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?

Eurgh- hope she failed several times over.

Quite - the obvious solution is to take a plastic bag with you for smelly litter and roll the top to keep the odour in.

Only yesterday I was walking through my local town centre behind a group of four young teenage girls. One of them blatantly dropped her empty bottle of water which made a noticeable noise, her friend even called out her name and she just shrugged. I did say fairly loud “you could’ve just put it in your bag” but didn’t want to go too far as I’m pregnant and you never know what reaction you’re going to get!

Indeed. I did try and explain to her that picking up litter would only form part of his role and it likely wasn’t the aspect he enjoyed the most! I hope I got through to her.

Never, ever. It's slobby. Also I worry about birds etc pecking at it and it harming them

I can’t remember what happened to her. It was about 15yrs ago. I don’t remember her getting to the point of sitting her test though, I think I was waiting for her to get round to taking her theory.

I spent the last two days coordinating volunteers for a running race in my city. We were in a large tent which had multiple, clearly labeled (compost, recycle, waste) bins at the entrance. You couldn’t leave the tent without walking past these bins on either side of the entrance. Ours was the volunteer check-in tent and we provided a variety of snacks & drinks for them while they waited. Multiple announcements were made for the volunteers to put their rubbish in the bins. After each shift, we were left with loads of rubbish all over the tables, under the tables, on the chairs, dropped in the grass just outside the entrance - crisp packets, candy wrappers, used tissues, toothpicks…

people are disgusting.

I despise people who do this, and don't use that word lightly. Especially people who throw big bags if empty McDonald's waste out their cars. Who do they think is going to pick that up? To me, its the ultimate sign of a thick, anti social arsehole.

@Sinkintotheswamp do you use an app called Love Clean Streets? Very useful. Sends the report to the relevant council.

"Even food which rots such as apple cores etc, can be a danger to wildlife I'd have thought as well."

@SomethingMorethanthis can you elaborate?

How is it different from apples falling naturally from trees?

6 months ago, the council went from weekly collections on both general rubbish and recycling, to fortnightly. We use the narrow 120l bins for rubbish. For a one off payment of around £40, residents could swap their rubbish wheelie bin to a 240l. The take up for this is low. Fellow litter pickers on the FB messenger group said about 7-10% of the residents down their road have taken it up. Yet they are fine spending £40 on two takeaways a week...

Cue residents putting general rubbish in street bins. We did have those 'big mouth' bins which you see in McDs' car parks. Been swapped for bins with smaller entry holes to prevent this happening. Also putting bags of rubbish by street bins is classed as fly tipping. Wombles use an array of different coloured bags and if placed by the bins, they are taken away when bin gets emptied. We use green, blue, red and purple bags, depending on council issuing them and some councils change them. The councils take any colour bag, not nickpicking yet.

Us wombles want Keep Britain Tidy to rename themselves to GET Britain Tidy

Never. It was a slap across your legs offence when I was a child so I learnt early.
I think a lot goes out of car windows and also people leave empty bottles and food packets in picnic areas, parks abd the like. You managed to carry it there full but can’t carry it away empty……..

I wish we could have a communal dumpster in our courtyard instead of the horrible mess of bags and bins on the street. The council refuses - will only allow those big bins for high rises. We aren't a high rise, we are a higgledy piggledy collection of historical buildings with no drives or back gardens and it's a huge mess. The bottles blow about in the road. The bins are too light and fall over in the wind. There are 16 different bins in a line at all times across everyone's fronts.

The council do impose horrible mess on people a lot, completely without any comeback. That is part of the litter problem - the actually mad bin policies of local councils.

When I was 7 or 8 I was walking to primary school with the children next door and their mum. I found a piece of paper in my pocket that I ripped into tiny pieces and threw into the air. A council worker happened to see this, he came over and told me off. Since that day I have never thrown litter.

Yeah, that's disgusting. I'd expect far better behaviour from runners!!

Urban foxes and full up public bins are a massive issue where I live (the bins especially in the summer) and this causes a lot of residual litter. Not making excuses for the absolute pigs who do purposely litter.

I remember many years ago I was having a fag break with someone who was quite new we had to go out to the business park and used a designated outside ashtray and we watched a car pull into a parking space and dump a tonne of rubbish out of their window - loads of food wrappers, cans etc. New colleague passed me her fag, walked over to the car and gathered up the rubbish, tapped on the window and when they wound it down she tossed it all into the car. She was my hero from that moment on.

I think it’s disgusting. I once saw someone throw a whole bag of McDonald’s packaging out of the drivers side of the window. Into the middle of the road. Unbelievable.
I have told someone that they dropped something and if the parents are oblivious, I’ll mention it to them if their child drops litter.

Never.
I will look for a bin or pop rubbish in my bag.

I have never allowed my child to drop litter either and they would be told off if they did.

nope never ever. its one of the most disgusting things humans do I think. I used to live near the beach and it was shocking what I picked up every day. especially after the weekend. takeaway wrappers were the worst. I live in the country now and you see it all the time in the ditches. no one cares I pick it up as much as I can. to people who do litter i wonder what sort of home you live in. here in Ireland we now have a deposit scheme where you pay a deposit on cans and bottles at time of purchase and return them to the machines in the shops and get your deposit back. its in a year. but there was outrage when it first came in peole were disgusted. radio shows papers etc reporting on the outrage. but now I have seen a reduction in cans and bottles being dumped. so it's working to some extent the same when the plastic bag tax came in. something like that needs to be on other stuff and also cameras everywhere and fine big time anyone who does litter

Never.
Its lazy, entitled and vile.

Never. It was drummed into me as a child to take any rubbish home and I did the same with my own children. Some people are just selfish pricks who think nothing of dropping litter or, even worse, leaving their dogs shit for others to step in 🤮

Nope, and I’ll tell people off if I see them do it. I have to say it’s mainly men I’ve seen (my favourite moment was when a bloke dropped the cellophane from a cigarette packet out of his open car window while he was parked, and I picked it up and put it back through his window 😂)

Nope. When the wind blew over my recycling I chased it all over the street in the rain at 6am to pick it up, my neighbours stuff too as hers was on it's side as well. We can't bungee tie them while on the street.

What really gets me is people who fly tip next to public bins. I live near a small park, and pretty much every week, someone will dump things like a suitcase, buggy or box of kitchen equipment next to the normal bin, as if it's just normal litter.