask private companies and landowners to take more responsibility.
This path was a big favourite for me during the Covid pandemic, the nearest accessible stretch of shoreline in a Leith that often feels blocked off from the sea by the port itself. Often, in the summer, people fish from the wall. But there are two things that spoil its charms. One is the smelly days, when the whiff off the treatment plant is high, the other, this carpet of litter that frequently covers its westerly end.
Much of the waste round here appears the result of fly tipping, which has happened over decades in a stretch of vacant land nearby. That land is strewn with bags and rubbish, even, on this occasion, a yellow sink, and the trash here is so entwined it almost seems to have become part of the ecosystem of the area.
On the path itself, the dog poo, prevalent in tiny mountains amongst the rest of the rubbish, speaks of the ‘broken window effect’. Leave enough rubbish to lie out and people won’t bother picking up their dog poo from amidst it. By the time I start picking over its edge, much of the larger waste is gone, and what is left is fragments of plastic and other waste, embedded in the soil. One of the volunteers, Sam, keeps finding flattened bottles and cans.
“There are,” Stephenson says, “a lot of flattened cans and bottles, which we think are probably from a recycling plant. Because why on earth would that be? Why would they all be flattened, if they were just from people walking along here and throwing their can down?”
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By the end of one short session 127 kg of waste have been picked from this small area, before and after photos taken.
Many of the big questions around waste relate to who takes responsibility. Clearly, the fly-tipper just shouldn't be doing it - but beyond that? Should it be the producer? The person, organisation or company whose land it is on? The walkers and runners and general public who happen to use it and would just like for it not to be unpleasant, and dangerous for wildlife?
A pick with Edinburgh Trash Club is a reminder of those questions. I look forward to joining them again.