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.

On that note, I'd also introduce a DNA database for dogs. There are apartment complexes around the world where all dogs must be on the database. Fail to pick up once and you get fined. Fail to pick up a second time and you face eviction. In one of the pioneers of this approach, apparently there never has been a second time, the deterrent works.

It isn't rude to call people out on littering. They are ignorant, selfish and dirty, as well as breaking the law.

I live on a rural road near a retail park. Every week I clear Costa cups and Kentucky boxes out of the hedge. It's a constant chore.

I'm starting to understand why some towns don't give planning consent for junk food outlets.

I live in a beautiful part of the world but rubbish is regularly thrown from cars, I really don't get that. Why live or drive in a nice place and then spoil it for everyone else.

Also dog poo. Recently it's everywhere :(

I can't understand why people litter. It was also ingrained in me from a very young age that it's just not acceptable. I'm in my early 40s. Don't kids get taught this anymore?

Completely agree but also, the minute anyone on here suggests that driving a car might also be awful for the environment (both for the planet and for anyone immediately around it), hordes of furious MNers descend to defend their right to do exactly what the fuck they want, screw the eco hippies.

I don't think it is any worse than it has been for many years.

I live in rural scotland. In the last few years we had had an explosion of tourists. (campers/camper vans) They go to beautiful unspoilt places and leave behind mountains of rubbish. Some just discard their tents and cheap camping equiptment. They chop down trees and branches to make fires. Setting fires and barbecues in dry woodlands and protected sand dunes. Often right next to the signs telling them about the fragile landscapes. They drive their camper cans right over protected areas. Partying on the unspoilt beaches and then rubbish and leaving broken bottles for children and animals to find. People are emptying camper van toilet waste by the roadside or into the sea. We have locals going around picking up human shit, toilet paper and wetwipes left by these people. People don't seem to care what they are doing to the environment. The land as barely had time to recover from last year. We are all dreading this summer season. When we have to watch holidayers deatroying the environment again. Locals are so fed up now that they are talking about not cleaning up the area. One arguement campers have is that they don't see any rubbish and filth and locals are making a fuss. But thats because locals are cleaning it daily. I get people want a cheap holiday, but why travel to beautiful places then destroy them?

Is this down to poor parenting/education at home then? I despise litter and boy do my DCs know it! They wouldn't dare drop litter and are just as horrified by it as I am. Even the younger ones know to pick up our dogs' poop and that is perfectly normal to them - never questioned it.

Makes my blood boil

My mum organises litter picks in her local Woodlands, the stuff the find us appalling.

People have never given a shit about the environment, the world belongs to us and us ours to do with as we please.

It has never occurred to me to throw rubbish on the floor I cant believe people think it acceptable.

I would quite happily support a Singapore style enforcement for littering here. Over there it is rare for people to drop litter and if they do, they are normally caught and have to do litter picking community service for x amount of hours and a hefty fine. I had family who lived there and it really was the cleanest place I have ever been to. The UK felt so grotty and dirty when we came home.

I should add though that rubbish is collected daily in Singapore and I do think our ridiculous rubbish collections do have a part to play in this. Then the local tips started charging for some stuff to be taken there and the fly tipping increased ten fold, surely it doesn't take a genius to work out when you restrict rubbish collections to 2-3 weeks irresponsible people will just dump stuff.

Wild camping - ie sticking your tent anywhere you fancy and ignoring the effect this can have on the countryside or wildlife. Leaving your rubbish. Probably shitting anywhere.

And the biggest issue - you do not spend any money in the area you are trashing. There is NOTHING in it for the local residents.

I had neighbours who caravanned and prided themselves on buying everything they needed in Tesco before they went because the supermarkets in the rural areas they visited were more expensive.

Something needs to change.

It's horrific.

I am early 50's and it was ingrained in me as well never to litter. To the point I often had pockets full of wrappers

It's not a lack of bins.
I have holidayed in Texas, Florida, California and driven along many highways but the Americans just keep their rubbish in their cars and take it home or leave it in trash cans next to McDs or wherever.
It's not hard.

