1st Portstewart Scout group is based on the beautiful North Coast of ireland ( Some of you may know it from Game of Thrones which is filmed here ). Our hall is situated just a one minute walk from the beautiful coast line and we decided to survey the water line to see where the most impact of a litter pick would be. Three patrols of scouts (22) undertook 30 mins each of litter picking. The purpose was firstly to clean up our lovely coast line which makes it better for wildlife that inhabit the shoreline, and also to get the Scouts thinking about recycling, waste and how their first world life compares to those in the third world. We talked about how some the items we found such as bottle and tin cans would be valuable in poor countries and people would be searching for these items to make money just to buy food and live like this video on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0_4qFrxw_4 Some of the items such as parts of plastic garden furniture caused the Scouts to discuss our throw away society. The Scouts said that they would not have thrown away such items if they could learn how to repair and reuse. This then lead us on to a discussion about upcycling of old unwanted items. We even found a message in a bottle and wrote back to the sender. We are waiting for a reply. Our town attracts tourist from all over the world and our scouts having seen first hand the waste that can appear (not only from locals dropping it but drifting in from sea) have now decided to keep a vigilant eye on our water fronts and when the waste starts to build up again they have suggested that they will complete another litter pick. As well as collecting the waste they are have also made a census of the waste to see if there is a trend of the types of waste washed up.