A litter hot spot highlighted by a national aerial photography swoop has been cleaned up by local volunteers.
The beach near Crail was snapped strewn with timber and plastic, by a pilot and exposed in the SCRAPbook – Scottish Coastal Rubbish Aerial Photography – campaign.
The initiative by the Marine Conservation Society and Sky Watch Civil Air Patrol mapped accumulations of rubbish along the UK coastline.
A 23-strong team from Plastic Free Anstruther tidied up the spot near Wormiston Farm, removing a skip-full of litter and fishing debris.
A spokesperson for the group said: “This beach had been flagged up by www.scrapbook.org as needing attention due to the high litter count.
“After two-and-a-half hours we had managed to fill six tonne-bags with creels, bottles, polystyrene and general waste.
“On top of that we removed a massive pile of rope that we estimate weighed around three quarters of tonne.
“A local farmer said the rope pile had been there for years. It took around 12 of us heaving and pushing to move it a few metres on to the path.
“The pile of rubbish fills a skip and will be collected from the road by Fife Coast and Countryside Trust.”
Other litter hot spots identified around Fife’s coast were at Tayport, Newport, Leuchars, Buckhaven and East Wemyss, including plastic, pipes, tarpaulin and plastic bags.
However, tarpaulin and other material photographed at Tayport was later identified as makeshift maintenance of a footpath rather than an accumulation of litter.
Those behind SCRAPbook said they hoped the initiative would mobilise clean-up missions to help rid the country’s shores of a scourge harmful to the natural environment.
Plastic Free Anstruther was recently established with the aims of reducing single-use plastic in the Anstruther community and gaining plastic free status for the town.
