A TENACIOUS team of litter pickers are getting on top of a mountain of rubbish which is blighting one of Inverclyde's best loved beauty spots.
Volunteers from The Lyle Hillbillies have been out in force on Lyle Hill, carrying out monthly clean-ups.
The latest one saw them collect and take away 14 bags filled with empty drinks bottles and other similar items thoughtlessly discarded. They recovered an unwanted Dyson vacuum cleaner and a TV dumped by fly-tippers as well.
The Lyle Hillbillies also help to sweep the local coastline in a bid to stop the Clyde filling up with plastic.
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And they will soon be joining forces with other eco groups from the Literati Guide to Inverclyde and partners Green Tangerine for A Big Clyde Beach Clean.
Green Tangerine co-ordinator and volunteer Annette Thain, from Greenock, said: "We want to get as many volunteers as possible involved in the Big Clyde Beach Clean.
"We want to cover the shore all the way from Finlaystone down to Wemyss Bay.
"The Lyle Hillbillies are so important because so much of the plastic that ends up in the water comes from inland, so we are trying to cut it off at the source.
"We hope to recruit as many groups as possible and we are hoping to get local employers on board too."
Retired NHS librarian Annette has always been passionate about the environment, having previously run the Inverclyde branch of Greenpeace.
She joined joined Literati and Green Tangerine last year.
Annette said: "It was something that I really wanted to get involved in."
Green Tangerine is a community enterprise set up by the Literati group along with partners, including Keep Scotland Beautiful.
They recently announced the introduction of a pilot scheme to encourage football teams in the west of Scotland to tackle the use of single use plastic bottles, with Morton in the Community signing up for the project.
The Big Clyde Beach Clean launches at Parklea in Port Glasgow on March 15 but there will be litter picks running every weekend. To volunteer visit the Literati Guide to Inverclyde page on Facebook.
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