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 know it’s a disgrace. I hate it and gives me the rage every time I drive anywhere.

Where I am it’s the council picking up the recycling that drops the crap. Just by my place they dropped two milk cartons, coke bottle, yogurt pots and cardboard.

Did they pick it up, did they hell. Lazy bastards.

There needs to be a better education about this.

Bring back the 'Keep Britain Tidy' television adverts, put posters everywhere reminding all of us to put rubbish in the bin, install more bins in public areas (which are emptied regularly), educate young children at school about this issue, make fines higher if people are caught dropping litter.

Problem is that if there is a lot of rubbish in an area, then others think it is ok to add their rubbish there as well.

I've seen people quite offended that they are expected to take their rubbish home, 'takeaways make the car smelly, so I throw the remains out of the window', unbelievable! Even saying they throw dirty nappies out of the car window, where were these people dragged up? You see kids doing it too, dropping sweet wrappers, crisp packets, drink bottles and cans straight on the ground even if there's a bit a few feet away.

There’s a charity that sets up hubs around the country where you can borrow litter-pickers.

There are groups of volunteers doing this year round. It’s important to look after our environment.

It’s not nice to call people scum.

Why not start your own local litter picking group? Attitudes can change.

Here they are

https://www.cleanupuk.org.uk/

Children are educated at school. Most schools have an environmental group these days.
It’s mostly adults who litter.

People are vile and don't care for their surroundings. However, councils are also utterly useless - ours only collects the main rubbish and recycling every 2 weeks!!! As a result I have to do a weekly tip run, otherwise I'd have a rubbish mountain outside my house!

I really feel for those unable to get to the tip. Our stupid council have had to spend a fortune on fly tipping - collect the bloody bins instead!!!

Austerity and cutting services shouldn't have anything to do with it. If people just put their rubbish in the bin there'd be no need for litter picking.

Out cycling yesterday and on one rural route it's just a constant stream of fly tipping, takeaway packages and drinks cans/bottles. People and I will generalise and say men just throw stuff out of the car. There was a recent thread where someone out with her date asked him NOT to throw his can out of the window but he did. The fly tipping is appalling as well. Builders waste, furniture, household items. These people have no shame or responsibility.

Yesterday, I walked along a short stretch of the B road that leads out of the country village (where I live) & filled a black rubbish bag, mainly with large glass beer bottles & cans. I probably collected 30 on this short stretch & had to clamber down/up banks & through brambles to retrieve the rubbish whilst dodging traffic. Depressingly, I cleared this stretch a few months ago but people (is it men??) are continually chucking their drinks bottles out of the window as they drive by.

i don’t think it’s got anything to do with how full their dustbin is at home. It’s just a bad habit combined with no appreciation of wildlife and no pride in the country. It would really put me off visiting the U.K. if I was a tourist. Are parents too busy to bring their children up properly these days?

There is no educating campaign like there used to be.

Remember the Keep Britain Tidy TV adverts anyone?

I'd say we have a huge proportion of the population that simply do not care. Children learn from their parents example.

My mum was super respectful and would never litter, ipso facto, me and my siblings never would either.

Too many UK residents are absolute scuzzers.

It mostly blows there, not dropped deliberately.

It used to be cleared by councils.

Funding to councils was cut from 2010 onwards.

It's disgusting and pure laziness and entitlement to leave rubbish anywhere!

Totally agree with this. I live on a farm. There is a layby at the end of our drive. Every weekend morning there are piles of takeaway cartons dumped along with drinks cartons and wine bottles. There is a bin.

There’s no excuse for that. Some people are lazy and disrespectful

I noticed this today but was also in a part of London where I live with no bins. Thank you Croydon council! Lambeth side of the road had bins.

I saw today at least 2 paper cups of coffee/tea dumped on the side. Surely you’d do what I do which is find a bin or bring it home with you. So lazy.

People are disgusting. I’ve noticed it so much more since getting a dog and having to be extra vigilant as she likes eating any old crap she finds. It’s everywhere - and I live in what’s meant to be a nice area.

Ive recently travelled south to north and back again and noticed the same thing (not the M6 Toll road though strangely).

Ive read that highways services cant afford the associated risk of having people clearing up at the side of a busy motorway, due to the number of accidents now and to close motorways would cause mayhem.

on my own road, it's primarily young men who consume fast food and fast drinks and then lob the wrappings out of the window. Ive even seen walkers push empty bottles into my hedge as they pass. Men seem to behave in the wild as they do at home - under the assumption that someone else will clear up after them.

We went to South Korea last year and it is quite stark just how different the culture is in this respect. We went to a beach that was several miles long and there was not a spec of litter and they don’t have public bins.

We visited 2 big cities and I think I saw maybe 2 bits of litter.

People are just much more responsible for their own actions and respecting their environment. You buy something that creates litter, you take it home.

In Japan there are no bins for litter anywhere. Just bins at home and bins for recyclable cans. Japanese people carry a bag with them at all times and take their litter home with them. They all accept responsibility for their own trash. There is no trash on the streets. This is a societal norm inculcated from childhood by families, schools, peers etc.

The UK has become so disjointed that a considerable part of the population see litter collection as someone else‘s responsibility. That‘s what the Council is for. The fact that there is little or no enforcement of anti littering legislation also contributes.

Many parents are hopeless when it comes to educating their children not to drop litter. And if anyone ever sees something dropped and makes a comment, instead of an embarrassed apology, they are met with a mouthful of abuse or worse.

I am not sure how we have arrived at this point as a society. But the pendulum really does need to swing back.

Were the Croydon ones those solar powered ones?
Apparently they've had to remove them because the signal that's meant to be sent out to say the bin is full is powered by 3G so they don't work anymore.
(also hello 👋 possibly neighbour)

Yep litter and dog poo everywhere! Walking DC to school is like a special operation to not stand in it!

And people leaving those crazy whip canisters outside schools knowing that school staff have to collect them to protect kids

https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/professional-services/eco-schools-climate-education-and-calculation