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 I live there is a little square near a Co-op. There are about six bins on the square and two outside the Co-op, yet when you walk past in the morning there are takeaway wrappers, cans and bottles on the benches even though it is a bin within a metre.

Councils not bothering to tidy up litter is nothing new at all. There was a road I used to travel on daily in the 90s where the verges with full of litter. I actually recognised most of it as it was there year after year. Over the 7/8 years I drove daily on it, it was never cleaned up - there was never a day when there was no litter! It only got cleaned when the road was widened and turned into a dual carriageway. Then within a few months, the litter started to build up again, and is now back as bad as it was in the 90s with 20+ years of accumulated litter.

It's not always lack of money either, though councils love to play the politics game for political gain. In our village, there are many council litter bins. Some are literally within sight of eachother. It would make sense for the council van to empty all the ones close to eachother at the same time. But they don't have sense. Instead of the van coming once a week, it comes daily, and they seem to randomly empty bins as they feel like it (and sometimes ignore full ones that they drive past). What a waste of time and money to constantly drive the same route daily. Whenever people have complained to the council (including the Parish council complaining), the council's lame response is "government cuts" - but that makes no sense when they're passing anyway - it costs nothing for them to stop and empty another bin.

Same happens when the council clear the leaves in Autumn. The gully sucker comes (5 miles from the depot) and cleans a particular part of the road, completely ignoring the leaves on the roads that they drive on to get to the bit they're doing. Then a couple of days later, it comes again and does another bit of road, and so it goes on for a few weeks! Again, why not just come and make a day of it and do it all in one go!

Because a large number of people have zero pride in where they live and their community.

The amount of littering is shocking. I’m also not sure why lobbing cigarette ends on the floor is deemed OK.

This!!! My kids always comment on it when we come back to the uk

Had the misfortune to have to go to Bradford a few weeks ago. I've not seen anything like it. Pretty sure war torn countries or African slums are tidier. So much litter on the streets, verges, etc., overgrown gardens full of crap, along with a few cars either rusting away or burned out, a few burned out shops, shops with broken windows or cladding falling off. It looked like the aftermath of a riot. Clearly the residents and council of Bradford just don't care.

I used to live in Bradford in the 90s and it was really full of rubbish then too. Restaurants seemed to just dump waste into the street. There would be just piles of food waste which the rats would be all over.

Always!
Full stop.

I worked in Singapore for a few years. If you are caught littering, you get fined. That's all. Can't remember how much exactly but high enough to put you off from littering again. Streets are very clean, public transportation as well. My Singaporean colleagues said the civic mindset was drilled into them from a young age, so littering is something they'd think twice before doing it.

I live in a rural village in a beautiful part of the country. Litter on verges is rare, but when you see it it is almost always McDonalds wrappers 😡

I travel a lot. Never thought this.

Well the answer’s there. ‘A lovely part of Kent’.
I live in a dingy unimportant tourist free town in the north west.
Austerity = cuts to public spending = more important things for the council to spend money on 🤷🏻‍♂️

the village I live in has a monthly litter pick, just residents volunteering a couple of hours to litter pick - helps build pride imo - where people are not keen to help keep their own community clean you end up with more litter

Spending cuts to a labour voting city that’s unimportant in the scheme of things, what do you expect ?
Huge amounts of generational deprivation and poverty. Also has to deal with a large influx of often traumatised dirt poor refugees/migrants that the south doesn’t want because it’s in part a cheap and undesirable place to live in. Left behind by central government. Ignored.
Fwiw I worked in Bradford for many years. Some lovely bits but not received the same investment as Leeds. If anything is an indictment of Tory levelling up and pork barrel politics, this is it.

@maddening when people are already working 2/3 jobs to make ends meet, it’s hard to spend time doing this especially when the environment is not that nice.
In affluent areas with loads of retired folk not so much.

It is working people that do this, they bring kids along too who also help.

Really ? Like teachers and nurses working full time ? NMW key workers ?
Let’s be honest, it’s a bit of thing that well off mc families do in nice areas. Usually people not on their feet all day in tiring stressful jobs. Would you want your child to pick up a used needle or empty canister of laughing gas.

Really?! When I go abroad I think we are much tidier, eg Rome and Paris- both rather full of litter. New York- awful

@Canterbutytales

Also has to deal with a large influx of often traumatised dirt poor refugees/migrants

That should not excuse someone from placing waste into a dustbin, imo.

Was just in Prague for Bruce Springsteen ( he did not turn up) and was so so impressed by the cleanliness and the street sweepers etc.

Noticeable that there was no litter and even the river had no rubbish floating in it

My brother went to Santorini last year and said the amount of litter was shocking. Literally down in in the hillsides out of camera shot of the blue domed churches in all the holiday brochures. Tonnes of it. Would it really hurt the council there to pick it all up once in a while? Santorini of all places FFS.

I’m from a big city which is mostly less than salubrious but Naples was a shocker - dog poo, graffiti and litter all over the place. I’m not overly fussy but after a couple of days was happy to leave.

I went to a small village today with a decent reputation, but the pavement area was covered in dogshit, even by the local shop

I dont know about litter levels, but I always find the UK grimey looking whenever I travel back. Just grey and depressing.

Have you been to Paris? It's disgusting. Tonnes worse than the UK.

Have you ever been to Rome? It's filthy. Full of graffiti.
London is cleaner.