Litter

We live near a park where there used to be a bottle bank and a can recycling bin. Then we got better kerb-side recycling, including cans and plastic bottles and the recycling bins in the park were removed. I used to pick up glass bottles and cans and dump them in those bins on my way home, and while I still bring cans home and put them in our can/plastic bottle wheelie bin, I no longer pick up glass bottles as we have only a box for them and it would get far too full and far too heavy very quickly, and you can't put broken glass in it. I have complained to the council about the fact that those of us who do help to clear up the park cannot do it so efficiently now, but I needn't have bothered. Just got patronising replies to my emails, and now glass bottles lie about in the park for ages before anyone comes to remove them, and of course they get broken.

When we first came to France one of the things I noticed was the lack of litter, even in towns. But now it's starting to appear more, as they catch up with the attitude of the throwaway society.
One of our daughters is a teacher, and once, in a London school, rebuked a pupil for throwing litter on the floor. The girl replied "my Mum's a ckeaner here - do you want me to do her out of a job?"

I must be lucky in where I live, as I rarely see any litter at all.However, you do see a lot from train windows [but as one poster says, where does it come from? The windows are sealed these days.] Perhaps from workers 'on the line'?The only thing I have seen now and then is the dog mess bags [full] left by the side of a field, how stupid is that?

Here in Cassino litter is a major problem!! Since the town turned to individual recycling instead of communal bins people seem to think it's ok to dump their rubbish anywhere! You'd think it would be easier to leave it outside the house on the relevant day (there is a collection every day bar Sunday) instead of driving out to the countryside and throwing out of the car where the bags are ripped open by stray animals! Those in authority don't seem to care!! Rant over!!

I went out for a walk this morning and the number of discarded fast food cartons was disgusting. Fairly typical for a Saturday or Sunday morning. Another thing that really annoys me is the way that some dog walkers put dog poo in a bag and then hang the bag on the nearest tree or bush - what is that all about.

Some people really do care about their environment though - a local man patrols our beach on a regular basis - picking up litter, cans and bottles. He then recycles what he can and disposes of the rest properly. I have even seen him stopping his car to pick up litter. He said he does it because he loves our village and wants it to be tidy.

I think adults are just as much to blame, just look at the state of our motorways, appalling.

I couldn't agree more. It all comes down to education in the end. Our generation was brought up not to litter, and my children were in their turn, but standards appear to be different in today's generation, judging by the number of drink cans, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, polystyrene food containers and the like. The attitude seems to be 'I don't want to put it in my bag/pocket and why should I walk a mile to get to a bin?'

Greyduster IMO it should not make any difference if there are litter bins or not people should take their B*** litter home with them.

Litter is grim - and it is hard to understand the minds of those who drop it. Sometimes I follow cars on our country lanes and see cans and packets just being tossed out of the windows - bizarre.

Here we are - it applies across the UK.

https://www.mysociety.org/report-street-problems/?gclid=CPrEmIXcn8ICFWTHtAodUHoAlA

I get litter dropped when people are going through the park by my house. Infuriating when you have a dog who delights in investigating fast food cartons and sweet wrappers. It's a bit of a backwater when it comes to street cleaners who forget to turn into our lane, but every now and again I and my neighbours complete a 'Fix My Street' form online, complaining about park litter - it gets cleaned away then. I don't know if other local authorities have this on their websites - worth looking.

Where I live, the local authority recently decided to upgrade what was a rough track through some wooded wasteland into a "greenway"' for walking and cycling. When it was opened, everyone agreed it was lovely and an asset to the area. But there were no litter bins between one end and the other and it very soon became an awful mess, with hardly a square meter that wasn't covered in litter. I (and I've no doubt many others) wrote to the council and eventually they came and did a clear up, but it was only short lived. There is a sign at one end saying the fine for littering is £100. It is surrounded, of course, by litter and there are still no bins. We must be one of the dirtiest countries in the world. There is a large section of the population here that doesn't give a damn about its surroundings. Sorry for the rant. This is a running sore with me I'm afraid. I would love this country to be as clean as Singapore, where I lived for a few years, but that's a pipe dream.

I used to live one crisp packet's distance from a large primary school - a very 'good' school in a prosperous priority area but the children still left the crisp packets in my front garden. Marmight, I'm wondering how the rubbish gets onto the railway embankments since most of the trains I travel on have sealed windows!

I live by a small beach. Visitors arrive loaded with picnic bags and other beach paraphernalia and leave with most of it it scattered on the beach when they leave. If they can carry it one way, why can't they take it home? After all, the wrappers, clingfilm and foil weigh far less by then . Mind you, I never have to buy buckets and spades for the gc's - I just scoop them up off the beach once the trippers have gone!
I travelled from Gatwick to Reading by train yesterday and was disgusted at the amount of rubbish lying along the side of the tracks - a great welcome to visitors from abroad. I think most rubbish chuckers don't give a second thought to who cleans up after them - we are indeed becoming a lazy, don't-care, throw-away society.

A relative of mine lives about 7 miles from a McD, along a main road.
There is lots of McD rubbish there. He thinks people must just throw it out the window when they have finished!