The Aberdeenshire Litter Initiative

(ALi) is a Community based partnership of like-minded individuals, organisations and businesses that have concern for the quality of their local environment. It is hoped that the Initiative will grow and evolve by promoting care for the environment and civic pride in the communities the participants live in. Initially however, it will focus on volunteers who agree to 'Adopt-a-Street' (or part of it) to take positive action to help keep it litter free.


Stop Press!
As mentioned elsewhere, in the 2011 Scottish Waste and Resources (SWRC) awards, our own George Niblock was nominated and Won the the award for 'Outstanding Contribution - The Peoples Choice' in recognition of his efforts during 2011 in waste management including work with ALi, which in his own words "makes me the biggest 'waster' in Scotland for the year!"

AEF's ALi scheme was commended as a finalist in the 2010 Scottish Waste and Resources awards for the community sector.
We were also nominated for the 2011 Scottish Green List, and were mentioned by Richard Lochhead, Cabinet secretary for the Environment, as a good example of a Community based environmental initiative (see here for a pdf of the relevant parliamentary question). The scheme was also mentioned in the Sunday Herald of 9 August 2009 - the article is here (pdf).

The ALi initiative has the support of Aberdeenshire Council, Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), and a number of local organizations and business. It is seeking funding from any source - public, private or business - with an initial target of kitting out at least 1000 volunteers. We believe that there are already thousands of public spirited people who pick up litter in an unsung way.

The formal launch of the Initiative took place on 11 June 2007, and was assisted by Provost Bill Howatson and John Summers, Chief Executive of KSB.

ALi is now going strong in a number of Communities across Aberdeenshire with a smattering across the rural areas. We are active in attempting to identify other groups and individuals to encourage, support and enable then to 'do their bit' for the local environment. We are working closely with the Community Planning staff of the Council to reach out to other groups and organizations.

Stonehaven & District Community Council were first to get their own Stonehaven 'Adopt a Street' Scheme up and running. This was closely followed by Inverurie, Westhill, and the village of Rothienorman whose Community Association has achieved 100% coverage of the streets, footpaths and public spaces in the village.

January 2012 Update
The number of volunteers in ALi and the affiliated organizations currently stands at 454.

Our Report to Aberdeenshire Council may be seen here

Interested individuals and groups seeking more information or wishing to join ALi should contact George Niblock on 01467 621902 or by email to ALi@niblockenvironmental.com

General Introduction to ALi (pdf)
App 1. Code of Practice & Volunteers' Agreement (pdf)

Download Adobe Acrobat ReaderPortable Document File (PDF) Format
Some documents (in Portable Document File (.pdf) format) may require you to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader. You will need to have this software resident on your own PC to view the document files. Please note that the files required are quite large and may take some time to download over a modem. Be sure also to have enough hard-disk space available both for the download and the installation.