Britain is just one big landfill shithole

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Been out visiting relatives....I am actually shocked just how bad the litter is. Its bloody everywhere, frankly it's depressing. Where is our Pride? The motorways and A roads are so bad. Along with the absolutely shocking driving standards.

WTAF?

We always find bottles and cans of alcoholic drinks on roadsides. Even find Polish/East European brands which only buy in Eastern European supermarkets. As language on the packaging is in their native language. There is a serious drink drive issue in the UK.

Yet in Poland, there is zero tolerance with drink driving!

Other countries can manage it. Go to any rural part of France, where there is often high unemployment or low pay and people still look after their surroundings. They make sure there are flowers in the troughs in their street or in their window boxes, no rubbish anywhere. Bunting between the houses for local festivals. The village squares are immaculate. There is a sense of civic pride.

No-one wants to take any responsibiity in this country. It's always someone else's problem to fix or be responsible for.

There are towns and villages in the U.K. where there's flowers, bunting etc too. The idea that "no-one" in this country takes responsibility and cares about their environment is simply not true.

There are people who care as we are litter Wombles.

I second this. When we litter pick I am absolutely blown away by the number of alcohol cans/bottles that have clearly been thrown out of the drivers window.

Too expensive. Prisoners aren't sat on their arses all day because someone thinks it's nicer for them than cleaning the streets. It's because locking someone up and ignoring them is easier and cheaper than training them, monitoring their health and safety, carrying out risk assessments, supervising them, motivating them, assessing if their work is satisfactory, dealing with their non compliance, performance issues, complaints, injuries.....etc.

I totally agree that this isn’t true. I live in a suburb of a large city. Lots of community things that people organise in their own time. Scarecrow festivals, summer fayres, Christmas events, monthly farmers market, children in need etc. We decorate the town for Remembrance day, Christmas etc with knitted/crocheted poppies and covers for all the bollards and postboxes etc.
We have the litter picking crew and the ‘in bloom’ crew and lots of other things. It’s not a twee upmarket place by any means, it just has people who are willing to organise things, and once people organise things people are more than willing to help out.

We also have 2 amazing councillors who work really hard to make it a lovely place to live.

Should litter picking be relegated to something prisoners or other offenders do as a punishment though? I'd argue it needs to be reframed as something regular people should want and aspire to do, as it makes where you live so much nicer and contributes to a healthier and cleaner environment.

Maybe if influencers and celebrities started doing it 😂 or King Charles and Kate Middleton

I work remotely but the main U.K. offices of my company organise various volunteering days - sometimes it's doing work on a nature reserve, sometimes it's litter picking.

I actually saw one of the A roads being litter picked on Friday....I assumed they were council workers (?) We would need to take this cost into account?

I think it could be useful as an alternative to prison (as oppose to making existing prisoners do it), as while costly, it's cheaper than a custodial sentence. Unfortunately a lot of people in the CJS wouldn't prove suitable for it as an alternative due to severity of crime or their own 'complex needs' - health, substance abuse etc. I believe it's something this government are looking at though.

Are they really?!!!!! I hope so!!!

I’ve actually bought a litter picker and pick it up when walking the dog.

litter and graffiti are actually making me depressed.

It is an embarrassing disgrace.

It's making me depressed too. Once you see it, really see it, it is honestly just everywhere.

For anyone doing their bit...thank you

This time of year it looks worse as no leaves to cover and ice and snow has made everything grey and dirty. But I do agree littering is insane .

Plus very slippery with all the rain. I slipped on a bit of mud and rolled down the slope last Sunday. Got two nasty bruises on leg.

I'm 44 and one of the younger regular wombles. Say the average age of the regulars is 57. One man is 83.

I work 1 mile outside town and down a country lane. Someone had eaten a massive KFC in the car and dumped it in the hedge over the weekend. There were enough cartons and packets for at least 5 people.

We get shit dumped in the lane like this at least twice a month, sometimes furniture, sometimes black bags of household rubbish, this week an entire KFC. There was a toilet dumped there last year.

There are clearly a lot of morons out there that refuse to admit they are morons.

Yes, I nominate people like David Beckham, grossly overpaid for simply "acting" in a 2 minute advert. What actual use is that to society? He's got plenty of money and influence, why don't they use their fame for some good?

I don't agree at all that prisoners should pick up the litter.

The punishment for dropping litter should be picking up litter for a month of Sundays. All day, in a really shitty spot that's been really neglected.

Councils need to uphold the bye laws on littering. The person caught should be fined £150 and then given a month of Sundays to litter pick or the fine gets doubled for every single no-show. The money collected will pay to admin and facilitate the scheme.

There are so many filthy selfish morons out there - they just need spotting, reporting, photographing and collaring.

I agree. Once you associate the prison population or make in a punishment to pick litter it becomes almost acceptable to throw it to them.

It absolutely needs to be made unclassy to litter. But also to stop the relentless one use packaging.Everything from wrapped sweets to plastic bottles. Water seems to have cracked it but so much other stuff just needs to go,

Nice idea but how do you propose it can be done? How many council officials will be needed to patrol the streets to watch for offenders? What powers will they have? If someone won't give their details, how will it be enforced - presumably the police would have to be called - what police? Would these council workers have power to hold someone until the police attended - could they physically restrain them? You really have to think of the practicalities.

I told someone off for dropping cigarette litter yesterday. They claimed they didn't know it wasn't OK liar.
So I've emailed the management of their large office telling them to remind all staff to not drop cigarette litter.

Lol didn't know? Do people need to be told. Really?!

Thank you

I went for a short walk in the woods today......took my new pickers....pleased to report litter wasn't that bad but still half a carrier bag full.