AIBU to think more people are shittier, horrible and more disrespectful of the earth than ever?

[LuluJakey1]

OK, may be a bit over-dramatic but I am so sick of people who just disrespect the environment.

Where we live us beautiful but has become littered with rubbish- takeaway food containers, disposable masks, fish and chip boxes, dog bags full of dog crap, plastic bottles, cans. I am so miserable - it us everywhere.

Then this today www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55909015 This was a lovely story yesterday and bloody braindead vandals go and do that- why?

Yesterday I was in Newcastle at a medical appointment. I saw a woman about 20 come out of Greggs, she walked ahead of me, ate something from a Greggs bag and drank a can and threw both away onto the grass - she was 2 metres from a bin and made no attempt to use it. I picked them up and shouted after her and said politely, that she had dropped these. She looked at me, said 'Fuck off' and walked away.

Then on the way home, outside the station 3 teenage girls came out if a pizza shop, took pizza slices from polystyrene boxes and all 3 threw them in the road as they crossed. I ws furious and picked them up and put them in the bin.

Today as I passed Costa there were 3 Costa cups on the bench outside.

What is wrong with these people? Why don't they care about living in a shitty environment or about what they are doing to the planet? Why are they so mean?

Why do people pick up dog crap and leave the bags of it lying around? Last week I took DS 2 for a walk on the beach and counted 9 bags of dog crap along the length of the beach, just dumped.

I probably sound obsessed but it really upsets me. It has got much worse in the last year.

Sorry for typos .

You aren't obsessed, you're aware. Yes, there appears to be a lurch backwards, litter-wise & generally respecting the environment & other species we share it with. The remorseless destruction of global habitats, for profit, to the locals mindless treatment of the world as their litter bin. I've called people out on their filthy habit, to varied responses as you can imagine. Some are genuinely surprised-they didn't even notice they dumped their trash as they walked, and promised to become mindful, and of course there are the verbal aggressors who dgaf & act super-tough. Over a coke can. Then there are the scum who fling rubbish out of their moving cars, and their brethren, the part-time park & countryside visitors. Gamut of garbage from filthy nappies to gum.
Yes im the sort who snaps 6-pack plastic so it doesn't throttle wildlife, as i pick it up by the park lake. Yes i would like to issue on-the -spot fines as i think that's the only way people will care.
Thank you for facilitating this vent!

And don't start me on dog poo: I picked up every crap the new neighbour allowed his dog to foul our communal garden with (7 years and never had so many rubbish related problems til this family arrived) and returned it to his doormat. Ha ha ha!

It's pleasure.

I loathe Litter Bugs... it literally appalls me ... why do people think Littering is acceptable.. it's not it is disgusting behaviour 🌺

You are not alone OP

I hate it when people empty their car ashtrays out of their window... usually in a supermarket car park.
I also hate the fact that people still use helium balloons and those wretched flying lanterns.

I think it’s worse than it’s ever been. And it’s worse here than in pretty much any country I have ever visited in the western world. Really does not reflect well on us as a nation.

I live near a takeaway chicken shop. Outside it is a him. Opposite a parking area. Every day the parking area is littered with rubbish from the chicken shop. People sit in their cars and then throw it out the window. I can’t get my head around it. Utter pricks, every one of them.

*bin not him!

Littering makes me so angry. Had some teenagers hurl abuse at me before when I pointed out the bin where they could put their rubbish rather than leaving it strewn across the playing field. I ended up putting it in the bin myself as they left. I just can't stand it. Who are these morons that have no problem with ruining their own environment? If we all did it, we'd be wading through rubbish.

You can’t control other people, so there’s no point getting angry and stressed about it. That just affects you.

While I think it’s awful of them to litter, I also think it’s rude of you to call them out. You’re not their mother and you won’t chance their behaviour by being passive aggressive to them.

@emilyfrost

You can’t control other people, so there’s no point getting angry and stressed about it. That just affects you.

While I think it’s awful of them to litter, I also think it’s rude of you to call them out. You’re not their mother and you won’t chance their behaviour by being passive aggressive to them.

Why is it rude to point out when people are behaving like shits? It's not, its cowardly not to point it out.

It really isn’t rude to call somebody who you see littering out on it. Dangerous sometimes, not not rude.

It has definitely got worse in recent years, it doesn't seem to be culturally unacceptable anymore. I was only saying to my mum the other day that when I was a kid there was the whole'keep Britain tidy' public information campaign, but there's nothing like that now.

I agree op.

I live on a b road, opposite a field and cleared the bit of hedge opposite my house at the weekend.

