We need a National Anti-Litter campaign

[LovingKent]

The amount of litter everywhere at the moment is truly depressing and seems to have got so much worse over the past few years. Every beauty spot / park /street seems to have rubbish in it. Our local litter picking group is collecting bags of it every day. Every time the media reports large gatherings, there is a huge amount of litter left behind.

People do not seem to understand the huge environmental impact of their littering actions.

Councils do not have the money or resource to be constantly cleaning up.

We need a new national anti-litter campaign to raise awareness of the environmental effect of littering.

Please sign and share this petition. petition.parliament.uk/petitions/566467?fbclid=IwAR0tiz3Aqbmo2JtL_oK8fUwMBWENO-HcCckVzdnx5WlxFTh4EOBON59Mlv4

Please also write to your MP. I have. It is time the government took some action on this issue.

I don’t think people that litter are going to pay any attention whatsoever to a campaign, they already know it’s wrong, they simply don’t care. It’d be a pointless waste of money. Better putting energy into funding better waste disposal, public bins and giving the council better resources to deal with it at a local level in my opinion. If people that are already littering can be caught or traced and fined for it, they’re a lot less likely to continue. It worked brilliant with people chucking their cigarettes here, on the spot fine if you’re caught. Town centre isn’t anywhere near as bad as it used to be for fag ends all over the place

I do think we need to make people aware it is a CRIME.

The verges around here are terrible . Who are all these people who just chuck stuff out of their cars/vans? I simply don’t understand it.

Agree.

Op, do you actually go out an pick the litter (that sounds very passive aggressive, but it me being genuinely interested)
Most communities have litter groups when you can volunteer, I go out with my DS (7) and pick in our community, it's not the answer but it helps.

We get stopped by so many passers by, saying thank you and congratulate us, it's nice but if everyone just does thier little bit, it would really change things!

I liked the signs that I think North Yorkshire council put up. They went along the lines of Stop: why have you left your rubbish here?
Is it because
A) You are selfish
B) You are scruffy
C) You want animals to suffer
That sort of thing.
Basically any one who litters us a scruffy bastard. I feel the same about houses though wtf can’t you clean your shit up and put it in a bin?
What is wrong with you?

@Celeryhead yes I do go out and pick up litter. Not regularly as I work. I agree it does make a difference. I think litter attracts more litter if you see what I mean.

I'm going to partly disagree with you @CatsHairEverywhere2. I don't think some people are making the link between dropping litter and the effect on the wider environment. I do agree that councils need more funding for this, we need more bins (decent ones - not those stupid open ones that we have in our town where the litter frequently blows back out) and more fines.

I think it’s irrelevant whether the Op picks up litter! Surely the point is that people shouldn’t drop it in the first place. Why have an army of volunteers running along behind people scooping up their debris, but simply shrug about the perpetrators? You need to deal with the problem at source.

I was thinking the same OP. I still remember the 'keep Britain tidy' campaign from when I was a child, and having it drummed into us at primary school that we shouldn't drop litter. I'm not sure this happens anymore.

I dunno OP, I am part of a group that litter picks our local woods. Over lockdown the council reduced the number of bins from from 8 to 2 and apparently can't be bothered collecting the rubbish more than once a week now. As a consequence there is loads more litter, not least from the overflow and animals getting into bins.

It's not public awareness (some scrotes will always litter but most people try), it's facilities and councils providing the proper services that's needed. Especially when they have also put up council tax by 5% this year.

It's coming down to two options for many councils:

Leaving the litter where it is for a while to make a point that it's not going to get miraculously cleared by the pixies daily;

And/or heavily fining offenders.

Unfortunately it has been the case that magistrates are bewilderingly lenient with litterers in cases brought by local authorities. The media also love a sad face story about people 'Fined For Dropping A Sweet Wrapper' and the rest so it's not an easy thing to enforce without staff, body cameras, watertight evidence of intent, etc in some cities' courts.

It's basically not taken seriously enough in England.

Yes OP I think we do.

I live on a residential road near lots of takeaways. People are always pulling up on our street to eat food in their cars. I have watched so many people just open their car doors, chuck their rubbish in the gutter, and then drive off. It makes me so angry.

If I ran the country (in dictator fashion) I would come down extremely hard on litter dropping and dog shit (non)disposal.

