Do you ever drop litter?

[SwanOfThoseThings]

Inspired by the thread about the UK being in terminal decline.

It's true that there is litter everywhere, and this is by no means a new problem, litter has been a problem in the UK for as long as I can remember, and I'm in my 50s.

But - who is dropping it? It's the sort of thing no one admits to.

Are you a reformed litterer? Have you ever been forced to leave litter behind in an emergency situation? Have you ever been out and about with someone who dropped litter?

If i drop anything i pick it back up put it in a bin or take it home.

No, I don’t and I never have. I never allowed my kids or grandchildren to either. Litter just destroys the area. 🙄

No, but even if it wanted too I would be hard pressed to find a space with no dog mess

I’m in Ireland and they recently introduced a charge on plastic bottles . You now have to return them to a machine in the shop now to get the money back. I’ve never heard anything like the moaning and complaining since this was introduced. But I’m delighted because I have noticed a huge reduction in the amount of litter on the sides of the roads. People are so disgusting and would rather throw something out the window than wait to get home to a bin as they are driving along. But it’s amazing how a few cent can motivate people not to do it.

I think in NZ we are raised with a pride in our country, we are all told it's the most beautiful country in the world and that we should be proud of it.

I've noticed we have a loyalty to NZ that I don't notice on the same level in the UK.

We are also taught about conservation in schools and the impact on wildlife.

I do think the campaign had an impact as kids would go around saying it to each other and it was an easy phrase for parents to implement at home, but I don't think it would have worked if there wasn't already an inbuilt culture around caring for our country.

Unfortunately (and I am not anti immigration or tourism) there has been a big rise in littering since I was a kid in NZ. When I have observed it in person, it has always been done by people not from NZ.

No, my house is a tip but I wouldn't dream of leaving litter anywhere. I hate the spitters too, disgusting ppl

I have seen a bloke drink half a bottle of wine and chuck the empty out of the window into a layby.

The entire roadside is littered with bottles.

It took me ages to realise this is people wanging them out of the window on their way home from work or on their way to work. Disgusting.

@FeministUnderTheCatriarchy we’re not allowed to be proud of our country in the UK, because that is considered racist.

This is the only thing that truly angers me. We are experiencing a pandemic of litter everywhere and need to urgently address this issue. Not only because it’s awful for wildlife and the environment but also for everyone’s mental health and well being. Living in a tip is terrible for everyone and I want something done about it.

I never drop litter, and every time I see someone drop litter, I confront them. I often pick it up and give it back to them.

On the plus side, there has been an explosion in numbers of litter picking groups. DP got his littler picking kit from the council for free (big bag, metal picker thing) and at least once a week he goes out and picks litter.

No but my BIL does- usually from the car, doesn't want it smelling. He knows it's rubbish (haha) but is just a really selfish person in all sorts of ways. He doesn't care about the world outside of himself and thinks recycling is a conspiracy. I am pretty appalled, it my mind it's the behaviour of a teenage boy 'showing off' being naughty.

To be fair, I think a lot of roadside litter is due to the waste collection vans, and we are hoodwinked about many aspects of recycling, but I also know there's no room for nuance in public messaging and it is a net positive.

No, I always make sure my children use bins and I always pick up after my dog. The other week I had to pick up several beer cans up that had been crushed and thrown on the floor outside the children's school before a small child fell over and cut themselves on them.

A large amount of the litter we see is caused by it blowing out of bins or during collection, whether domestic, commercial or public.

Some littering does happen, of course.

The answer is street cleaning. The less litter there already is, the less likely people are to drop litter.

No, never.

i'm the weird middle-aged woman picking up litter!! I live opposite a lovely little duckpond in playground, unfortunately just down the road it's the newsagents. And up the road, three schools... the kids go from school to the newsagent to buy crisps and sweets and drinks and then across the park and leave loads of litter. Yesterday there was a bright pink packet that had had sweets in it and all of the bright pink sweet wrappers (really near a bin!!!) they obviously been some kind of chewy sweet as some of the wrappers were still sticky. The nosey little ducks we're getting them stuck to their beaks, so I picked all of the remaining ones out and put them back in the packet and then into the bin. No big deal.

I pick any bottles and cans and stuff up on the way back so I can put them in my recycling bin the park bin.

there are quite a few bins at the park, so I often pick up bits and pieces and put them in the bin and occasionally I'll take a bin bag over and fill that up instead, but unless there's an event on at the park, it's not really an issue to put the rubbish in the bins there as they get emptied fairly regularly.

I honestly do not know how people can just drop litter and throw it out of Car windows, how do they just not care??

many many years ago, I went out with a bloke who smoked, the first time I saw him drop a butt I told him to pick it up and not just dropped them wherever. He was adamant that it was fine as they're biodegradable. We had quite a row about it and I had to show him the literature on just how many hundreds of years they take to biodegrade, he did eventually stop doing it but I have a feeling it was more to do with wanting to avoid the aggravation with me than any epiphany! And no doubt where we split up, he went back to doing it🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️

Nope. We actually do a monthly litter pick as a village to keep on top of it. Usually get a kit 15 or so people out each month to give the village a good tidy up

No I don't. I'm of the 'Keep Britain Tidy' generation. We were even taught this at school, I remember. I guess this doesn't happen now.

Worst offenders where I live are car drivers/users. Most of the rubbish is fast food containers/drinks/cups deposited near the road.

When I smoked I used to throw cigarette butts on the floor if there weren’t any bins. I don’t smoke anymore.
Other than that, not knowingly.
I will never forget driving down the motorway and the car in front launched a full McDonald’s bag of rubbish out the window 😳

Rubbish. (Apposite word for the thread.)

There's far more packaging than there used to be, a lot of it doesn't biodegrade, and people eat and drink while out and about far more nowadays than they did in the 60s and 70s when I was growing up. Probably fewer cigarette butts these days, though.

In the countryside I think it’s mostly caused by people throwing it out car windows at least where I am from it is anyway.

I have noticed in countries where bins are public and have to be paid for it is much cleaner.

No, I'm not buying that 'most' of the letter is from rubbish being collected, some of it no doubt but the vast majority is from people being lazy selfish ignorant or whatever.

The amount of stuff thrown out of CAR windows is astounding. The amount of stuff left where people have been sitting in the park eating is disgusting. The park is full of bins they don't even have to take it home!!

I never do because I’m old and we had it drummed into us when young. I think much of it is youths chucking it out of cars after a takeaway. HOWEVER let’s not forget the bin men ( certainly in our area) who drop litter when emptying the bins, don’t pick it up and it gets blown all over. And don’t get me started on dog poo bags hang from trees…

Littering is one of my bugbears, I hate it. For a couple of years when I first started smoking (decades ago), I did drop cig butts, because everyone else did. But I felt guilty about it, so got a small airtight tub to put my butts in until I got home. I was treated as a right weirdo for doing that! 😂

I remember once in a busy city centre, I was people watching, and this young woman just casually tossed her McDonalds cup aside as she was walking. She was about 5 foot from a bin! I nearly blew a gasket on the spot, even 20-ish years later I still feel the righteous fury 😡

Reminds me of taking the empty glass soft drinks bottles back to the corner shop to get the deposits back, usually to spend on sweets. 😁

I can honestly say that I have only ever seen old people littering. Young people occasionally spitting out gum but I was recently driving behind an elderly couple (at least 80+) and the woman in the passenger seat just flung some trash out of the window whilst we drove over a bridge. I was beyond horrified.