To ask dog owners at the beach why you don’t

[Lovelyusername]

pick up plastic litter ?

I run along a beautiful coastline and see the same dog walkers ignoring the plastic.

You have a bag ready and will walk past a bin. AIBU to think that this would be a help to the environment ?

I pick up my own dog shit, other peoples dog shit and litter. I just do it. Not always but regularly

@weallhavewings

It is a good feeling, picking up plastic litter from the beach, you feel like if you met David Attenborough you could hold your head up high.

OP why not organise a beach litter clear up in your area? I'm sure lots of people who care and can afford the time will, dog owners or not. Dog poo bags are tiny, I only take two with me. I pass litter in the fields where I walk, I'd be there all day if i decided to pick it all up.

I'd like it if parents taught children not to drop their sweet/crisp wrappers.

@hodgeofthehedge yes why not? Nothing to stop us. There is an app for it ‘litterati’

My dogs do and I do bin it but if the bins are recycling then they are just going in landfill thanks hardly better!!!! So most of us would need to take it home for recycling or stop on the way home. I'm all up for helping but I have no idea why you are just singling dog walkers out try everyone that visits the coastline could take a fabric bag and do their bit . Otherwise jog on

For the record I do pick litter up, I just can't do it all. I regularly pick up litter on my street after the bin men have chucked it all over the place!!! Grrrrr!

Good point mustang I CAN'T put plastic bottles in normal bins.

@msharry

I pass litter in the fields where I walk, I'd be there all day if i decided to pick it all up.

This is my exact point ! Pick a bit up each dog walk and soon it’ll be gone !!!!!!!!!!!!

OP why not organise a beach litter clear up in your area?
I do.

Wouldn't work round here, people who do bag up dog poo hang it on the tree branches.

@BooTimesTwo oh god that gives me the fecking rage

OP I am totally for a litter free world. I think it would have come across better if you'd said why doesn't everyone pick up litter every day. Maybe a litter picking day instead of useless 'National Sausage Day" for example.
As for it being gone, I'm afraid it's fresh litter daily. I do take your point. I already tell people off for dropping it, maybe I will start picking.

I once read a life-changing book called the Psychology of Persuasion (or something like that) and from it I learned that a big sign saying "Last month dog walkers on this beach collected an amazing 16 tons of sea plastic!" would work at persuading dog walkers on this beach to pick up plastic (as it provides social proof pushing in the required direction). & Yes - I have learned how to manipulate people into bending to my will.

"AIBU... to suggest that whenever we all go to a beach or place of natural beauty, we could - if possible - pick up one extra bit of litter and make the place nicer for everyone!"

That works. You came across as goady rather than concerned. Sorry!

This is my exact point ! Pick a bit up each dog walk and soon it’ll be gone !!!!!!!!!!!!

But it won't! It's not a static problem. The same arseholes who litter will continue to do so. I'm not saying never pick up litter (and I do, regularly, pick up other people's litter) but the onus shouldn't be on the decent people who don't litter to pick up other people's crap. It should be for them to not cause the problem in the first place.

This is my exact point ! Pick a bit up each dog walk and soon it’ll be gone

Why are you fixated on dog walkers?

And there's certainly no reason to single out any single group of people to do so!

@falsepriest yes I see what you mean. But I mean dog walkers in particular as they tend to repeat the same routes, know the plastic is there and could bring an extra bag.

Answers so far; not enough arms, not enough bags, too much dogs, why should I have to? Why don’t the runners do it?

I think she was just saying that if you're ambling around on the beach anyway. . .

No, she was saying “if you’re ambling around on the beach with a dog”

I reiterate, the problem is people not picking up litter when they see it, not dog owners.

Why dog walkers ? dog walkers in particular as they tend to repeat the same routes, know the plastic is there and could bring an extra bag.

So AIBU to wonder why they don’t?

So I see the same ones (dog walkers), walking past the same plastic.

They’ve also seen you going past the same plastic given it’s still there.

Why don't you ask them?

I’d prefer, as both a dog walker and runner, being legally sanctioned to taser people who drop litter

I feel this would be a much more effective solution and lighter on the dog walkers pockets.

No YANBU, dog walkers do walk the same route, do walk past the same litter day in, day out, could pick it up. I'm a dog walker, I pick up a lot.

Re. the not enough arms, I have an amazing thing called a running belt that I have my dog on whether I'm running or not (see, a runner AND a dog walker - shocking) and it leaves both hands free.

@Lweji That would be an amazing world if nobody littered, but thats not where we are and why I, as well as someone else on this thread, mentioned the campaign for everyone to pick up 3 pieces of litter.

As an aside, when I was at primary school we had Wombling duties where each breaktime a group of us had to go around and pick up any rubbish we see.

I cannot bear littering, and my kids have been brought up the same, to the extent of when I was going to throw an apple core out of our car window into a hedge, my ed said I shouldn't as its littering. I don't know if littering has become a thing as some people don't care and have a someone else will clear up after them attitude, or if the councils no longer have the money to spend on cleaning the verges (its happened here) so the rubbish just accumulates more.

We had one retired local who started off by sweeping a public pavement near his house and next to a busy roundabout, to actually going onto the main road to clear the gutters! I think he was spoken to as I haven't seen him do it again.