Do they think the fairies have been?

I noticed a distinct lack of litter when in the S of France last year.

The dog poo in plastic bags, just dumped, not binned, makes me furious.

5? Weeks in Australia no dog poo or litter
Same in Malaga recently
Today out driving, the litter was shameful

Don't judge other people by your own standards. Maybe they do something else that you don't.

When I lived in a seaside village our road was a route to the beach. Every morning I would go out with my ‘helping hand’ & pick up rubbish. Asked by someone walking by why I was doing it. Told them I did not want to live like a pig in the proverbial! Did not understand what I meant until I reverted to language he understood! He walked away saying he would not do it as someone was paid to do it! If they were we never saw them we all had a clear up regularly. Now live by a school & the children do not make a mess. The odd wrapper or bottle now & then but nothing like the mess the visitors & the drunks crawling home at night from the local pub made. Glad I moved!

knspol. I think as long as she had seen me trying to drive out I would have driven as close as possible to her car and leaned on the horn until she moved.
I too have cars parked outside my house leaving too little space for me to drive out. I also have litter dropped, cigarette butts emptied out of ashtrays onto my gravel forecourt. That sounds expansive but is just our gravelled over small front area where I park.
Once a small child 4 or 5 rolled down the window and just threw the rubbish out. Parents on their phones oblivious. I did feel like throwing it back in. But who wants the mouthful??

...shoulder!!

In our local town precinct I was walking behind 2 young men who were unwrapping a new mobile phone... which was wrapped in a pre-formed polystyrene foam tray inside a cardboard box - all of which they dropped on the ground... I picked some of it up and tapped them on the should saying 'I think you've dropped this'... their reply was 'If you want it missus you can have it'... Their parents have given them the wrong example.... if any of my children dropped even a sweet paper I always made them go back and pick it up.

Sago, doesn't just happen in cities. I live in the country but people still stop their cars at the entrance to my driveway and throw out sandwich wrappers, drink cans and I pick up quite a few bottle and cans on the roadside verge too, presumably thrown from cars as they drive by.
Once had a woman park across the end of my driveway on her phone as I was trying to get out. I pipped my horn several times and she just ignored me until I got out and tapped on her window!
On another occasion I was in the garden and heard a car pull onto the end of my drive. I opened the gates to see what was going on and a chap got out of the car to say his wife wasn't feeling well. they were just stopping for a moment. Went out a few minutes later and there was a pile of vomit in the middle of my drive which I then had to clear up, yuk!

We clear litter, some of it is impatient bin men letting rubbish spill out in their hurry to get their shift done, but some just gets blown across the street from people parked near the park opposite to us. Now it is half term people take their kids to the park or the seafront also near us, and drop their litter next to the car. We are treated to nappies, take away containers, those enormous take away milk shake or coffee cups, cans, wrappers, and on one occasion somebodies soiled underwear. People really have no shame.
Our neighbours also clear up the litter, an old boy next door who can hardly walk comes out and uses a grabber on a stick to put litter in.
Once I challenged a couple in a car who threw their rubbish out of the car window but of course they just gave me a mouthful.

Litter is top of my hate list and people who drop it or dump it are beyond belief. When my children went to primary school I often stood in the playground telling parents and children to pick litter up they had dropped. Needless to say I wasn’t very popular and my children would give me a look.
I was brought up to put litter in a bin or a pocket until I got home. My children did the same thing and now bring their children up the same. Don’t get me started on fly tipping in the country lanes and dog poo not bagged up and binned.

Vaping litter seems to be overtaking cigarette litter here. I pick up vapes/packaging/squashed vapes every day now.

Extra annoying is McDonald's brown bags thrown down full of all the packaging including unused sauces etc. Often thrown from cars on our lane and often including the wrappings of a happy meal. Not only did they litter but they did so with their children there. What a lesson to teach them.

Also why do smokers think that dropping cigarette ends isn't litter?

