This is rubbish.Literally.

I’m part of a local litter picking group and the problem with the motorways is that a lane has to be coned off so that the litter can be cleared safely, which obviously annoys drivers . I’ve often picked on a junction on the m25 , the slip roads and roundabout . It’s mostly fast food containers , sandwich wrappers, drink cans and coffee cups . Plus empty water bottles with pee. For some reason drivers don’t want rubbish in their vehicles, so chuck it out the window. It’s worse around the traffic lights !!! And This is adults old enough to drive, not kids.
Littering makes me so angry. I was brought up to find a bin or take it home and my dc have been brought up the same

Kate1949

We have contacted the council several times about this.

Our council eventually removed the bin that filled up like that. It has stopped people trying to bin their rubbish!

The whole business of rubbish dumping drives me to distraction; as I walked past the traffic lights the other day a car pulled away and the girl in the passenger seat threw a large handful of tissues out of her wndow. The other wind up is people finishing a drink can and then sticking the can into a hedge. In my wildest moments I am in authority and have passed a law to say that anyone caught dropping litter has to eat it - every last bit. I drove on an A road yesterday and the beautiful verges and trees were full of litter all the way along.

I’m not sure more bins help as they often overflow , and they mean we’re never expected to deal with our rubbish ourselves . Fiona G says France is better than here , and I agree . The areas we visited there last Summer had no bins , rubbish had to be taken away with us , including dog bags . If we always expect someone else to deal with it things will never improve . There should be an expectation that we are all responsible for our own rubbish then it will be obvious if we don’t and there should be hefty fines . Extreme measures , but it has become an extreme problem .

We need a big national campaign on this one. There is an app called Fix My Street where you can report fly tipping and our council is pretty good at responding and getting in cleared. But people know this so they just leave mattresses, old furniture etc out for others to deal with. It doesn’t help that our nearest tip where you could take stuff to has closed. But we have a government which allows sewage in the sea and rivers so I’m not expecting anything to be done anytime soon.

What ever happened to the fines that were going to be given out for dropping litter? Has anyone ever been fined, people do it openly.The councils are not emptying bins and yet there’s so much fast food about now and nowhere to put the rubbish, when I was younger it was just fish and chip paper.I wish there could be a hard campaign on litter and dog poo on our streets, so many pick up dog poo and leave on your garden in little bags, yet there's signs saying there’s a £1000 fine close by. It’s a joke. Name and shame after first offence, when it hits pockets things will change.

Washerwoman, we went from London to Chelmsford - and were horrified at the amount of litter on some parts of the route. Plastic and more plastic, flying about, hanging from trees, plastered over the verges, worse than ever.

My son said 'Just ban it, we've had it for 100 years and now there's vegetable film instead!'

Locally, it's bad. Don't wait for the 'Great British Spring Clean' organised stuff. I've got a back injury, yet still I can easily collect a carrier bag of litter (with the help of my grab stick) on the evening dog walk. A lot is thrown from cars - drink cans and takeaway wrappings. People don't care, they're just passing by and don't live here. How about fining the producers/disributers of anything that's dumped - the takeaways?

I feel sad about the littering too.
There's a sensory garden within the local park, disabled -friendly, and should be an absolute delight. It was created by the Men's Shed and the Rotary club who raised money.
There are benches in the centre with beds of herbs and flowers all labelled even with Braille.
It should be a very special place but alas, it's very near the High School and an area of the town where young people congregate in the evenings. (Chippy, late shop etc)
There is now graffiti on the litter bins and benches and the only colour in the flower beds right now are the plastic bottles and beer cans.

A bigger community garden is proposed for another area in the same park and I have worries about that venture now.

Others are less cynical and think if they can get teenagers on board with the growing then it will be fiercely defended.
I do hope they are right.

Put a tax on the worst takeaway offenders and make it clear that users are paying more to fund the clean up . We need a national campaign and realistic punitive laws as the state of all our public spaces is a disgrace . I don’t think it occurs to many that their behaviour is a problem .

Yes Greggs sales have risen by 23 % with profits of £148 despite rising costs.Plus they are opening another 150 stores so expect to see a lot more of their cups and wrappers on your roadside.I think many of the offenders do know it's a problem,they just don't care.I have picked up litter and returned it through car windows before now and picked it up in front of people who have just thrown it and their attitude tells me they have no regard for others.

In addition to the litter from fast food outlets, fly-tipping and assorted other trash - I have noticed a horrible new trend. It took me a while to realise that the half-full bottles dumped in lay-bys and verges were actually filled with urine! My guess is that after use they are merrily chucked out of the vehicle window. We are turning into a filthy nation.

