What is with all the litter EVERYWHERE!?

[Pebble21uk]

So I drove from the South West to the North of England last week and just couldn't get over the amount of litter absolutely everywhere! I've noticed it more in the last few years, but it now seems to have reached epic proportions.

For 7 hours up the motorway it was strewn around on the verges and banks. Also just as bad off the motorway too. We stopped for a coffee somewhere around the Midlands (off the motorway and in a National Trust car park as members - so free). Just as we were leaving down a small country lane a car pulled out right in front of us and sped off, having (I'm 99% sure) been responsible for fly tipping in a layby. If we had been a second or two sooner our dash cam might have caught them in the act.

I did notice posters about being responsible with your litter and how much wildlife is killed by it in the UK on the back of toilet doors at a service station (not something I've noticed before) which indicates it is a problem which is getting worse.

It was just so depressing and so needless... I was so saddened and angry. What has caused this huge surge?

I think it's an example of 'broken window's syndrome. If neighbour 'can't be bothered' why should I. New people moved in down our road about a year ago. About October didn't bother taking their bin in after collection (decent garden so would have to walk 20 yards down path) since then, their ndn doesn't bring bin in, and another dozen or so. Also bin lids no longer shut so wind takes litter out.
I'll be flamed for this but all non bin retrievers are housing association.

Nonsense- litter is caused by people throwing stuff out of the car- not by 'lack of services'. We shouldn't have to pay massive amounts of tax money on picking up litter. Why is it so bad in UK, and not in other countries in Europe?

I’m South London also. I put it down to recycling bins, fortnightly collections, foxes and people not giving a shit

Little incentive to not add to litter in the streets? Really? So people need to be incentivised to not add their litter to the litter they can see is already strewn about the place? No.

Far too many people are just selfish scum. It's as simple as that. Yes bins need to be emptied more regularly but, as we were taught as children, if there is no bin or the bin is full take your litter home. I always do but do often wonder why I bother.

Where I used to live was quite a good area. One day I saw a group of schoolchildren come out of the newsagents, stand right next to an almost empty bin and throw their sweet wrappers on the ground.

I had a go at them and got sworn at and called all the names under the sun. They were from the primary school opposite the shop! Little darlings

I spent nine months living in a van driving round Europe and parts of Italy were the dirtiest, most littered I’d ever seen in my life. Britain is god awful though, I’ll give you that but I don’t think we’re unique in our shitty attitude to our environment. I often pick up rubbish when I’m out with my dogs (I’m hoping to encourage my young son to join me soon!) but as PP said up thread, it’s back within days, if not hours ☹️

It's a Western problem. In my home country we don't have street bins, because there's social accounatability with taking your rubbish home with you. People even have portable ash cylinders, if they're smokers - if yo usmoke, you don;t dump your cig butt on the street, you put in in your portable cylinder.

I travelled to Stockholm and the streets are squeaky clean .

Ah yes, was thinking about Europe in general- but you are right about parts of Italy and Spain. But there is NO excuse for all the litter around road sides everywhere.Why can't people have a bag and take it home!

In many countries it is socially unacceptable or even criminal to litter. I wish it was here!
While absolutely not their fault for the littering, I do wish food packaging could be addressed as well... so much of it is unnecessary. If it's not there in the first place it can't be dropped. Anything to help!

In our council area they are about to change to collecting wheelie bins every 3 weeks !
Recycling is weekly but residents have to separate it all into different plastic boxes/white sacks. As soon as there is a little bit wind these boxes blow away spreading litter everywhere.
If we want the brown wheelie bin for garden grass cuttings etc emptied we have to buy an annual permit for it
Hardly any public bins on the streets too.

Im expecting even more rubbish to be on the streets and fly tipping.

People just don't give a fuck. They have no pride. They don't care about other people and they don't care about where they live. Nothing to do with council refuse collections or full litter bins on the street, and it's certainly one thing that cannot be blamed on The Tories And Their Cuts. If the bin is full, take your rubbish home with you. And no, rubbish next to the overflowing bin is not an invitation for you to add to it.

