Do you ever drop litter?

No, never.

i'm the weird middle-aged woman picking up litter!! I live opposite a lovely little duckpond in playground, unfortunately just down the road it's the newsagents. And up the road, three schools... the kids go from school to the newsagent to buy crisps and sweets and drinks and then across the park and leave loads of litter. Yesterday there was a bright pink packet that had had sweets in it and all of the bright pink sweet wrappers (really near a bin!!!) they obviously been some kind of chewy sweet as some of the wrappers were still sticky. The nosey little ducks we're getting them stuck to their beaks, so I picked all of the remaining ones out and put them back in the packet and then into the bin. No big deal.

I pick any bottles and cans and stuff up on the way back so I can put them in my recycling bin the park bin.

there are quite a few bins at the park, so I often pick up bits and pieces and put them in the bin and occasionally I'll take a bin bag over and fill that up instead, but unless there's an event on at the park, it's not really an issue to put the rubbish in the bins there as they get emptied fairly regularly.

I honestly do not know how people can just drop litter and throw it out of Car windows, how do they just not care??

many many years ago, I went out with a bloke who smoked, the first time I saw him drop a butt I told him to pick it up and not just dropped them wherever. He was adamant that it was fine as they're biodegradable. We had quite a row about it and I had to show him the literature on just how many hundreds of years they take to biodegrade, he did eventually stop doing it but I have a feeling it was more to do with wanting to avoid the aggravation with me than any epiphany! And no doubt where we split up, he went back to doing it🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

A large amount of the litter we see is caused by it blowing out of bins or during collection, whether domestic, commercial or public.

Some littering does happen, of course.

The answer is street cleaning. The less litter there already is, the less likely people are to drop litter.

No, I always make sure my children use bins and I always pick up after my dog. The other week I had to pick up several beer cans up that had been crushed and thrown on the floor outside the children's school before a small child fell over and cut themselves on them.

No but my BIL does- usually from the car, doesn't want it smelling. He knows it's rubbish (haha) but is just a really selfish person in all sorts of ways. He doesn't care about the world outside of himself and thinks recycling is a conspiracy. I am pretty appalled, it my mind it's the behaviour of a teenage boy 'showing off' being naughty.

To be fair, I think a lot of roadside litter is due to the waste collection vans, and we are hoodwinked about many aspects of recycling, but I also know there's no room for nuance in public messaging and it is a net positive.

On the plus side, there has been an explosion in numbers of litter picking groups. DP got his littler picking kit from the council for free (big bag, metal picker thing) and at least once a week he goes out and picks litter.

I never drop litter, and every time I see someone drop litter, I confront them. I often pick it up and give it back to them.

This is the only thing that truly angers me. We are experiencing a pandemic of litter everywhere and need to urgently address this issue. Not only because it’s awful for wildlife and the environment but also for everyone’s mental health and well being. Living in a tip is terrible for everyone and I want something done about it.

@FeministUnderTheCatriarchy we’re not allowed to be proud of our country in the UK, because that is considered racist.

I have seen a bloke drink half a bottle of wine and chuck the empty out of the window into a layby.

The entire roadside is littered with bottles.

It took me ages to realise this is people wanging them out of the window on their way home from work or on their way to work. Disgusting.

No, my house is a tip but I wouldn't dream of leaving litter anywhere. I hate the spitters too, disgusting ppl

I think in NZ we are raised with a pride in our country, we are all told it's the most beautiful country in the world and that we should be proud of it.

I've noticed we have a loyalty to NZ that I don't notice on the same level in the UK.

We are also taught about conservation in schools and the impact on wildlife.

I do think the campaign had an impact as kids would go around saying it to each other and it was an easy phrase for parents to implement at home, but I don't think it would have worked if there wasn't already an inbuilt culture around caring for our country.

Unfortunately (and I am not anti immigration or tourism) there has been a big rise in littering since I was a kid in NZ. When I have observed it in person, it has always been done by people not from NZ.

I’m in Ireland and they recently introduced a charge on plastic bottles . You now have to return them to a machine in the shop now to get the money back. I’ve never heard anything like the moaning and complaining since this was introduced. But I’m delighted because I have noticed a huge reduction in the amount of litter on the sides of the roads. People are so disgusting and would rather throw something out the window than wait to get home to a bin as they are driving along. But it’s amazing how a few cent can motivate people not to do it.

No, but even if it wanted too I would be hard pressed to find a space with no dog mess

No, I don’t and I never have. I never allowed my kids or grandchildren to either. Litter just destroys the area. 🙄

If i drop anything i pick it back up put it in a bin or take it home.

Never. I'm a 70s child, and it was drummed into me by my parents - Mum especially as it was she that took DB and me on days out while Dad was working or asleep on night shifts - that you put your rubbish in a bin. If there's no bin you keep it in a bag or pocket till you find one. If you don't find a bin, you take it home with you and dispose of it there. So I've never once deliberately dropped litter in my 54 years, even if the wind has blown something out of my hands I've chased after it and felt bad if I couldn't retrieve it!

Mind, there's nothing new about litterbugs. My mum once took DB and me along with our neighbours two DDs for a day out in the woods. We'd have been around 7, 8, 9 or so, so over forty years ago. One of the neighbours DDs finished a packet of crisps and promptly dropped the empty packet on the grounds, at which my mum immediately chided her with "Pick that up; we don't drop litter!" The girl looked at her, dumbfounded. She'd clearly been used to dropping litter indiscriminately when she'd been with her own parents. Shocking, really, if that's how she and other kids are brought up, no wonder there's so much litter about. It really is a disgrace.

Better than it was when the IRA was active and bins were removed from many places. I take rubbish home if I can't find a bin.

Never. My mum was passionate about anti littering and drummed it in to us at an early age that littering was wrong. I fear if I even so much as droppes an apple core she will come back and haunt me!

TBH it is not just the UK. I was in Cologne last weekend and the entire place was a giant open air litter bin, especially on the Friday evening.

To drop litter would require a very specific mentality - a self entitled nob head!

In other countries litter dropping is seen as almost a social outcast thing to do.

No. I actually picked up two plastic bottles last wkend and put them in my recycling bin

I never litter, it's careless and ignorant and I judge people who do.

A lot of the litter in the streets around me is actually caused by the council bin crews! I've seen it happen often. Stuff escapes from the recycling bins and general waste bins as they're being emptied and is just left on the ground.

I’ve also noticed there just aren’t sufficient bloody bins on the streets. Again, maybe council cuts to collections. You sometimes see these mounds of rubbish around the few bins around.

David Sedaris spends hours a day doing this in West Sussex and has written about some of the strange things he's come across.

The verges of the major dual carriageway near me are covered in a blanket of bottles, fast food packaging and plastic wrappers. Trees are full of plastic bags, balloons and those stupid lanterns. It's very sad.

Never, ever.

I grew up in NZ where "Be a tidy Kiwi" was hammered into us.

Coming to the UK was a shock and I felt so much anger seeing all the rubbish.

My DH threw something out his window when we were first dating and I lost my shit, telling him how selfish it was not only to everyone who has to drive past and see the rubbish but also to animals and the country he was born in.

He had never heard anyone feel passionately about it before and was quite ashamed. He never did it again and now talks a lot about how disgusting it is and tells other people off lol