Hands up: do you chuck rubbish out of your car window?

[Beebopwasthebest]

My city is having its annual big litter picking weekend. Hundred of volunteers clearing their local areas and placing full bags near bins for the council to collect. It's fabulous😊.

My "picking" area tends to be heavy traffic and it's clear most of the litter is food and drink related and thrown from car windows when drivers are waiting at traffic lights.

I am quite interested to know who does this and why (someone must!). It's not dropped by accident and there will surely be an easy to use bin when you leave your car? Posted for traffic and the mix of opinions.

I tend to have a positive mind set when volunteering..no point getting too angry about litterers - I just hope one day, someone spots a windswept middle aged woman clearing the roads and decides to change their behaviour!

Apple cores into hedgerows, that's all.

Never. I did once throw a polystyrene carton back in through a car window when we were walking past a traffic queue. Possibly not the wisest move.

It’s presumably the same people who hang dog poo bags in the hedgerows.

God no, never! It's usually workmen in vans who I see doing this

I live in a touristy area too with lots of 'wild' (ie dirty) campers and campervans. I don't get the mentality - let's come here because it's beautiful and then trash it. Human waste, emptying chemical toilets in to watercourses and breaking branches off trees for fires, as well as leaving rubbish, glass and cans.

I think a some of it blows out of the lorries transporting recycling, I have been behind these lorries and sometimes the nets are not properly secured.

If you have a dashcam and witness this, you can report it to the local council, who will prosecute, and will thank you for doing so.

I saw it once and happened to be able to get an image.

But I've seen it more in retail car parks, where some of those those other mysterious beings, people who sit and eat their mcdonalds meal in the car with the engine running, deposit it on the tarmac outside.

I do regular litter picks. Can’t stand litter. I was getting a baby into the car once, realised I had to change their nappy, put the dirty nappy on the roof as I was changing, got home, couldn’t find the dirty nappy anywhere in the car. I was totally AGHAST when I realised it must have still been on the roof when I set off, and no longer was!! Gross!!!

It drives me insane when I see people chuck litter out of a car window. Why not just keep it until they get home?
I walk everywhere (no car) and the amount of people who just drop coffee cups, food containers, uneaten food etc as they walk is unbelievable. I remonstrate if they don't look to scary and most are apologetic and pick it up. If they look too scary I just pick it up with a big sigh and put it in the nearest bin they have probably walked past.

I do a lot of climbing and camping and we normally take an extra bag for other people's rubbish, find it extra depressing in beauty spots

Never. Never. Never. Never.

I live by Epping Forest and spend hours of my time picking up rubbish thrown from cars. It's disgusting. They must have a bin at home to put it in. I'm sure people don't just throw their takeaway crap all over their own floors at home.

My previous neighbour does this. I also saw her and her kids dump rubbish out of the car on the side of the road directly in front of her own house. Even more ridiculous was the fast food packaging they used to dump in their garden on their way into the house - the bin was at the side of their front door 🤦🏻‍♀️. Disgusting idiots.
Of course it all blew into my garden so it would be me picking it all up for them.

That is interesting about your sister, I am genuinely curious about the thought process. So some people don't like litter/mess in "their" space but can tolerate it in the environment..that's quite strange?

I know some people do it "to keep people in a job"..although there are very very few paid litter pickers.

Some people drop litter when walking because they have no pocket/bags/full hands. Obviously this doesn't apply to drivers.

I live in a road where Uber drivers and delivery van drivers park up for lunch.

They all routinely clear their cabs of fast food debris of all kinds and plastic bottles full of piss too.

Our delivery industry is built on a workforce with no facilities for them or regulation. Every pizza delivery moped has an L plate, and scores of undereducated men are out all day chucking litter and pissing where they can.

I'm a middle aged windswept woman who picks up litter too. I suspect if a litterer sees me doing it they'll probably think 'oh it's ok, she'll pick it up' 😁

Never done it & never will!

We have the same with Uber drivers and bottles of piss. There is a free car park by the station and they wait there for their next jobs. It is revolting. I think I'd rather they pissed behind a tree at least it would be washed away.

I have never dropped anything out of the window, and would heavily judge anyone who did.

A bloke on my street drops it out of his car window outside of his own house! Pretty much everyday. His wheelie bin is right next to where he parks. He’s completely psychotic.

Absolutely not!!

The state of my car is testament to the fact that I dont. I have been known to lob a banana skin into the hedge on a country road though.

Never have, or will.

I regularly litter pick the country road I live on and it disgusts me the amount I lift.

I once watched a woman I used to work for, a teacher, drive out her own drive onto the road, throw a polystyrene box out the car window and it blew back onto her own lawn. It didn't surprise me, she would throw the rubbish on her own floors and then kick it round with her feet.

Of course not. I doubt the type who do are on mumsnet.

I litter pick my street and am trying to hunt down someone who does litter. I've decided to start doing evening litter picks in summer to try and catch them.

Yes me, as a child. Unfortunately I raised by the kind of people who were selfish and lazy and I honestly didnt realise the implications.

As an adult, I am the person that picks up when I see others throwing litter and my child is the same, I absolutely hate littering.

But it gave me an insight into this kind of person. My Mum was low intelligence and they were both lazy and very selfish people, so the kind of people that didnt care about the consequences even when pointed out to them.

It has also made me realise that as much as we can point out the implications of these things, you will never get everyone to do the right thing no matter how much we tell them.

Never! I hate it when I see people flick their cigarette butts out of their car windows.

Absolutely not. Never. As a teen I stopped and made friend get out and pick it up when he did it.
The only ‘litter’ I drop is the occasional apple core and only if I’m near a hedge I can put it in for the birds

No, I don't. I've always lived rurally and I hate litter. I can't comprehend why people don't just keep rubbish in their car until they get home, and then put it in a bin.