@gannett

Completely agree but also, the minute anyone on here suggests that driving a car might also be awful for the environment (both for the planet and for anyone immediately around it), hordes of furious MNers descend to defend their right to do exactly what the fuck they want, screw the eco hippies.

Completely agree. Until driving short distances as an able bodied adult becomes socially unacceptable (as it should), expecting people to care about littering is just hypocritical.

@JoyIsCounterfeit

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!

I love this! What did he say?

I hate littering, I’m one of the prats running down the road after a receipt thats blown out of a shopping bag.

The streets directly where I live are okay, but we aren’t a through route so we don’t generally get people passing through.

The main streets and parks are sometimes bad. The thing is when I see a dumped picnic I just don’t get it, the empty wrappers are easier and lighter to carry, theres usually a carrier bag left behind. If you’re capable of taking a picnic to the park you’re capable of either putting it in the bin or carrying it home.

A problem here is open bins, quite a few don’t have a top so litter does blow out, they’re also not emptied on a regular basis, sometimes they are left full for 2/3 weeks before they are emptied.

It has definitely got worse.It's not rude to call people out,maybe risky but I will continue to do it.
It's no excuse if councils have cut back on street cleaning etc.If people doing rubbish out of a car what's their excuse ?When they get to their destination there will be a bin.They are just disgusting .
When the woods are choked with beer cans and fast food wrappers that the idiots have carried there full,but can't take them away it makes me so angry.
OP I'm with you completely.Fly tipping and littering impacts on the quality of life in this country and I'm sick of it.We need a complete zero tolerance attitude to it.And it starts in the home.But how to get it through increasingly selfish,self absorbed people?Some days it genuinely makes me feel depressed to see beautiful countryside and the place I live so degraded.Knowing it's becoming the new normal everywhere.

Meant it's NOT rude to call people out.

@awaAnBileYerHeid
He has never confronted me, tho when his dog crapped by the front door & he said he'd pick it up later, just as I strode out of the building...suddenly he found a tissue to clean up with asap. I think he has other reasons for not wanting Attention, dodgy as heck.
Glad to see our band of litter loathers, it is time to shame at every level-esp politically. Why is our country so loth to pay for public services? Bent capitalism is at the root of this filthy 'not my problem' endemic attitude.
And the horror of the Wild campers, I have so much sympathy.
Liking the stocks suggestion ;)

People will always be lazy scum. I think there should be a law that all takeaway food containers be 100% biodegradable, so no polystyrene containers or plastic lids on takeaway drinks.
Higher tax on takeaway coffee, nobody needs a coffee that often, we have become obsessed by it. If you go back 30 years you would have been laughed at for needing to hold a coffee every time you were in a public place. Drive through places should print the car reg number on all the packages. If it's found then the registered owner gets fined to cover cleaning up.

I agree with you OP. There definitely seems to be a backwards step of awareness. I raised my DC to be environmentally aware and they wouldn't dream of dropping stuff on the floor. It could be that these kids you saw just haven't had that upbringing to be socially and environmentally aware. I'm not making excuses for them, just pointing out the fact of why they may be that way.

You only have to see the debris left on beaches by the mindless twats last year. Horrific.

I agree. Last week dh had to put air in his tyres, there was a queue and the driver of the van in front just dumped his coffee cup on the floor, less than 2m away from the bin. There are lots of people who are lazy and just don't care.

I hate litter as well fortunately in my immediate area I don’t see much of it which I do think helps as people may be less inclined to litter in a clean area.
The fast food outlets should have far far more responsibility for their branded litter, our town centre which is usually quite littered but was clear of it in the first lockdown. Old person rant but it’s ridiculous how many fast food and coffee outlets there are now, why do we need them

A very smart city type sat down opposite me on the train and accidentally spilt his takeaway coffee everywhere, after politely apologising he proceeded to carefully place the empty cup under his seat. I couldn’t believe my eyes