To wonder why the UK is so filthy compared to other places?

[OptimismvsRealism]

Everywhere I've visited recently in Europe seems immaculate compared to my home city and other cities I visit for work etc. even the US seems better. What's going on??

Really think filth in public places is at the heart of a lot of our problems.

Where do you live? I think London is quite clean compared to many places around Europe

not sure where you live

but i live in a lovely part of kent and whenever i go to europe i always note how much more rubbish the dog shit there is as opposed to my hometown

Rome is v messy! London much cleaner ime

But our motorway verges are terrible

I've just got back from Crete. Fag packets beside the road, loo roll draped over fencing, piles of rubbish left on vacant pieces of land...

I was thinking while I was there, how much cleaner the UK was. Maybe it's location specific though - we were quite rural in Crete and live very rurally in the UK.

Because the other countries have street cleansing- road sweeper vehicles, people who sweep up, clean the gullies of leaves etc.

Councils in the UK don't have money to pay for that

i don’t understand why people think it’s acceptable to just throw rubbish out of their moving cars in the UK. The roadsides are disgusting.

Why would locals authorities in one of the richest countries on earth be worse off than southern Europe?

I know, it's insane.

Because there are some dirty fuckers who give no shits and the council don’t have the funding to clean it up.

Go to a certain section of the city and there will be regular basically whole house clearances on the street (slum landlords). People fly tipping whole weeks worth of rubbish next to a public bin lazy shits. Council clear so the next cheeky fucker does it again.

Dog walkers noticing the poo bin is missing but instead of then taking their poop home seem to stack it in a pile like a weird dirty protest that the bins missing / burnt / overflowing.

graffiti why why why. Like I can enjoy the proper art work graffiti but not this tagging bs.

Basically people have no pride in the area the live and are happy to clearly live in a shit hole and must feel no connection between them and where they live 🤷🏻‍♀️

oh add in well it keeps the street cleaner in a job mentality too.

I'm in Ireland and they have just introduced a scheme where you get a few pence back for recycling cans/ plastic bottles etc. apparently there has actually been a marked difference in the littering since the scheme came in.

It depends on where you go, I was in Paris recently and it was an absolute shit tip.

I see road sweepers regularly where I live in London. I think London is generally pretty clean. Our motorway verges are mostly glorious, especially at this time of year, I saw so many poppies and wildflowers driving back from Norfolk last week.

I like to pretend the uk is worse than anywhere else as much as the next mumsnetter but this clearly is bullshit. There are plenty of dirtier places in Europe.

A blast from the past. Part of my pocket money back in the 70s was taking the glass lemonade bottles back to the shop to get 5p.

Have you not been to Paris recently?

The worst place I've been recently is Edinburgh. Knee deep in dog shit and overflowing bins.

Rome has far too much graffiti - including on an ornate 15thC carved door on a church about 50m from hotel I was staying at. Never seen graffiti on a church in the UK.

Because we are no longer one of the richest countries on earth.

It was the first thing I noticed when I went to Aus for the first time, I actually said I couldn't believe how clean it was the first time I went (Brisbane). Been quite a few times over the last couple of years and yep, it's still much cleaner than here

We really are.

I know! It was v controversial here when it came in but it's settled a bit now and the kids have realised there's gold in that there rubbish. It's a good concept (but obviously the Irish government made a balls of it)

I’m not sure I agree that Uk is dirtier than other countries. There is a big problem with dog shit everywhere and rural fly tipping but I think our cities are fairly clean. Not near as much graffiti as in some European cities.

I’ve always found major European cities much dirtier than London.

Never think of the town I live in as filthy.

People have no pride where they live. Do they think its acceptable to have a fridge freezer in their driveway for 5 years?

Being serious, think people who drink energy drinks makes them dumb and stupid to toss their empty cans all over the place. Same goes for McDs.