Well much good it will do but I've emailed National Highways to report how bad parts of the M62 are and suggest maybe the overhead signs that warn don't drive tired etc could be used to send out don't litter messages.If it just prompted some to think twice - well every little helps. I've also emailed Greggs to tell them how much of their packaging I pick up and suggest they use some of their huge profits to maybe promote proper disposal.Seems futile but will have a go at all the others KFC ,MCDs etc.

Yesterday we returned to the westcountry by car from London. I can truly say I have NEVER seen so much rubbish in my life. The main roads were lined with litter of all kinds - paper, huge sheets of plastic, broken tyres, workmens' buckets, hi-viz jackets, police tape, paper cups...you name it. Litter was hanging from the trees too. If I had to show a visitor from overseas around I would be utterly ashamed. We do this journey fairly regularly but this is the worst ever. It is disgusting and shameful.

I agree the litter and flytipping problems seem to have got worse recently. There does need to be a campaign-that will reach everyone. We often see rubbish ( deliberately) thrown out of car and van windows. It’s as if the perpetrators don’t care about their environment.

What happened to ‘Keep Britain Tidy’. We look like a Third World country in Buckinghamshire. It’s a disgrace.

I tried to report the A303 Somerset to National Highways only to be told they aren’t responsible for it but the local council is, far chance of getting south Somerset there.
However I’m busy taking pics of French motorway verges and roads and back next week and will try and make a proper plan to start a campaign, if any seasoned campaigners want to help…..not sure whether to start big, local or what.
I agree with everyone saying it’s such an embarrassment as a country to have our roadsides so blighted (and don’t get me started on unnecessary bollards on roads!)

We certainly need ‘A Keep Britain Tidy’ campaign and it affects all parts of the country. Some of the culprits here are the council contractors who collect our recycling, then drop odd bits of litter when (throwing) returning bins. Unfortunately, not everyone has the same respect for their community. There are volunteer groups locally who go out regularly to collect this debris, but the people who are guilty of this need to be educated. It is an environmental issue which is not being addressed. It is certainly a disgrace and I feel ashamed of this country.

I'm up for a campaign and willing to do my bit here in Yorkshire. And my heart sank last night watching the news .It's terribly tragic the deaths of the young people who went missing in Wales.My heart goes out to them for their loss .And that is being discussed on a separate thread.
But recently the trend to mark any vigil or outpouring of grief by letting balloons 'fly high' seems to have become the norm.A huge number of people doing this.My family are in no doubt what I think of this should anything happen to me,or anyone close to me.

We can all do our bit by taking a bag on our walks and filling it with rubbish. Wear gloves of course. I heard a man on the radio talk about how he keeps the route to his local shop clear by picking up daily.

Not that it is any excuse but when we started reducing the amount of rubbish you could have collected, made refuse centres harder to get to, started charging for certain waste, etc, etc, this was an inevitable consequence.

Does anyone know how the French deal with excess rubbish then?
Here, we have to book a half hour slot online to take rubbish to the tip. It used to be simple, fill the car, take it to the council household waste site. I think many people can’t/won’t be regimented in this way

tattygran the last time I visited, Paris was a minefield of dog mess and discarded takeaway cartons. That was depressing enough in a city we love and have visited often. Walking along the Champs -Elysees at night every few yards there were aggressive beggars pushing paper cups in our faces and demanding money . I get quite low at times thinking of the world my children and grandchildren will have to inhabit, possibly up to their necks in rubbish like the campaign of years ago, headed by Ronnie Corbett.

Thing is this problem is not confined to Britain. My son in Beijing recently sent a wonderful photograph of the mountains that encircle the city and then of one of adjacent rubbish, everywhere!

Yammy

We live near the Lake District, drives along the lakes are completely spoiled during and after school holidays. Car parks are made on verges where there never were. Camper vans are everywhere,they all seem to leave behind litter ,plastic water bottles barbeques that blow around when the wind gets up. and use the bushes as toilets.
A chap was taking his life in his hands the other day litter picking up the steep hill into our village. You could see where the food at been bought Macdonalds they must buy in the town and just finish on the hill and throw it away.
The other thing is we do not have bins on wheels for household rubbish but blue plastic bags the birds peck them open, a friend saw a bird with a chicken carcass the other day.
Part of the trouble was holiday cottages ask guests to put bags out when they leave for the Monday collection. As of this week, it has changed to Thursday. The birds will have a field day and all will look like a rubbish dump.

Yammy we must live in the same area!! 😁

Slovenia is the cleanest country we’ve driven through ( and we’ve driven through all of them)
We used to have a little joke about who would be the first person to see something.
Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania put us to shame. These countries don’t have rubbish collections, you take all your rubbish to the nearest skips which are emptied regularly.