Who taught their offspring it’s ok to litter?

[Nutmuncher]

The amount of litter I see on streets and roads every single day is just astounding, in fact it’s mind blowing and I’m left wondering how so many parents (of adults not just children) failed to instill the basic fundamental of you don’t ever litter, that it’s shameful, lazy, dangerous to wildlife and makes our environment look terrible.

How low does their self awareness have to be in order to think it’s ok I’ll throw it out of the window if you’re drinking from a plastic bottle on the roads? How entitled does one have to be to leave their dogs poo bag on a footpath? What mentality thinks I know I’ll just leave this pile of McDonalds packaging under the car then… drive off?

If you are are litter thrower please explain your thinking because I’m desperate to understand what went so catastrophically wrong in your development that you think it’s acceptable to do?

I’m sure most adults who do it know it’s wrong but don’t care. It’s more about attitude than not being aware

I work at a well known fast food restaurant (a drive thru) on a tiny retail park (close to the tiny town centre)

We have a small patio,2 car parks with a lot of bushes surrounding them (it's a weird set up-we have ours and the 'main' car park) and 5 bins on the way out

We have to do a litter pick 4 times a day

The amount of rubbish that we find on the floor,next to the bin or in the bushes is insane (it's less effort to put it in the bin rather than the bushes-you don't have to get out of the car to put it in the bin)

I've found bag after bag of food/wrappers,(just scattered on the floor),condoms,sweet wrappers,cans of monster,cigarette butt's,broken up furniture (more than once),dumped trolleys and on one memorable occasion,a puppy

It's not some backwater retail park-its on a wide open space,next to a busy main road

My in laws live at the other end of the UK to us (in the country) and have the same fast food restaurant about 5 miles away

People would drive down their street (i say 'street' loosely-its a small row of houses) just to dump their bags and drive off

No thought to the poor sods who've never eaten there in their lives but have to clean up their rubbish

Some people seem to think 'not my problem,someone else can deal with this'

It's so wrong

I live in a town with a huge litter problem. Fly tipping too. The local council has made it so difficult for people to dispose of their rubbish safely and it’s incredibly hard to even visit the tip these days. Also I agree with pp, I commute on National Rail. There are plenty of bins but people leave bottles, can and other rubbish on the seats and tables. Why? Laziness.

as a child I had it drilled into me that dropping litter (and eating on the street!) were bad. It was simply wrong and disrespectful to leave a mess for someone else to clear up (or for rats, seagulls crows to pick over). We were told at school that
if you can carry packets full of food for a picnic, or peel an orange, or chew gum you can carry the empty containers and the peel or the gum back home. Personal responsibility in public space was encouraged and taught - and was enforced by glares, challenges and even fines!

« Love this place - leave no trace » is posted on bins and boards all over Ireland - along with public health notices and cartoon illustrations making the point about dog poo too. Beaches and streets are cleaner, even around fast food outlets … it seems where collective community responsibility is the norm then there is less littering. Where individual rights without responsibility is the norm, then there is a free for all mess.

I recall my son once coming home and immediately emptying his pockets into the kitchen bin, saying “this is your fault, I can’t leave my litter!!” Job done 😁

i agree with a few likely culprits
taxis (as will have to eat/drink and can suddenly get a fayre and dont want smells/clutter..)
vans - yes a lot of snacking/meal deal/mcd and would need to share vehicles)
kids older than 10+ because goibg to school and park alone.. our park is a mess and its the unaccompanied kids. They literally throw it and theres a bin 5m away.

with the dog crap here its the council tenants. Theres a road which still has the council owned ones and it leads to a cycle path. The amount of dog crap on that specific road is 10x the amount anywhere else. Yes it may be partly people walking to cycle path but its been consistent for 20+ years. And yes someone has maybe 2x let their dog crap right outside the school.

Thing is though its all the ‘insta’ lives so people who want perfectly clean cars so any mate can get a lift. Whereas our car has the kids wrappers in.

There was a very young mum early 20s with a 4 yo who lived about 50 steps from the school i saw her driving the kid multiple times. But also to the park (about 5min walk from house). While at the park i heard her saying ‘he walks everywhere, he loves walking’ i just dont think it occurred to her that people who live locally know thats not true..! Anyway when he was say 5/6 and had walked to school he threw up on the way and she still took him in, and obviously left the vomit outside someones house.

Also there have been a lot of threads about how gypsies leave the sites full of human crap and rubbish so i assume they may well drop litter elsewhere too?

Along that same cycle path - guess the number of waste bins? 0 but plenty of dog bins.

So laziness, not wanting to be seen carrying rubbish, looking cool, lack of bins.
But there may be an element of dirty protest. Because adults maybe PO that rubbish collected less and less, that they are expect to pick up dog poo. That the council tax is so very high just for bin collection £2k a year…

But also yes the seagulls! They make so much litter mess and the crap. So many of them i cant see how tf they need protection. Maybe need to check the numbers inland…!

Your brave...what if he was a psycho?

If you see them do it take the number of the taxi license number and report them to the council.

Probably a good chunk of them are registered with Wolverhampton....

I live in a town in the NW, having moved up from the SE for family reasons a while ago and I have to say that, in comparison to where I used to live, this area of the NW - and in particular, certain roads - are absolutely filthy and strewn with all sorts of disgusting litter. The residents have no regard for their environment, or how it appears to those passing through. I am sickened every time I have to travel along those roads - they look like a third world country! Civic pride has vanished.

This is up there with one of the things that makes me so angry. I can't get my head around people who litter, it's literally 'shitting on your own doorstep'.

Always take binbags or carrier bags for rubbish when we go somewhere and bin it while we're there, or if there's no bins it goes in the boot and taken home to bin. It's not that hard!

Although, there is a distinct lack of enough bins in a lot of places which doesnt help.

I take my dog for a walk early mornings and am always picking up discarded glass/plastic bottles every morning.

Worse still though, late evening I take my dog for a walk round the block
(4 streets in total) and there is always dog shit on the pavements. It must be from the very same dogs every day. Shame on the owner/owners.
Last night I picked up 4 turds.
As I do the same routes every day, I just hope that my local neighbourhood don't think I'm the culprit.
Well they don't actually, but this behaviour gives all responsible dog owners a bad name.

So, I am naming and shaming Scarborough.

Another thing that pissed me off
. Clothing charity bins. They are just a magnet for fly tipping. If you dump things outside the bins - that is fly tipping. Just get rid of them as doubt the stuff in the bins are in good condition. Some areas had the bins removed and the fly tipping never returned

True story - I used to live in an apartment block with beautiful manicured gardens.
Often people would use the gardens as a short cut to reach the road behind us.
One day walking to my flat, there was a young girl (aged about 7 or 8) walking in front of me, her mum (I assumed) was walking a few paces ahead of the young girl)
The young girl dropped a juice carton. I picked it up and handed it back to her and gently asked would she like to pop it in the bin over there, I explained that the gardens looked much prettier when there was no rubbish left,
Her mother turned around, waited for the girl to catch up and then spoke to her, I’m guessing she asked her what I’d said.
The mother looked at me and then knocked the juice carton out of the child’s hand back onto the lawn.
I have no words !!!!

It is disgusting and makes me angry

saw it walking up my road today