Staying safe

Plain health and safety notes to help you plan a pick and look after yourself and other people. They are not a risk assessment.

Print this page Back to the map Events Group pick guidelines

Common risks and how to stay safer

These are everyday risks that can come up on a litter pick. This list is not complete, and it is not a risk assessment for a particular place or event.

• Needles, sharps and anything dangerous. Do not touch them. Take a photo from a safe distance and tell the council. In danger now, or someone is hurt, call 999.
• Broken glass. Use a grabber and a hard tub with a lid. Do not use bare hands.
• Roads and traffic. Wear hi-vis near a road. Stay off the carriageway. Never step onto the road to reach litter.
• Tides and water. Check tide times before a beach pick. Keep an eye on the water – it comes in fast.
• Weather. Check the Met Office forecast. If it looks unsafe, go another day.
• Going out alone. Tell someone where you are going and when you will be back. Carry a charged phone.
• Young people. Under 16? Come with a parent or another adult.
• After you finish. Wash your hands, even if you wore gloves.

Planning to go out

Open a pin on the map to see the place. Press Open in a map, Get directions or Check this spot. If the map is hard to use, press List view.

Use Check a spot to look at toilets, parking and access notes listed near a pin, and fill in a simple pre-check. That tool is not a risk assessment.

For a group event, the pin on the events page is the meeting point. The list under the map has the same details.

Before you go

• Check the weather. Met Office forecast. If it looks unsafe, go another day.
• Beach? Check the tide. Tide times: Ardrossan, Irvine, Troon, Ayr, Girvan. Keep an eye on the water – it comes in fast.
• Near a road? Wear hi-vis and stay off the carriageway. Never step onto the road to reach litter.
• Strong gloves on. A litter picker (grabber) helps. No bare hands.
• A hard tub with a lid is handy for broken glass. Never pick up needles – report them (see Found something nasty?).
• Tell someone where you're going and when you'll be back. Carry a charged phone.
• Under 16? Come with a parent or another adult.

Do not touch

Don't pick up needles, sharps or anything dangerous. Take a photo from a safe distance. Then tell the right people.

See Found something nasty? for who to tell in North, East and South Ayrshire, including needles, lots of broken glass, fly-tipping, a dead animal, and chemicals or pollution in water (SEPA).

Danger now, or someone is hurt? Call 999.

Not urgent?

• Police101
• NHS 24111
• North Ayrshire Council01294 310000

More council numbers are on the homepage under Stay safe.

After

• Wash your hands after, even if you wore gloves.
• Tie bags and leave them where agreed for collection.

For groups and organisations

Ayrshire Cleans can help find a spot, share what we know about a route, and help ask the council to collect the bags.

Your organisation provides staff supervision, transport, permissions and its own risk assessment.

Print the group pick guidelines to share with helpers. That sheet is not a risk assessment. Please use your organisation's own forms, signed off by your group leader, as you would for any outing.

Open the guidelines to print Community groups

This outing

You can fill these in before you go, or print the page and write them by hand.

Event or place:

Date and time:

Who to tell (name and phone):

Also read our community rules. No photos of young people without a parent or carer’s OK.

Questions: [email protected].