AN environmental activist has cried foul over sports teams dumping plastic bottles at Battery Park following their training sessions.

Stephen Henry, a member of clean up campaign group Literati Guide to Inverclyde, says local teams need to be more mindful of their waste when training and playing matches, following complaints about the mess left in the park last week.

He wants them to get behind the group's recently launched ‘Play A Clean Game’ campaign, which aims to promote the use of reusable water bottles at local leisure facilities and has been backed by the council.

Stephen said: "If the team that did this wants to approach us we'll be more than happy to have a conversation with them about providing free reusable bottles.

"That way they wouldn't have to buy single-use plastics and wouldn't end up leaving it behind themselves.

"They can get in touch through social media or through one of the team members we'd be happy to help them out.

"You'd have hoped with the climate crisis and the discussions that are going on locally that not littering would have factored into their thought process.

"It would be good to see senior figures around the people littering leading by example and help them understand the impact of these decisions.

"It's a problem worldwide, we have it in Inverclyde and you can see it everywhere - just look around the Firth of Clyde and you'll see the mess made by single-use plastics.”

Literati’s campaign has attracted lots of support, with Inverclyde Leisure, the council, Amazon in Gourock, Inverclyde Community Fund, local sports teams, Ronnie Cowan MP and Stuart McMillan MSP all getting behind it.

Mr Henry hopes the campaign will help put the problem of local litter at the forefront of people’s thinking but admits it's disappointing to see a local team leaving such a mess behind at a public park.

He added: “What's clearly happened here is the people taking part were either uneducated about the problems litter can cause or they had to move on in a rush and never cleaned up after themselves.

“They're not only leaving it at their backside, but it can also make its way into the wider environment - around 80 per cent of marine litter originates on land.

"People need to be aware of the environment when they're taking part in these activities and put it at the centre of what they're doing.

“It's important to have more enforcement, more education and more focus on the thinking process around litter to address these problems."

More information about Literati and its Play A Clean Game campaign is available online at www.literatiguide.org