If people can't manage the simple task of not littering – if people think throwing their rubbish out of the car window, and such, is a fine alternative to taking it home with them – there is no hope.

@uhOhOP "take your rubbish home".....and then what?
As I said upthread my flats communal dumpsters are full again barely a day or 2 from being emptied (both recycling and general rubbish).
What am I literally meant to do with my rubbish and recycling?
(btw - I would never dump it at the side of the road or whatever)

Well, after taking it home, the next step is to place it in their own bin, the bin in their home. I can't exactly speak about your particular situation, but that's generally what would happen next. But your post is just making excuses for those who litter, as if to say that they throw their rubbish out of their car window (or they drop it by the bin or they just mindlessly let go of the packet or wrapper they're holding because that's their habit) because there is no room in their wheelie bin at home.

I don't believe littering can be brought back to the government, its failings, its cuts to services. It's about the sort of person you are, and, I'm afraid to say, how you were brought up – either you don't think twice about dropping litter or you don't think twice about putting it in a bin, wherever that bin might be.

People just don't care enough about being responsible in this very small way.

@uhOhOP I am not making excuses for anyone - chucking stuff out a window is disgusting.
A lot of the problem is because bins are overflowing (public and personal ones) rubbish often gets caught up in the wind and blown around etc. Bin bags that are piled up on the bins the night before collection day get ripped open by foxes.
Most of the rubbish I see in the streets where I am (South London) is from ripped bin bags.
I actually have a full kitchen bin and 2 full bin bags in my kitchen waiting to go down to the dumpsters. The dumpsters (2 for 30 flats) are already full and won't be emptied until Friday.
The whole rubbish and recycling system in the UK sucks.

Combination of things, more people consuming food & drink on the go (Costa etc), lack of public littering campaigns, no fines or enforcement for littering, lack of public services, people don’t care & thinks it’s not their problem, businesses are not accountable either. I run a local litter picking group, regularly pick and it’s rife and once an area picked it’s filthy again in weeks.

There is a small local railway line by me . All kinds of rubbIsh is just thrown over the fence including mattresses,bikes and old prams . Parents don’t seem to teach children not to just drop rubbish and schools don’t have visits from keep Britain Tidy any more. I saw a man fly tipping in Southport . I got the company name and number from his van. The council weren’t interested because I didn’t photograph him doing it . Unsurprisingly I didn’t want to get that close !

Highways are usually responsible for the litterpicking of main routes, however they don’t do it or if they do it’s not frequent. Mainly due to time, safety, costs etc. it’s a worsening issue which there is no one, easy solution too.

I live on a road with a recycling tip and yes people still dump their rubbish on the pavement wheb they can easily walk a few hundred yards to the tip. Sheer laziness because I cannot understand it other than that

There's definitely been cuts to street sweepers/ litter pickers by my my LA. I work for my LA and they actually called our depot to get us to run the Hako (street sweeping machine) round the yard as it hasn't moved for months and they wanted to check the tracker wasn't broken. It's just a lack of bodies, the guys that normally do the street cleaning/ street bins are working as loaders on the bin lorries most of the time as the LA aren't giving funding for replacements for people who are off on long term sick/ off sick short term/ cover for holidays or training.You used to get overtime to litterpick local section of motorway but that's gone now too.

NE here. Bin strikes since Christmas. Off and on.

It's fun.

I live in Northumberland and I don't see this at all around here. A few pieces here and there but nothing that couldn't have blown out of a bin really.

It gets bad in the summer around the touristy area (not enough bins) but the actual town is very clean.

I do notice it when you head into the cities though.

It’s so depressing. It’s never been this bad, no idea what is going on but people clearly don’t give a shit.

Hi everyone. We’re really interested in understanding more about what motivates people to post about these issues. We’re inviting a small group of people to take part in an online discussion. It will last around 90 minutes, and we can offer time credits as a thank-you. If you're interested, sign-up here:

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I’m in the North East and it truly is a shit hole