Do you ever drop litter?

A couple of years ago we were in a seaside town, queueing for icecreams. The mum and son in front of us had made their choices and the lad was peeling the paper from his lolly. He dropped it on the ground, so I waited for a minute to see if Mum would say anything, but she didn't so I did. All I said was to pick it up. The mum went ballistic, said it wasn't her son's wrapper when clearly it was. Anyway she picked it up and gave it to her son, whereupon, he promptly dropped it again. You couldn't make it up!

No. Even as a child I knew it was wrong.

I can’t abide littering and I think we should be able to talk about it and not shut people down for whatever they think the contributing factors are. Interesting to hear about the Kiwi campaign.

I’m a 70s child and the Wombles of Wimbledon had a huge effect on me plus my parents did take the time to parent me properly and so I wouldn’t have dreamed of littering. Even throwing an apple core out of the car window felt naughty but was allowed if into a hedge.

I suggested the same to a group of mums in a coffee shop recently and their answer was the same.

I've seen disgusting messes left by families in cafes, hotels, on the beach and at picnic spots who have no shame at all.

They genuinely think it's below them to take their rubbish with them, and that the world is st their service to clean up after them, wherever they go.

No I’m a random person who picks up other peoples litter at the park. Hate litter it makes a place look so untidy and umkempt. It really doesn’t take much to put it in a bin. It’s probably a good thing I’m not in charge of the world I’d condemn all the litter bugs to live in one place with no decent refuse collection. Birmingham essentially and see how they like it.

No never have done and I’m always shocked when I see it happen and make a comment in disgust. Can’t believe how much rubbish is everywhere

A colleague came into the office one day furious because she’d just had an on-the-spot fine for dropping a cigarette butt.

While the other smokers sympathised, I kept looking at my screen because I couldn’t help smiling. It sounded totally reasonable to me & hopefully would stop any of them doing it in future.

Never. I also challenge people that do. Yes. I am that person.

At school we had letters sent home if we were seen eating in the street!

Scruffy, disgusting people litter. I once threw some rubbish back in to an open top car which had just thrown litter out. ‘Twas incredibly satisfying, filthy pigs. Sadly there are a lot of youngsters who think littering is acceptable.

Never see litter where I live nor do I drop any.

Certainly not. I hate it. I always say something if I see it happen. I'm a hardfaced old bag though, I appreciate others may not be so robust.

I'm a child of the 50s and 60s and it was drummed into us, too, both at home and at school.

I might throw an apple core into a hedge to rot down, but I have never knowingly discarded litter.

I live in Dorset and the amount of rubbish that is thrown out of cars or blows out of open trucks littering the verges along dual carriageways is shocking.

Absolutely never. It’s one of the (very few) things I’ve retained from being dinned in to me as a young child. There’s no conscious virtue in my not littering. It would simply never occur to me to do it any more than it would occur to me to randomly assault a passerby.

In Catherine Fox’s novel Angels and Men, a priest tells a theology student that the definition of middle-class is ‘more easily able to imagine killing someone than littering’.

Nope never dropped any if I’m not near a bin I will wait till I get to one. I hate seeing litter on the floor - I’ve seen people throw it out of car windows a few times (not people I know)

No we don't but then we had 'keep Britan tidy' drummed into us as kids.
We also taught our kids not to litter.
Now... everyone seems to drop it where they like.

No.
My kids don't either.
Our little town is not strewn with litter due to regular volunteer litter picking.
It's not kids that litter, it's people in trade vans, often sitting in traffic.

I don't litter, it was just a standard lesson growing up, not being a 'litter bug'. Respect for the environment around you and others. Like a PP, if I can't find a bin, I take it home. Just basic good manners to be honest.

I was listening to a program on the radio fairly recently discussing the problem of litter. They interviewed someone from the council in Manchester who was responsible for organising street cleaning and emptying public waste bins etc. She said the biggest cause of litter by far was fast food packaging. The second biggest problem was dog waste.

I don't litter but a gust of wind has made a wrapper or 2 blow away from me which I've chosen not to chase because of having the kids with me.

Never have, never will. Absolutely scummy behaviour. If I see people drop litter I pick it up and give it back to them.

DS is litter picking for the volunteering weekend of his Duke of Edinburgh award. He went out for the first time this morning, and has come back with over 1kg of collected rubbish and is currently ranting about how disgusting people are. Most of it is apparently from takeaways/corner shops or vapes packaging.

I would love to be able to speak to people who leave litter (including dog poo - bagged or not). What on earth is going on in their tiny little heads? The trouble is, despite the amount of litter I see around, I have only ever once or twice seen it actually being dropped. I suspect that these people only do so when there's nobody else around to observe and call them out. If someone else is around, they'll walk on a bit and drop it when nobody's looking.

I'll admit to throwing biodegradable stuff into long grass/hedges where it can't be seen. This is apple and pear cores, which I also throw into my garden. I figure it's good for birds/small mammals and for the soil.

I would never litter anything manmade though.

Never, and I’ve just picked up a costa cup and a crisp packet from the street outside a house a couple of doors down.
DH once got abuse when telling someone off for chucking something out of their car window as they were waiting to pull out of the petrol station.
Litterbugs are disgusting.