DANGEROUS LITTER IS being dumped into the River Lossie – including a container containing used needles and syringes that were still in their packaging.
These were amongst the latest finds by environmental campaigner Adrian Hutchins, who found the needles amongst eight bags of litter collected at the River Lossie Estuary – an area that had been cleared just weeks earlier with the help of RAF Lossiemouth volunteers.
Mr Hutchins said that Sunday’s operation also filled five bags of recyclable materials and three that would be suitable for landfill.
Advising landowners the Forestry Commission of his findings, Mr Hutchins said: “Almost all the recyclables were composed of plastic bottles – 50% of that were milk containers.
“There is either a prolific litterer in Elgin who is discarding these milk containers into the river or, more likely, they are coming from an industrial site in the town. Either way the Forestry Commission should be concerned and should be following it up with someone at the Moray Council.
“This is not something new as Pete Miners has previously highlighted the milk bottle saga. I also found a lot of polystyrene packing material and take away containers.
“One find that could be a concern was a container of used needles and 10-20 syringes still in their packaging. This highlights the need for the use of gloves and litter sticks at this site.
“The estuary is starting to look much better than it has in a long while but it will need at least another clean in a month or so.”