I even pick up other dogs poo! Having dogs I dont want folk to think it is my dogs.

Our town has volunteer litter picking sessions every month around different areas of the town and we have a very good town council chap who goes around the centre with his barrow and keeps it all spic and span. But the A roads coming in and around the town are appalling. The County Council is responsible for these and it's too dangerous for volunteers to clear fast main roads. I know they'll blame the necessary cutbacks due to rising costs, as littering seems to be well down the list of essentials. I have no idea what the answer is.

As a matter of curiosity, do you know of anyone who will admit to hurling rubbish from their cars?

It’s the people who empty their cars out into the street, including nappies, and then drive home that drive me mad.
Living in a seaside town we often get people parking in residential streets because they won’t pay the car park prices.
My husband challenged one man -against my better judgement- who said we should be grateful that they come to spend money in the town, so why should he take the rubbish home with him.
Even the sea front car parks are awash with rubbish after a warm weekend, despite there being litter bins every few feet, which are emptied 3 times a day seven days a week.
I am part of a volunteer beach cleaning team, it’s a depressing task.

We have an alleyway beside our house. It is a regular pathway for a couple of local high schools and many dog walkers.

There is rarely litter but I pick up any I see straight away so that it doesn’t risk becoming a litter zone. We sweep up the leaves in the Autumn and keep it reasonably weed free too. I ploughed a walking path through the snow one year.

My thinking is that if somewhere looks cared for it will encourage others to be careful of it too. So far that seems to be working here, fingers firmly crossed!

I really get cross inside myself if I see someone just dropping used tickets/sweetpapers etc as they walk along and have been known to return such items to the littered. They are rarely abashed.

Fly tipping ! Apologies.

Sago , it is so annoying is' nt it ? However if it's any consolation we live in the countryside, narrow roads with passing laybys. These passing places are regularly full of litter, McDonald's rubbish beer cans , and general paper litter- don't get me started on flu tipping!! City or country it seems to be the same. How dare people stop their cars in our cities or lovely country side and throw their rubbish out. I despair,I often pick it up , but more often than not there is just too much to move. The council eventually comes to the rescue. My parents brought me up to never throw a sweetie wrapper down !

I pick up litter on my walk every day. I've a theory that people fall into one of several categories -

People who drop litter anywhere,
People who will drop litter if nobody is looking,
People who don't even notice litter,
People who notice litter and don't care,
People who pick up litter.

I watched the David Baddiel/Hugh Dennis cycling show on TV last night. They cycled for miles around France - I only saw one bit of litter in an hour's show.

Yes, don't mention dog poo! Nice trail on the street outside my house the other day. I ain't picking that up, I'm the only person in the three surrounding homes without a dog...
When I'm putting the bin out for collection I frequently have to manouvre it around the dog poo!

I did this very thing last Friday Sago. My house is end terrace immediately onto the street so a long 2 sided frontage. Cars park outside and litter gathers round them particularly after high winds which seem to happen a lot. A lot of the rubbish is caused by the refuse collectors being more than careless on bin day. The local street cleaning machine only concentrates on the main streets and never cleans next to the house. After a week of watching crisp packets, deflated balloons, and heaven knows what else blow around, I donned the disposables and collected it all up. I drew the line at dog poo which is another issue 😡

I know the manager for refuse and he says the problem with litter bins is people fill them up, then just drop litter beside the bin and the council can’t empty them quickly enough. So the idea is that if there are no bins you will take your litter home.

Sometimes I walk past litter outside my house....we get a lot as its a university town and students are care less. But I only do that when I am off to the shops. When I get back I get the litter picker out and a plastic bag and gather it up. Maybe you beat your neighbours to it OP.
Our litter sweeper man is very efficient in the town. Luckily. And we just haven't got enough litter bins. Three near Waitrose and the Travelodge have been removed.

I'm currently reading a story which is set in the 1600's. The author describes walking through the streets full of 'dung', refuse, etc. Fast forward to the 2100's.....not much has changed!