Roadside and layby litter and dumping...

X-d posts G&Tea!

Where I live in Staffordshire there is litter everyWhere. So much so that I've turned into a womble and regularly fill a carrier bag as I go around my neighbourhood.
Best haul so far, one (empty) wine bottle, many cans of course, miniature bottles of spirits, and 4 small trifle containers (eaten) and further along the cardboard sleeve they were in.
Of course there are chip wrappers, newspaper, carrier bags, the occasional (full) dog poo bag. All this is in a (rather nice!) residential area near homes and school.
What is wrong with folks, why don't they just take it home for goodness sake?
And don't get me started on the sports field at the local Uni (where we have an -amble- warm up before keep fit). There's bottles, glass and plastic, cans, sandwich wrappers, carrier bags. . . .

We live on a canal bank, our house is about 150 yards from the main road. Over the last couple of years, there`s been no end of rubbish dumped down here, at the side of the road and on the bank. We have twice had a bag and a box of rubbish plonked on our front doorstep, and today I noticed a mattress on the bank a little further up from us. It`s very annoying, to put it mildly, if people can be bothered to bring their rubbish to dump it here, why can`t they just take it to the tip?
I`m posting a pic of what the area looked like in the days before the dumping started. Unfortunately it doesn`t show all the bank, but it used to be all grass, it`s now muddy and rubbish strewn.

gj Ask any British expat and they will say the same

Just need to mention that this British expat does not say the same.
Sweeping statements irritate me.

The litter problem you write about was not in evidence on my recent visit to the UK.

There are some areas where people dump rubbish and litter,where some people seem to have no respect for their environment. Fair enough.
Frankly however, I can do without all the hand-wringing and great sadness, the surpising and shocking, the because we love the UK so much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
I find it overly sentimental and out of touch with reality, a common characteristic of some expats who retain a rose-tinted view of the "dear old country".
IMHO crocodile tears.

Fly tipping appears to be on the increase. Apart from the unsightly mess and the cost to the land owner in clearing it, much of the materials tipped are hazardous (asbestos etc).
Rubbish breads more rubbish, once an area gets know the fly tippers use it regularly.
Litter and fly tipping are IMO different. Litter is down to the unsocial mentality of the person dropping it, fly tipping is a planned crime.

If other countries really do not have similar problems, I would like to know why.

Trashing mountains too: twitter.com/clared_/status/734428422101958656 Tweet by @ClareD_

I agree with GandTea; rubbish does breed rubbish. Four years ago, the council here created a green walk and cycle way that linked up to the transpennine trail. It is bordered by woodland, a reed bed and in the Spring and Summer it is awash with a variety of wild flowers. When it opened it was truly beautiful. Four years on, it is an ugly litter strewn eyesore - at times there is not a square meter that is free of rubbish. The problem is that right at the end of this greenway is a very large Morrisons supermarket. A quick scan of the litter items seems to indicate that most of it - drink cans and bottles, takeaway food cartons, crisp and sweet packets, plastic bags - originates from there. We use this path because it is part of a round walk we do from our house, but it makes me sick and very sad (apologies to Alea) to see the mess. Last time we came up there I said to DH I wouldn't walk it again. To be fair, there is not one single litter bin from one end of this greenway to the other, so in a sense the council are in part to blame, but I doubt that the people who make a mess of these green spaces would be inclined to use them anyway. Recently, someone had fly tipped a load of builders materials - heavy, barely portable stuff - and paint cans next to the path and we are still trying to work out how they managed to get it there without a vehicle, for which there is no access. First time we have seen that and doubt it will be the last now. Sorry if this sounds like a dreary rant.

The first toblerone I had was given to me by a waiter in Innsbruck in 1950

If you have visited countries like Greece and some other Mediterranean countries the litter is dreadful.

On a Ramblers holiday in Spain 26 years ago, we walked past a huge tipping site near Cordoba - all sorts of refuse, notably condoms, sanitary products and 'disposable' nappies. It wasn't obvious whether this was a legal or illegal site, but whatever is was, it was a health hazard and a gross eyesore - the stench was appalling. And there were families picnicking beside it.

Sometimes it seems you have to read every single thread on GN to make sense of what's going on. Quite frankly my dears - CBA.

I'm always amazed when you see fag ends on paths high up in mountains. How come they manage it? Why are there no bodies where they coughed themselves to death?

A few years ago a local pub was bought by MacDonalds. At least the crumbling wreck was removed but we ended up with litter from the new MacDonalds. For years they supply somebody to clean up within I think a 1/4-1/2 mile radius and what a difference it has made.

JBF. First I read "my Dears" and I thought How Patronising, then I read your next post and nearly wet myself. Thank you for that my dear Jing.

I have to ask, GrandTea, how do you know there is urine in the bottles , do you stop and open them?

Reprimands! Yes, that is exactly the word. In the Gransnet cabinet, Granjura should be in charge of justice - there would be no re-offending recidivists. Probably no crime at all, as the villains would all be overcome with contrition before they'd even offended.

If British expats are so distressed stay in the countries they chose over the UK

A fine of up to £2, 500 can be imposed on anyone caught dropping litter in the UK.

The Swiss are trying to introduce stiffer fines to reduce the worringly high level of litter in public places:
lenews.ch/2016/04/14/stiff-new-fines-for-littering-in-switzerland
Oh dear, it's not just the filthy British then.
I do remember a friend who had been on holiday in Switzerland telling me how horrified she was at the state of one of the parks in a major city obviously being used as a venue for drug users.

However, first catch your litterbug.

GandTea isn't "quite frankly my dear" a quote from somewhere? That's how I meant it.

Perhaps I invented it...

Oh no! It's "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn". From some film.

That could be useful on here...