Litter Pick and Play supports groups running litter-picking activities with children and young people.
We designed these activities with children and young people to bring play and fun into environmental projects, including Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Spring Clean Scotland annual event.
Why Litter Pick and Play?
Children have a right to play and the right to a safe environment under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, many children face significant barriers in realising this right.
From natural disasters to everyday issues, public spaces are often unwelcoming and unsafe for children to play in. Children who are already disadvantaged by disability, poverty, and other factors, are disproportionately affected by the environment.
Who can get involved?
Anyone who works with, volunteers with, or can organise groups of children and young people to take part.
This can be through schools, nurseries, youth clubs, community groups, or even your friend, family, and neighbours.
Timeline
You can use this toolkit all year round, but if you would like to take part in Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Spring Clean Scotland, then you should organise your event to take place between 21 March – 21 April 2025
Register your event with Keep Scotland Beautiful to have it displayed on their map and join their Litter League.
How to get involved?
Download our toolkit to follow our step by step guide to planning your Litter Pick and Play event and add play and fun to your litter picking.
History of Litter Pick and Play
Play Scotland, in association with IPA Scotland, organised the first Litter Pick and Play project in 2023 as part of the International Play Association Conference in Glasgow.
The project asked groups across Scotland and around the world to get involved organising Litter Pick & Play sessions in their local area. The project aimed to empower children and young people to stand up for their right to clean and safe places to play and to encourage adults to uphold the responsibility to provide them.
You can read more about the project and the evaluation in our project report.
Children’s rights & the Environment
Playing in natural environments positively impacts on children’s sense of well-being, fitness levels, resilience, cognitive functioning and motor ability (Bird 2007; Pretty et al 2007, Lester and Russell 2008, Muñoz, S.-A. 2009, Keniger et al 2013, Gill, 2014, Söderström et al 2013).
By playing in nature, children come to understand, appreciate and care for the natural world – it encourages “stewardship for the earth.” (IPA World, 2016)
Children across the world are determined, resourceful, and creative when finding opportunities for play. However, many children face significant barriers in realising their right to play (IPA World, 2016).
The global climate crisis is having a huge impact on play. The pollution of air, water, and space is increasing and this affects the safety of children at play. In emergency situations following natural disasters and other crisis, play is often given lower priority than the provision of food, shelter and medicines. However, play is one of the ways that children cope with a crisis in any context. Play hones innate skills and helps children to come to terms with what has happened (Fearn and Howard, 2012).
Everyday environments also impact play. Planning decisions on pavement widths, provision of outdoor space, rubbish removal, and even “No Ball Games” signs can have huge impacts on the quality and quantity of play available to children.
Children are likely to be disproportionately affected by environmental constraints on their enjoyment of their right to play if they live in:
- Poor or hazardous environments
- Poverty
- Situations of conflict or humanitarian disaster
- Rural communities
- In street situations
Or if they are:
- Asylum-seekers and refugees
- Disabled
- Chronically hospitalised children
- Migrants or internally displaced
(IPA World, 2016).
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