I once worked for a bank which had one of its premises in a nature reserve. The CEO happened to be visiting that day, and saw a worker heading back to the office in her car after getting lunch. She wound down the window, in said nature reserve, and just dropped out a big brown KFC paper bag out the window, full of all the cups, boxes that she'd been feeding her face from. He identified her by the reg (a company car, no less), and named and shamed her in an all-staff email.

That sort of things needs to happen more often. Naming and shaming, rather than muttering quietly about how awful it is but saying nothing to the offender. (Very British!)

People who litter don't care about signs or social shaming.

@WallaceinAnderland

People who litter don't care about signs or social shaming.

Has to be fines, prison or euthanasia I guess then!

If you unpick the optics of people who litter, and realise they have zero respect for you, your environment and your family, then you may well agree with me that the death penalty is really not going far enough.

The only "campaign" we need is a few Nightingale jails to lock these scum up in for at least a fortnight.

I'd go with community service, litter picking.

I have a theory about litter bins in that they actually create litter ( in some situations). I walk through a lovely London green space every day and it has random bins everywhere. Every morning without fail litter is everywhere mostly due to the crows and squirrels. They actually removed one that was in a particularly stupid place where litter was spread from this bin daily and guess what no more litter in this area. There is also a litter bin by my office main entrance door which attracts litter. I’m convinced if it wasn’t there then litter wouldn’t be either.
Another office door further down has no bin and no litter problem.
It’s a paradox certainly but one worth exploring? Fewer bins can equal less litter - discuss 😁

We should have neighbourhood execution squads for litter droppers.

Fewer bins = more litter. Disney did research on how far people will carry litter before dumping it. Of course you do have to empty the bins regularly.

In NI we have the Litter Loathing Puppet advertisements. Do you have them over there?

@WallaceinAnderland

I'd go with community service, litter picking.

(thinks)

Nope. End of a rope is still too good for them. Absolute vermin scum.

@Hyperion100

We should have neighbourhood execution squads for litter droppers.

Now we're talking.

Actually, senseless summary execution is a bit inefficient.

Get the pondlife to pick up the litter. Then blow them away.

Harsh, but it's the only language they understand.

@DioneTheDiabolist

Fewer bins = more litter. Disney did research on how far people will carry litter before dumping it. Of course you do have to empty the bins regularly.

In NI we have the Litter Loathing Puppet advertisements. Do you have them over there?

Are Disney also doing research on running the UK generally ? Might explain a fuck of a lot about Mickey Mouse schemes.

Some littering is deliberate but a great deal of litter is created by things blowing around - the vast majority of the litter on my street originates from recycling day. We pick it up after every recycling round and almost nothing appears on other days. The council no longer has the resources to pick it up themselves.

So yes - waste money on an anti-litter campaign if it makes you feel better. Litter is a part of life and investing properly in street cleaning is the real solution. The Conservatives have ruthlessly cut council budgets for the last decade - would be interesting to see how much your local council spent on street cleaning in 2009 and how much in 2019 (don't think the covid year of 2020 is a useful comparator).

It is proven (research) that the less litter there is, the fewer people feel OK to drop litter - so cleaning up brings positive behaviour.

You'll get nowhere with a 'Keep Britain Tidy' bullshit campaign.

I live in a city centre and the councils put in the resources to clean up every day - all the roadside bins are emptied daily, we have vehicle road sweepers as well as people sweeping the pavements. Parks are cleaned daily. So even though I think we get a lot of litter dropped here, it doesn't stay around for long. Councils do need to be prepared to pay for enough bins and to empty them regularly (and I am happy to contribute more in council tax to allow that).

I don't drop litter but it doesn't bother me too much when I see it to be honest, can't imagine getting angry over it. I don't mind 'packaging' litter as it's just a mess but it doesn't affect me. Can't stand dog mess though as it's a health hazard and I've accidentally stepped on it.

Um. We do.

www.keepbritaintidy.org/

It's not public awareness (some scrotes will always litter but most people try), it's facilities and councils providing the proper services that's needed. Especially when they have also put up council tax by 5% this year.

Think it is important to remember by how much council budgets have been cut since 2010. They have been systematically cut whilst their costs have risen - largely due to ageing population requiring ever-increasing care and other services.

That 5% council tax rise is tiny in comparison to what has been lost.

This article gives a taster - from 2018. It has got even worse since then. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-46443700

Everyone needs to stop blaming their loca council and put the blame where it belongs - Conservative government choices.