This clever pooch collects hundreds of plastic bottles during walks to recycle litter and clean his town. Let’s take a look!
Meet Scruff, Englands Eco Pooch Who’s Found A Love For Collecting Plastic Bottles
Yvonne Faulkner-Grant and her husband, David Grant, noticed something peculiar about their pet dog Scruff while they were out walking in their town of Nuneaton in central England.
Scruff has always enjoyed off-leash walks thanks to his diligent training, and he used to love fetching sticks. However, his vet advised him to stop due to the risk of getting scratched on the inside of his mouth as he ages. Border collies are natural working dogs, and Scruff still wanted a task. So, he started collecting the plastic bottles he found along his route!
Cleaning Up His Town One Bottle At A Time
“He would see a bottle that somebody had tossed out, and he’d go pick it up, play with it, then drop it and leave it,” Yvonne said. “We’d praise him and he’d go look for another one, but we started to feel bad about leaving the bottles,” David added. “Even though they weren’t ours to begin with, we thought of it as littering.”
So the couple came up with a plan: they would bring a cloth sack along on their twice-daily walks so they could collect and recycle all of the bottles Scruff picked up. How thoughtful of them!
Scruff’s Eco Efforts Has Grown An Encouraging Fan Base!
In February 2022, Scruff found 61 plastic bottles, followed in March by 110 bottles and one plastic cup. In August, he found a whopping 143 bottles! They now post about his cleanup adventures once a month on David’s Facebook page under the hashtag #scruffsbottlepatrol.
Friends and neighbours chimed in on the post with many praises of “Good boy!” and “Well done, Scruff!” One man nicknamed the pooch “Scruffy the Eco Warrior”!
“We were all amazed at how many bottles he would find — and we were also shocked at how many people were tossing them on the ground,” she said. “Everyone loved that Scruff was helping to clean up our town.”
In 2022, Scruff managed to retrieve exactly 1,334 bottles — wow! Thank you Scruff, you’re a true environmental hero. You can check out Scruff’s posts on David’s Facebook page with the hashtag #scruffsbottlepatrol.
For more feel-good eco stories from around the world, check out our Eco News category and the blogs below:
This New Battery Is Seaweed-Based & Stores Energy Sustainably!
Mushroom Skins Could Be The Secret To Reducing Electronic Waste!
