To think that the litter on our roads has got to ridiculous levels?

[inigomontoyahwillcox]

Maybe it's just where I live (NW Essex - M11, A11 are my usual major roads) but the amount of litter on the motorways, dual carriageways, and A roads is just crazy! It feels like we're living in a country with minimal infrastructure. It became very clear yesterday during the high winds not only how bloody awful it looks, but also dangerous it is in high winds (we had some litter hit our windshield).

I understand it's hard to collect litter from verges and central reservations due to the traffic, but we seemed to manage in the past (and other countries seem to deal with it) - or has littering/dumping gotten out of control? Where does it all come from anyway? Are people just throwing it out of their windows?!

Close to no little where I live.

No one gives a shit about anything or anyone anymore, I think that's the crux of it. Bare minimum for everything, I have really noticed the level of service is at an all time low, it's so hard to even get a mistake resolved

I had to drive up to Ely yesterday - it was just awful, the verges were almost completely covered in parts. It's getting ridiculous. A lot of it's as large pieces of plastic cover/wrapping. Lorries?

I also agree that people just don't give a shit anymore. I'm surprised that the Keep Britain Tidy still exist and have an annual campaign, I was completely unaware of this. Back in the day you couldn't move for one of their posters/ads etc. think they need to embrace social media a little more.

Is there anything we can do? Petition? MN campaign? (Although I realise it isn't parenting specific).

I’m considering writing to my MP. Would happily sign a petition,

We need, a massive cultural change. A return to collective responsibility, instead of rampant capitalism which is turning us all into spoiled toddlers.

Everyone wants everything their way, right now. They don't give a shit about anything or anyone else. Hence driving SUV on the school run, plastic grass, buying tons of plastic crap, voting Tory, arguing with teachers when their kids get in trouble and lastly, dropping litter.

All the same miserable, short-termist mindset.

I agree with some of this but does having Labour in Wales really help that much?

I also think we messed up some of the social contract during the pandemic. People learnt their struggles weren’t heard, isolation forced, strikes came after, the public always last to be thought of.

But I agree some people just don’t care anyway, and teach their dc not to care. If you see your dc drop something it starts with no don’t litter or don’t worry about it, plus showing good behaviour or not.

Plus you need a dose of personal responsibility which seems lacking in many areas these days - health, litter and so on

Everyone talks about Britain being broken all the time. Hence the current Tory polling.

Even quiet country lanes here in Cornwall are turned into mobile bins.
In the last decade I've been to Namibia, Costa Rica and St Lucia, all 'less developed' than us, and they're clean as pins. What is wrong with us?

Yes, awful. But how does a team of litter pickers safely pick at the side of carriageways etc?

Collective responsibility.

People need to feel like it's actually worth taking pride in their own community, but there needs to be a community to take pride in first.

It starts with the individual mindset though. Do I throw this or not do I say to my Dc not to.

Or someone else can deal with it..

We have a community here and people care, school children put up cute hand drawn posters all along a road. Still it’s hard to get each dog owner to do the right thing

Litter isn’t so bad apart from turning bins or one estate area which has been so bad with just mounds of household rubbish, fly tipping kind of stuff, but finally improved

I’m not sure. How do they do or anyone know

They usually close a lane if it's a dual carriageway/motorway.

Or contraflow if it's not.

Empty/used vapes are a new plague on society, plus the burgeoning presence of fast food providers (KFC/McDonalds/Cafe Nero/Starbucks) doesnt help as the supply of bins hasnt increased in line with these, not to mention the fact that we've gone from 60 million to 70 million people in a few short years and we're now far more mobile so travel a lot more and have less time, so meals are eaten on the go and delivery drivers piss in bottles and toss them when theyre full (judging by the litter at the side of my road).

Its disgraceful.

Why cant highways get a litter clearing team out at the same time as they re-surface a road for example. Or utilise our mushrooming prison population (low risk offenders) to do the clearing on a monthly basis?

My neighbours and I regularly litter puck but its usually back the following week. I get bottles of beer/wkd/coffee cups/cigarette packs launched from cars into my hedge.

I thought exactly the same OP! I was on the M1 recently and I couldn't believe the amount of crap on the verges. I do notice something on our local roads though. On dustbin day there's spilt litter e v e r y w h e r e. I thought to myself, I bet in olden days when we used metal dustbins, that the bin men had pride in their work and picked up stuff that got dropped. I can't believe how much falls out of wheely bins whilst they're being tipped up. Homeowners don't help either. They leave the rubbish on the pavement outside their house. I could fill one or two bin bags cleaning up my street on dustbin day.

Yes. There's is very little community spirit nowadays. I won't say 'none' because I do know people very much involved in that sort of thing but it shouldn't be a 'thing' it should go without saying. When I visited Namibia, a poorer country than the UK, the streets were spotless and I saw a man stop and pick up a tiny piece of paper someone else has dropped and bin it. We need more of that.

YANBU OP. I was driving along the A23 the other day and it's the same - crap everywhere. Really noticeable. The town I'm in is also covered in dog shit, there's quite a sizeable section of the population that doesn't give a monkeys about cleaning up after themselves.

Keep Britain Tidy is still a campaign.
Coincidentally, they have a Great British Spring Clean starting today!
www.keepbritaintidy.org

You can all do your bit this week

It must be the most unsuccessful campaign ever!

That's the thing though - I was wholly unaware of the campaign until it was mentioned on this thread.

That's rather negative considering this particular campaign hasn't started yet. It's up to you and me and everyone else to make it work - That's the point of it.

www.keepbritaintidy.org/get-involved/support-our-campaigns/great-british-spring-clean

And now we do know about it

You can join as a member, get involved as a volunteer, donate, undertake training, apply for the project manager job they've got open...

This isn't the first or only campaign week, there will be others.

I am my local village litter picker and will be organising this. But the Keep Britain Tidy campaign clearly isn't working!

Unfortunately people don't care enough- I've had a van driver deliberately throwing a coffee cup out of the window and laughing while I was litter picking. I've been litter picking for years and thinking of giving up as it's too depressing.