TWO boatloads of plastic waste have been removed from a remote Scottish island which is home to thousands of rare seabirds.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT) said that volunteers had cleared a "mountain" of rubbish from the beaches of Handa Island in Sutherland.
Among the large haul collected by volunteers were ropes, buoys and plastic items which could be traced to countries including Canada, the United States of America, France, Ireland and Spain.
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The volunteers spent most of their time cleaning the island’s southern beaches, as well as spending day cleaning up the beach at Tarbet near Scourie, the departure point for the ferry to the island.
Handa is a wildlife reserve and home to tens of thousands or seabirds including guillemots, razorbills and puffins, making it one of Europe’s most important seabird colonies.
Francesca Clair, Handa Ranger with the SWT said the rubbish collected had been enough to fill a large skip.
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She added: “Sadly large amounts of plastic waste are washed up on beaches all over Scotland’s coastline and uninhabited islands like Handa aren’t immune.
“Hauling tonnes of litter isn’t one of the most glamorous jobs we have to do on the island so I’m very grateful to the volunteers who have helped us out this week, and to Andy Dinsdale who joined us to carry out methodical surveys of the rubbish that was collected.
“These surveys demonstrate the global scale of the problem as well as helping us learn a lot about the litter we find on the island.”
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Handa Island Wildlife Reserve is owned by Scourie Estate and managed in partnership with the SWT.
A 6km circular path takes in the key points of interest around the island. The ferry to Handa Island Wildlife Reserve operates from March until early September.
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