The rubbish included:

an old laptop
two car wing mirror covers
two lager bottles
a traffic cone
four squashed beer cans
a woollen hat
a glove
five McDonalds trays
a black bag of old rags
piles of sweet/crisp wrappers

Thankfully, no dog shit.

All must have been flung from car/van/lorry windows.

It's depressing but inevitable as people become increasingly selfish and less invested in the future.

I get so angry when I see a fast food bag thrown out a moving car window and the contents then spill all over the road.

I live by the seaside, and the beaches are covered with food and drink wrappers, after a weekend of visits by people out for their family walks. The locals then arrange litter-picking duties to clean it all up as the bins are overflowing and kicked over just for fun.

I’m not sure it’s got worse, I think councils have reduced public bins, don’t pay street cleaners and heavily restrict the amount of domestic refuse they will collect. Not so long ago you could put as much rubbish out as you liked every single week and trips to the tip were unlimited. It’s good that it’s forced people to recycle but I do think there’s a huge increase in fly tipping etc as a direct result.

I agree with you OP.

My friend had a great story from her work (a large company with many offices around the country and world so hard to verify the story) which is either true or just a cautionary tale for potential litterbugs...

A colleague on their way to work was walking behind someone who threw their takeaway coffee cup onto the pavement on their way into the building. The colleague picked up the rubbish intending to put it in a bin indoors. As they walked past the reception desk they heard the litterbug ask for their name - they were coming in for a job interview with that colleague! The colleague kept the cup and put it on the table in front of them during the interview. The litterbug tried to deny it was theirs, but it had their name written on it. Needless to say they didn’t get the job.

YANBU. I hate this.too. we had it drummed into us when we were young that you put everything in a bin and if there was no bin you took it home. What I dont understand is that its really not much more effort to put it in a bin than chuck it on the ground.

I often wonder what it's like to live in a country that isn't absolutely caked in dog shit.

I physically couldn't throw something on the ground or out of the car window, so ingrained is the habit of not littering from my childhood, but I am over 50. I'm truly astonished at how filthy the roadsides have become. On a pre-lockdown trip to a country house garden in Hampshire I just could not believe how thickly the grass verges were lined with rubbish for miles around. And the dog poo problem is currently out of control in my London suburb. Bags of poo left under or dangling from trees has been an issue for quite a while, but the streets have recently become more as I remember them from the 70s - piles of dog poo everywhere and no attempt to clean it up. Awful. Have been assuming it's to do with reduced street cleaning and increased first-time dog ownership during Covid.

YANBU, I feel the same. I often pick up litter or other ppl’s dog poo (when picking up after my dog). Brits are truly disgusting and filthy, compared to a lot of other European countries! I have only seen same levels if litter in the rougher/poorer bits of Italy.

Totally agree. Another reason I live abroad

It's definitely got worse over the past few years, and much worse over the past year, as people seem to rip of their disposable masks and fling them anywhere as soon as they leave shops.

Schools need some sort of responsible citizenship campaign, where children are taught that littering and spitting in public are totally unacceptable. They should also teach children about responsible dog ownership, then perhaps the amount of dog shit on pavements would not increase sharply every time school holidays occur (which presumably happens because some parents pass dog walking duties to their kids). People who are caught littering should be fined and made to attend an anti littering course to educate them on the reasons why littering is so harmful to the environment, then they should be made to do community service, involving picking up litter.

I think people who call others out on this kind of anti social behaviour are brave, although they are taking a bit of a risk. It's rare that such a challenge will change a person's behaviour, but I guess it might shame them into waiting until they're out of sight before they drop litter outside again. We need a whole sea change in the attitude of society, but I guess the govt have got bigger issues to deal with right now.

I also think that fewer household collections of general household waste has resulted in a lot more fly tipping. This is a false economy, as councils then have to arrange for that waste to be collected anyway. Also, some people put ordinary waste into their recycling bins, when the normal waste bin is full. It's all pretty depressing.

@BungleandGeorge

I’m not sure it’s got worse, I think councils have reduced public bins, don’t pay street cleaners and heavily restrict the amount of domestic refuse they will collect. Not so long ago you could put as much rubbish out as you liked every single week and trips to the tip were unlimited. It’s good that it’s forced people to recycle but I do think there’s a huge increase in fly tipping etc as a direct result.

What difference does any of that make when people are too lazy to use the bins right under their nose?

Personally I'd make takeaway outlets responsible for the safe disposal (preferably recycled) of their packaging. If some McDonald's packaging is found on the ground and the culprit cannot be identified then McDonald's get the fine. Drive-throughs should be made to print vehicle registrations on packaging too.

Otherwise the only solution is to bring back the stocks and pelt these people with their own filth. Because the remote chance of receiving a minuscule fine is no deterrent.