Bit of background, there are huge issues in my area with litter, fly tipping and people dumping rubbish in the alleyways instead of putting it in their wheelie bin. This is made worse by other people ripping into said bags of rubbish scavanging for things. The council budget for street cleaning has been stripped to the bone and the issue is getting worse and worse.
I joined a scheme where the people of the town are supplied with kit to help clear up their local area (bags, a hoop, litter picker, gloves and stickers for larger items such as furniture etc), the procedure is then to place the rubbish either at the end of the alleyway if it's a big litter pick/larger items, or place by a public bin on a main road if it's a smaller pick (only a few bags), then call/email the council with their location for them to collect and dispose of it.
I don't expect any thanks for doing it, I have no illusions that anyone should be on bended knee or anything like that, but I'm so pissed off with the atttitude of some people over what I'm doing. People have been making complaint after complaint about the bags (bright orange and labelled so it's obvious it's council rubbish, not another fly tip), to the point that somebody rounded up a load of the bags I'd left at the end of the alleyway, ripped into them, emptied them outside my back gate, and threw a large portion of it over my back wall.
What I can't work out, is why it doesn't seem to bother people when it's strewn everywhere, yet as soon as I bag it up, they start complaining about flies and rats being attracted by the rubbish. They can't seem to get their head around the fact that there isn't any more rubbish in the area than there was perviously, it just happens to be all in one place now. Yes there's always a lot of it, but surely it's better bagged up with immenant chance of collection that strewn everywhere for up to a fortnight? (The council clear it once every+ two weeks, after bin day).
I know it's not nice to walk past piles of rubbish, but it was in the area in the first place, and it's there on a temporary basis until the council collect it. I'm just so enraged that people are so awkward over me trying to make the area nicer!
I've tried leaving it in different places, or splitting it between a couple of places so it's less in one place, but wherever I put it, SOMEBODY complains, and they aim it at me, not at the people tipping it in the first place, or at the council who are the ones responsible for collecting it. The amount of times I hear 'YOUR rubbish', or 'you put it there, you should take it to the tip'. FFS aside from the fact I don't have a car, why should I take it to the tip? Surely I've done my share bagging it up? Surely I'm not the cause of the problem here? Or AIBU and not seeing the woods for the trees?