Nursery pupils in the east end of Greenock cleaned up around their local community

Boys and girls from Gibshill Children's Centre were out and about this week on a tidy-up of the area as part of their crusade against waste.

Armed with litter-pickers and bin bags, the youngsters were joined by parents, carers and staff as they marched through the streets collecting rubbish.

The annual spring clean is part of the nursery's ongoing work to maintain its green flag status in partnership with charity Keep Scotland Beautiful and its Eco-Schools Scotland programme.

During the week, the children were also paid a visit by Inverclyde Council's waste strategy officer and a member of the local authority's environmental services team on board a street sweeper.

Craig Scott, depute head of centre, said: "Every February we have a big clean-up week.

"As part of that, we ask the waste strategy officer to come in and talk about recycling, what bins to use and litter.

"We then invite the parents to join with children and staff in some litter-picking in the local community. "We've also been lucky enough that John from Inverclyde Council brought up a street sweeper this week. "The children enjoyed speaking to him about his role in the community and they had a shot sitting in the street sweeper and then watched it at work."

While the children across both the morning and afternoon sessions collected around 30kgs of rubbish, the volume is going down.

Craig said: "In certain parts like wooded areas yes, we did collect some litter and it was pretty bad, but it was a nice surprise that the streets and roads themselves were clear, which is reassuring. "We speak to the children all the time about not dropping litter, using bins and recycling so it's good to see that it is filtering through to them.

"It shows we're doing something right that the children, families and the whole community are taking the message on board. "The children, in particular, have done really well."