Tuesday December 2nd 2025
West Lothian Litter Pickers
Written by Local Democracy Reporter, Stuart Sommerville
A volunteer litter pick group collected 256 tonnes of rubbish in West Lothian in the year to September.
West Lothian Little Pickers have been applauded by councillors across the county as the stats for the year were passed on to local area committees.
Becky Gallagher from WLLP said around 200 diehard pickers “have made a huge impact.”
Beginning in the darkest days of the pandemic lockdown the community self help group has developed at speed, with increasing tonnage lifted by volunteer pickers year on year. Collecting teams either have regular stretches or blitz specific, often heavily littered areas. The bagged rubbish is then collected by council Cleaner Communities crews.
Councillors heard that around 36,000 collection bags have been handed out by the council over the last year.
Council staff from the Cleaner Communities team attended the Litter Pickers AGM and highlighted impressive collection details as well as high points from the year.
These include:-
Support for the Spring Clean Campaign which saw 20 tonnes of bagged litter lifted.
– The use of the new ‘E-Form’ for reporting Community Clean-ups tot he council has been well received with around 500 enquiries logged (June 2024-August 2025).
– Over the summer a joint litter pick was done for example along the A899 Livingston where traffic management was implemented to create a ‘safe space’.
– Where road closures were implemented on routes otherwise too hazardous to pick, opportunities to use both Street Cleansing staff and volunteers who have expressed an interest to pick – saw this joint work being facilitated.
– A show of thanks from the WLLP admin team was given to the Cleaner Communities Service for the support received over the year.
Future partnership work in development and planning for the 2026 Spring Clean Campaign in collaboration with WLLP, has already started.
Becky told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “I reckon there are approximately 200 regular diehard pickers who help keep their local areas clean and make a huge impact on certain areas like Dedridge and Craigshill in Livingston.
“WLLP is made up of lots of sub groups who regularly tackle their local community. One of the most recent big hauls was 300 bags of household waste litter picked by WLLP at Craigswood after the eviction of the travellers.”
It’s not just the labour intensive lifting of litter on a daily/ weekend basis. Since the Litter Picker first formed during Covid it has developed as a group to work with schools and local businesses.
Becky explained: “We also have lots of members who are involved in education and prevention by doing things like getting kids involved in litter picks from nursery age up to high school.
“Big companies such as McDonalds and Amazon also help out on a regular basis by sending their employees to get involved with group picks.”
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