A 32-year-old started picking up litter to help his mental health and now his whole family spends quality time together in clean-ups while helping their community.
Mike Scotland began experiencing depression in his late 20s. After struggling for some time, he found himself by the banks of the River Don in his hometown of Aberdeen, Scotland, surrounded by debris and about to kill himself.
Thankfully, his mind changed, but every time Mike crossed the river, a well-known local dumping ground, the debris would remind him of that dark day. So he decided to take matters into his own hands.
“I was in a really dark place,” Mike told SWNS news. “I was saved by a phone call that stopped me there and then,” but after that, every time I passed by that area, I felt like a dark shadow was following me.
“One day, I took three black bags and went down to the river bank and just started collecting the garbage.
“There was a person on a bicycle who stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was picking up the trash and he asked if I wanted a hand.
“He parked his bike and this guy and I ended up spending the next couple of hours picking up trash together and having more open and honest conversations about anything and everything.
Before Mike went home, he told the stranger that he was going to start a garbage collection group.
True to his word, the next day Mike started the Community Clean Up group and over the next few months they met weekly to beautify the land around the river. To date, they have collected almost 30,000 pounds of debris (13,500 kg) and recovered 5,500 pounds of metal (2,500 kg) from the bottom of the river.
“There were about four to six people who showed up (for the first one), but we ended up clearing over 300 kg (660 pounds) of debris in a couple of hours.
The next weekend, ten people showed up and they doubled their withdrawal. Soon, they actually saw otters swimming upstream for the first time in 40 years.
“We transformed that whole area as a community ‘brought it back to life.’
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Mike is now a father of three and says the whole family now picks up litter regularly, especially his five-year-old son Lucio, who picked up his first piece of rubbish when he was a toddler.
“I remember taking my son to the park when he was 18 months old and he noticed an empty bottle. Even then, he went, took it and put it in the bin.”
“One of the things we did as father and son was to go out dressed as Batman and ‘fight trash.’ It’s a great way to get him outside and learn about the environment.
Last year, in the wake of Hurricane Babet, Mike recalls the “horrendous” amount of debris that was washed away.
“I had never seen anything like it. My son couldn’t understand why people were walking past him and he really wanted to help clean it up. He asked me if I could get people to help us, so I I went on Facebook and did a live video showing everyone the mess that was down there, and asked for help.
“Within about 45 minutes, there were 25 people coming to help.
It was such a mess that the dynamic duo spent the next two weeks organizing an event and talking to local media until about 350 people showed up to finish the job – removing over 400 bags of storm debris.
“It was really exciting to see that there are so many people out there who want to do good.”
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Mike and his partner Nikki now have a database of over 100 litter-averse locals, which they lend out to groups keen to do their own clean-up.
Mike says he couldn’t be more proud of his kids for the work they’ve done and says they give him hope for the future.
“For me as a parent, it’s really exciting to see them excited to make a difference. It’s second nature to them now.”
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“Their mindset is focused on doing a good thing for the right reasons. They’re not doing it for attention or praise, they’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.
“Over time, it should hopefully reduce the amount of people littering in the first place.
“It is a long goal. I don’t know if I will achieve it in my lifetime, but I will certainly try my best.”
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