Garbage Girl rides into town aiming to clean up Stirling

Hundreds of volunteer litter pickers are expected to descend on Stirling town centre next week in a mass clean-up which could become a nationwide event.

The Clean Up Stirling Day has been organised by Jodie Underhill, the head of a voluntary organisation in India which works to clean up litter and work for the rights of litter pickers.

Jodie, who is known as Garbage Girl, hopes the event in Stirling next Saturday will be the prototype for a Clean Up Britain day which will take place in cities and towns across the country.

Ms Underhill says: “We are campaigning for this to become a national day. I would like to see it becoming as popular as Comic Relief.” Volunteers dressed as discarded cans or chewing gum or wearing blow-up bin costumes will be helping to recruit volunteers around Stirling, which is the headquarters of the Keep Scotland Beautiful organisation.

Ms Underhill, who started the group Mountain Cleaners more than three years ago, began picking up litter on beaches when she was travelling the world. She called for volunteers to help join a mass clean-up when she visited McLeod Ganj, a suburb of Dharamsala, the Himalayan town which is home to the Dalai Lama.

She was invited to organised the Stirling Clean Up after blogging on the Clean Up Britain site. Clean Up Britain is supported by celebrities including Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Former rugby international Kenny Logan is also a keen supporter of the campaign and will be joining the litter pickers in Stirling town centre.

The founder of Clean Up Britain, John Read, said: “We are using Stirling as a dry run to see how a Clean Up Britain day could be rolled out across the country.

“The campaign is about changing attitudes – 48 per cent of people admit to dropping litter and local authorities are spending well over £1bn a year to clean it up.

“In addition, there are thousands of animals which are injured every year from ingesting litter, which is why the RSPCA is also supporting our campaign.”

As well as introducing a national clean-up day, the organisation hopes to encourage a change in attitude towards littering and an increase in the use of fines as a deterrent.

Mr Read said Jodie Underhill had been an inspiration to work with. “She is amazing. She is motivated, committed and somebody who gets on with everybody.

“She is the head of an organisation which could really be called Clean Up India – so we are really pleased to be working with her.”

Garbage Girl herself says: “It might not seem a very sexy thing to be picking up litter but I love it. As soon as I organised the first clean-up in India I realised I am not the only person who cares about it.

“We are incredible human beings who can do incredible things, so we should be able to do something about this.”

A spokesman for Keep Scotland Beautiful said: “This will help make our country a greener, tidier and more sustainable place to live.

“Indeed, this complements much of the activity already being carried out by Keep Scotland Beautiful. We have for many years run our National Spring Clean, which galvanises local community groups to clear their localities of litter and other refuse.”