Impressive. 
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A change in attitude would be great, but enforcement is sadly missing. In the 80s, when a uniformed patrol cop, never a week went buy without at least one ‘customer’ being awarded a litter summons that never failed to attract less than a £50 fine at the local Magistrates Court (this was pre fixed penalty tickets). My favourite was the empty fag packet out of the car window, or crisp packet/sweet wrappers on high street. Only took 30 minutes of my time (the ‘stop’ and ensuing paperwork). When promoted, with my own team, we always found a few minutes each week for a few of these! Not crime of the century, but a good, rewarding way to fill in those occasional boring moments. Unfortunately I don’t think it figures anywhere on today’s law enforcement menu. Like so many other things its been hived off to the local council or privatised enforcement agencies, which means it never gets done. Bad behaviour needs to be met with consequences.
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The Covidiots strike again. I’ve been struck by the almost USA levels of ignorant entitlement on display in England this last week or so.
Our local council recovered 13 tonnes of rubbish in their morning beach clean on Sunday, so that’s just litter from Saturday’s antics. It’s appalling behaviour.
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I remember as a kid during the early 70’s, ‘my mates’ would drop litter and justify it by saying “it keeps someone in a job!”
Best litter story i heard was from my wife, who was sitting as the passenger in her friend’s car. ‘Her friend’ dropped her take away rubbish from her car window, in slow moving stop-start traffic. An onlooker picked it up and handed it back to her through the still open car window, and with a cheery voice said, “Ooops you nearly lost this”, I guess that could have escalated, but apparently the look on her friend’s face was priceless.
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Back in the days when cigarette butts weren’t viewed by many as litter a friend of mine got quite a nasty burn to his face whilst out on his motorbike from a lit butt flicked out of a car driver’s window. It went into his full face helmet through open visor and lodged there. He couldn’t get at it until he’d pulled over, taken gauntlets off etc. Very painful, took weeks to heal. He never rode again with open visor! Having seen what still gets thrown from cars today I guess it could still happen today.
My colleague had the same happen to him. Its only when I started cycling that I realised how bad cigarette detritus was, amazing how the pile of butts builds at traffic lights!
I’ve never quite understood why its ok to hold on to a burning stick whilst driving, especially as they have a propensity to drop hot ash in your lap if you are not careful
Indeed, I’ve always though the danger of smoking whilst driving must be at least as much as using a mobile phone.
The amount of garbage you see by the roadside when cycling is quite depressing. You notice it way more than you do when driving. I often wonder whether any of the people I count as friends are a part of the issue.
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I’ve just been out for a cycle around the park with my son - playing fields nearby have bins that are overflowing with cans/bottles etc - hot day, first time people are allowed to meet another family outdoors since lockdown.
I’m not surprised bins are full, but after that point surely people could take the refuse home themselves when I suspect the majority live very close to the park/playing fields.
There is another argument of course that local councils don’t empty such facilities regularly enough when such things could be predicted but that’s no excuse for littering.
Public conveniences are also dwindling throughout Britain, even those available are for the most part locked/closed currently when measures are being relaxed.
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I found the littering in public parks in the UK to be just terrible. I lived in Bristol, and the park down by the Cathedral would look like a garbage tip by the middle of the afternoon on Sundays. Incredibly, people would simply be sitting around in their filth, seemingly oblivious. The council would clean it up overnight, and by Monday morning, it would be clean again. I’d never seen anything like it growing up in Australia.
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Yes it’s disgusting and it hasn’t got any better.
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I may finish watching The Changes later…
Equally many don’t care about the consequences of their inactions to others.
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Well, if we are all told it’s ok to go out in small groups - but there might not be any toilets or council operated amenities open, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess what’s gonna happen.
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Weird isn’t it, only a few months ago everyone seemed to be so angry and more than a few, engaged by the documentaries showing the impact of plastic in the oceans, and yet here we see a sea of plastic on our coast line. ( I was going to knit a few more ‘see’s’ and ‘sea’s’ in, but I managed to restrain myself)
Humans eh, who needs em? definitely not this planet.
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The funniest thing I have seen this year was Emma Thompson posing for photos on the boat in her designer dungarees having just jetted in. Caring for the planet seems to be PR based and social media driven. Demonstrating is just being part of the event rather than sincerity in the cause. As we see on the news humans generally don’t practice what they preach. On the positive side there are genuine people who quietly go about picking up the mess left by others.
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Maybe a little harsh on Emma Thompson. Was the publicity worth the ‘carbon impact’ of the flight? Was her motivation to bolster her social media image or a genuine concern?
I’d rather think well of people’s motivations and assume that she’s trying to do the right thing but like many of us often falling short.
Paws on plastic have accounts on face/twit.
It encourages all of us dog walkers to pick up a few pieces of others’ rubbish whilst out.
Albert is in charge of McDonalds wrappers.He ensure they’re are clean before I collect them.
N
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