To ask if you drop litter?

[Ifeelbloodyawful]

And if so, why?

The amount of rubbish I see dropped on the floor always astounds me, so presumably a LOT of people do it. Country lanes around here are littered with rubbish presumably thrown out of car windows, which I find particularly lazy (just take it home where you presumably have a fully functioning bin!). I know some of it blows out of public bins, or escapes from refuse vehicles/landfill, etc, but I don't believe that accounts for all of it (or am I wrong?).

I was raised not to drop litter and have been known to frantically chase down an errant receipt on a windy day , so I just can't fathom dropping litter at all. Even if there isn't a bin nearby (and I know that is an issue sometimes) then why is dropping it a better option than putting it in a pocket/bag until you find a bin or get home?!

AIBU in asking who is dropping it all, and why, and how can we stop it?

I live next to a secondary school and the kids all congregate outside the chicken shop, openly just tossing chicken bones and chip packets straight onto the floor. It's an absolute tip at 4pm every single day. It just seems to be completely socially acceptable amongst them.

No.
If anything I'll pick it up, especially things that could injure and animal, e.g I was at the beach last week and dd was playing in the sea, something hit my leg that I thought was seaweed at first but it was some rubber ring (maybe a seal of some sort, which is funny because the first thing that came to mind when I saw it was "a seal could get it's head caught in that" (we have lots in the area) so that was taken away with us when we left.

I was lucky ignorant enough to think nobody really actively dropped litter for the sake of it until I saw a gaggle of teenage school girls brazenly chuck the empty bottles of fanta they had just finished on the floor. I picked them up and carried on walking behind them until I got to my road, silently cursing myself for not admonishing them and willing then to look behind so I could make passive aggressive gestures. Not my first moment. But I really had no idea people just did that. What I am very aware of is street drinking (alcohol) - In my town we get a lot of drinkers who will leave an empty can or 6 behind in the doorway they've just been sat in.

People who drop litter have major personality defects IMO. Care only about themselves.

@ChodeofChodeHall that sounds utterly disgusting and likely to attract rats and other vermin. Worth a message to the school and to the shop, and maybe council, see if the shop can provide somebody to "dinner lady" police the kids putting their rubbish in a very obvious and RIGHT THERE bin? It's not in the shop's best interests to encourage rats, they could easily get shut down.

My shopping receipt flew out my hand and under someones car the other day-I got on the floor but couldn't reach it. I was mortified. So no, I do not drop litter.

No I don't not ever. I have chased receipts down the road too!

I absolutely hate people throwing litter down and out of car windows. I was taught by my parents that you put rubbish in a bin or take it home.

I am not sure either that it is a minority that do it. There is so much litter everywhere it cannot be. If we have a really lovely sunny day just go to any beach or park and look at the state of it.

Music festivals are a disgrace and that is mainly youngsters who are supposedly concerned about the planet.

I told some youngsters off once because they came out of a shop and threw their sweet wrappers on the pavement right next to an empty bin!

They were only about 14 and the vile language was disgusting. I told them "their mothers would be so proud of them" which meant another foul outburst!

I hate it with a passion. Near where I live the bins are regularly overflowing :( people aren't clever enough or caring enough to take their litter home.

No. I was brought up to keep Britain tidy and my parents didnt/don’t litter either. I taught both my dc not to litter too.

God no. The DC have been raised the same and will call out people who litter.........going by our surroundings We seem to be in the minority, sadly.

Wrt cig butts, plenty of people assume they’re degradable, not realising they’re full of plastic, or think that because they’re small that they don’t count as litter.
They don’t realise that they get washed into surface water drains that run into open watercourses.
I have been known to hand litter back to the person who dropped it

Never have. Never will.

Lack of bins is no excuse. Drop it and it becomes a problem and part of a wider problem. Everyone should bear responsibility for the environment starting with the smallest tasks. No bin = take it home

Never. Can’t abide it and don’t understand why people don’t care about their environment enough. My commute to work is so depressing the amount of litter that’s on the road side- and the fly tipping is even worse.
As for chewing gum on the pavement, bleugh.

The only thing I've ever dropped/thrown is an apple core for the birds, and that's always in a hedge.

We constantly get McD's brown bags full of empties or McFlurry cartons chucked into our garden. We live on a country lane, and I've deduced that the average time it takes to consume a McDonalds in the car is the distance between our 'local' McD's and our house. 😡

never, hate it,
dd's friend was fined for dropping a tissue!

although i am annoyed when neighbours use my garden bin for macdonalds waste/plastic bottles

If I'm feeling brave I'll shout after someone who has chucked rubbish on the ground 'excuse me' - wait for them to turn round- 'I think you've dropped something' and hand back the rubbish.

Sometimes they take it!

Lack of bins is a shit excuse - if you can carry it full you can carry it empty.

I have been known to chase around a park while out running to pick up a crisp packet that is blowing around!

I quite often get in from runs and walks carrying random bits of rubbish I have picked up while out

I tooted and flashed the smart car in front of me driven by a middle-aged man who chucked sweet papers out of the window. He looked very surprised.

I pick up so much rubbish from our lane.

Of course I don’t ! I’m not a bloody animal.
People who park up and eat mcdonalds then just turf the bag out the car window deserve the death penalty.
It’s disgusting and I see it a lot

I'm not sure if a lot of people do it. I think a minority of dickheads do it but it's enough to cause a big mess

This cannot be true, the amounts of litter in the verges of main roads around Cornwall is immense.
Just cleaning up the A30 every 3 months generates tonnes of litter, its about 1000 bin bags..... then there is the fly tipping.

Walked along a tiny lane off the A388 nr Bude, the drainage ditch was full of litter, blown in from the nearby mainroad.

Bigger fines don't help because no-one is about to enforce them,

Education in Schools and public information films shown on prime time TV is the way forward, a lot of littering is just thoughtlessness.

I would make fast food outlets responsible for cleaning up the mess around their area, with fines and closing them down as the sanctions, also, making householders responsible for cleaning up their portion of the street too, works in Germany, litter often attracts litter.

I would never ever litter but bins are a problem. Normal landfill bins are only collected once a fortnight here for ordinary people. With a busy family of kids, pets and visitors, that is inadequate. I can see why people are extremely reluctant to bring a bag of McD litter home. Last time I was in a drive thru, I stopped in a petrol station on the way home and deposited the McD litter in the bin there. I prefer my dog to do his business whilst I am out on a walk. I’ll pick it up regardless of whether it’s in my garden or on a walk, but it better on the walk as I can bin it in a bin which I don’t have to wait 2 weeks for a collection for. If we all had weekly bin collections and decent sized bins and there were lots of public bins with accessible public rubbish tips (with decent opening tones), there’d be a lot less littering.

You should be able to recycle the paper bag though.

I think we should all cut down on buying fast food anyway. This generates too much packaging.

No, and if I miss a bin or do it by accident I pick it up.
I'm a Romany though, we don't leave mess.
I am also on the case if I see others do it, and have pointed it out to people before now.
There's no need to leave a dirty mess everywhere you go.

If something blows out my hand and is whisked a few feet away I might not chase after it,
Why not? Is it someone else's job to clean up after you? Are you too lazy? Do you not care about the mess you're leaving?