50 Years of Litter on Skye Film Screening

In 1972, materials chemist Gerald Scott visited the Isle of Skye and documented the presence of plastic litter on beaches that could only have come from the sea. This was the first academic paper to identify the marine environment as a source of beach litter. Enticed by Scott’s description of sites that ‘involved a measure of climbing ability which would exclude the picnicking public’, a team of researchers led by Loughborough University’s department of Geography and Environment, returned to Skye to retrace Scott’s footsteps. They investigated how litter on the island’s remote coastlines has changed, and assessed the extent to which Scott’s predictions of plastic litter today have held true. This project relied on engagement with local communities. This engagement opened the research team’s eyes to the social, environmental, and economic complexities of the problem of marine litter on this coastline that do not make the same headlines as the litter itself.

This event will present the work of the 50 Years of Litter on Skye team. It will highlight the extent of litter on these remote coastlines, and untangle the unseen connections that communities who are geographically isolated from Skye, such as those in Loughborough, have with the litter that has been washing ashore on the island for over half a century.

A public lecture will be followed by a documentary screening of the team’s work, and an opportunity to ask questions. Refreshments will be provided.