A PhD STUDENT from the University of Edinburgh has collected 75 kilograms of rubbish while walking the East Lothian coast.

Anders Jespersen, from Denmark, was awarded the Des Rubens and Bill Wallace Grant from conservation charity the John Muir Trust to walk the width of Scotland to pick up litter.

He is hiking the John Muir Way from Dunbar to Helensburgh, aiming to collect every item of rubbish he sees on the way.

In the 50 kilometres completed across Dunbar, North Berwick, and Longniddry, Anders has collected 75 kilograms of discarded litter.

Anders – who disposes of the litter he collects in bins along the way or takes it to his car – said: “Litter is easy to ignore but once you start looking, you see it everywhere.

“We noticed that there are different things that account for litter in different areas. In Dunbar, a lot of it was what had blown out of recycling bins; on other routes where people live, it was almost exclusively dog poo bags that had been bagged but not binned. In Longniddry, every stream that runs into the sea was full of wet wipes.”

The translational neuroscience PhD student is raising money for the John Muir Trust’s conservation work as part of a fundraising appeal called Journey for Wildness. He is walking sections of the path on weekends and is set to finish next spring.