Keep Britain Tidy - pick up your litter

The washing of front steps began as a result of landlords making it part of the tenant's contract. It was nothing to do with cleanliness but so that the street would look good so would attract other tenants.
I think it lost sense of its original purpose over time and became a bit of a status thing, maybe in a jokey way?
I have never washed a front step and don't recall my mother or grandma ever doing so.

Urmstongran

A friend and her husband visited Jersey last weekend and said it was so gorgeous and clean. Hardly any litter and the public toilets were pristine. Then they flew back to Liverpool … her heart sank. “When did we become THIS?” she wailed. The comparison was stark apparently.

It’s all so very sad because it really doesn’t have to be like this but very few even care.

Hardly any litter and the public toilets were pristine.

They have public toilets in Jersey?

Our small town in The Cotswolds is a tourist town - the public toilets have been sold to a developer who turned them into a small house which is now an AirBnB.

Now there are none.

Fortunately, there are pubs a-plenty. But not really a satisfactory solution for families with children or the elderly.

keepingquiet

The washing of front steps began as a result of landlords making it part of the tenant's contract. It was nothing to do with cleanliness but so that the street would look good so would attract other tenants.
I think it lost sense of its original purpose over time and became a bit of a status thing, maybe in a jokey way?
I have never washed a front step and don't recall my mother or grandma ever doing so.

My grandmother had those steps (two) built of the same material leading from the kitchen to the garden.

She scrubbed them almost every day because the men in the family came in 'round the back' and they worked in the local foundry which had grease, dust and metal filings on the floor which they transported on their boots.

... and after she'd scrubbed them, she used them as a knife-sharpener for all her knives - which it was my job to then run through a bowl of soapy water in which Lux soapflakes had been dissolved.

My mum was very fussy about her step.
The windowsills, too.

They were what the knife was sharpened on.

Some years ago hubby and I were homeless for nearly 2 years and living from the car. Long story short but it was voluntary and we were both working full time.

The amount of rubbish just tossed out of various vehicles was disgusting, including used nappies and used sanitary towels and used condoms. These are the same freak activists that want to ''clean up the planet''!

Hubby and I ALWAYS binned our rubbish, went to recycling centres etc. and every day we'd grab our litter pickers and bin bags and cleared up other peoples mess from the pavements and bushes and so on, as much as possible.

Those that left their filth - we dreaded to think what their houses are like!

In the 'olden days' when the police were doing their beat we, as children, wouldn't dare to drop litter.

We have to have volunteers litter picking all along the coast where I live in East Sussex.. Visitors come down sit on the beach all day and just leave their litter where they were sitting.. It defies belief as we have plenty of bins..

Not good. I’m surprised the locals would allow this to happen. I suppose people pee behind trees of they don’t want to go in a pub? I’d be ringing the local council about lack of amenities, they should reduce your rates !

Not far from my place there's a Booths supermarket with several litter bins dotted about plus they employ someone to regularly tidy up the car park and pavement. Unfortunately, a Greggs and Subway opened in nearby units a couple of years ago and I can only conclude that their customers do not possess the basic intelligence and wisdom to figure out just why litter bins are provided.
They are the epitomè of idle slobs who don't give a toss and abide by the philosophy "Not My Problem".
I can imagine they live like the sad and dreadful people you find in those eye-popping documentaries about hoarding.

Those with a mental health problem?

mae13

Not far from my place there's a Booths supermarket with several litter bins dotted about plus they employ someone to regularly tidy up the car park and pavement. Unfortunately, a Greggs and Subway opened in nearby units a couple of years ago and I can only conclude that their customers do not possess the basic intelligence and wisdom to figure out just why litter bins are provided.
They are the epitomè of idle slobs who don't give a toss and abide by the philosophy "Not My Problem".
I can imagine they live like the sad and dreadful people you find in those eye-popping documentaries about hoarding.

I can imagine they live like the sad and dreadful people you find in those eye-popping documentaries about hoarding.

I think people who hoard have a mental health problem. I knew one such.

People who stuff a Gregg's or Subway in their mouths and throw the wrapper down wherever they are, are just uncivilised slobs.

Maybe this is what happens to a society as it becomes more and more individualistic? Does community gradually cease to be important?

I don't know why such people are the way they are.

MissAdventure

Those with a mental health problem?

I can imagine they live like the sad and dreadful people you find in those eye-popping documentaries about hoarding

It's not the same thing at all mae13

People with severe hoarding problems usually have mental health problems and need help. They are not dreadful

People who throw their fast food litter on the ground, dump mattresses, fridges etc in the countryside, are dreadful and disgusting.

We need litter officers, who go around issuing fines. (If they're brave enough)

MissAdventure

We need litter officers, who go around issuing fines. (If they're brave enough)

And who is going to pay them?

No idea.
That's why I washed bottoms for a living.

False economy to spend on trying to right all the harm done by rubbish, though I'd imagine.

Better to not let it get that bad in the first place.

Tiley

MissAdventure

We need litter officers, who go around issuing fines. (If they're brave enough)

And who is going to pay them?

Good question.

Equally important though - who would volunteer for such a job?

Can you imagine a group of adults walking towards you scattering their McDonald's' cartons - or discarded food even - and you are supposed to approach them and ask them politely to pick it, or else?

It'd probably be a minimum-wage job, too, with lots of rules about what you could or could not say / do, with a specific uniform which would identify you similarly to a traffic warden - who are not much appreciated by society in general.

Litter Louts;

Drunken Idiots who boast about being "mullered" and puke all over the pavements in town centres at weekends;

Anti-social oiks

Shop Lifters who walk into and out of shops almost leisurely because they know they will be unlikely to be challenged;

Street Thieves who snatch watches, phones and handbags - sometimes in gangs on motor-bikes;

Burglars;

Knife-carrying / wielding thugs;

... and even that woman who threw a milkshake at Farage - I detest the man - but an assault is an assault;

- and very little police-presence, there are not enough of them

But I've not heard much about this from any party looking for our votes.

I think littering, fly-tipping, etc is all part and parcel of a much larger problem... the slow disintegration of society.

However I'm an old woman and sometimes older people tend to think civilisation is going to the dogs - as our elders did in our day.

Well, the alternative is to allow all of those people to ruin our environment, now, and in the future.

It doesn't help that there is so much packaging these days. Also, there seems to be a constant need to eat and drink.

Nah, just plain lazy.

My aim is when out and about to pick up at least one piece of litter per day, today I picked up three aluminium cans. So easy to recycle and put them in my recyling bin. Really does my head in litter, I hate it. When I come out of town after shopping there is a hedge row and always full of litter, it is horrible,