Letter: Why is there so much litter?
Friday 26th March 2010, 7:00AM GMT.
Letter: Rubbish on Shropshire’s streets? Was anyone surprised by such headlines? No matter where you go you will see some form of rubbish. How do you stop it?
There seems to be a bin on every street corner but I’ve witnessed people drop litter rather than walk a few steps to the bin.
Schoolchildren to blame: Does that mean parental guidance or education?
Adults: Does that come down to how society seems to have gone, where standards and morals seem to have gone out the window?
Many laws have been created by this present government but still standards slide.
How do you stop it? Perhaps a start would be for officials of councils and housing trusts to leave their offices and walk the estates.
David Clift
Newport
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
David’s comments are very true. You see litter just yards from a bin as people can’t be bothered. When I was at school ten years ago I used to offer to take my school mates litter home with me otherwise as we walked home they would just drop it on the floor.
I believe it all comes down to the society we currently live in. People think that it isn’t their problem, it’s the councils, it’s the governments. And in truth the government has made people like this, well the Labour Government has.
People don’t take any responsibility for anything anymore and always believe that it’s someone else’s problem.
I feel that even if people were to pick up litter which has blown into their garden or outside their drive then the country would be in a better place.
I can’t believe the amount of litter in some people’s gardens and they don’t care….they just leave it their, and it’s THEIR house!
Report abuse
This week, 22nd – 28th March, there has been a No to Rubbish on Brookside, which has seen the local T&W employees walking the estate. However, I am afraid to say I have not seen much improvement :(, although it is not their fault as they are not in charge of getting out more litter pickers or getting locals to pick up their dog mess.
Last week, in conjunction with this week’s clear-up, I was with the children from the local school who were doing a project on recycling and rubbish. The Shropshire Star did not attend and I think this sent out a message to the youngsters that the adults don’t really care!
I sent information about a litter pick some of the children did to the Shropshire Star and Telford Journal but have not seen anything online about it.
A cat up a tree seems to be more newsworthy in their eyes.
Tomorrow there is the monthly litter pick, which is organised by BIG (Brookside Improvement Group) starting at the Community Centre on Brookside (which is in Telford, if people don’t know!) at 10am until about 11.30am and bags and litter picking sticks are provided.
I wonder if the Shropshire Star would like to report about that to show that some people do care about what their environment looks like.
Report abuse
How about, instead of fining people for dropping litter, they have to do a week of litter picking? I bet after they’ve done that they’d never drop litter again.
Report abuse
Where I live there are lots of concrete bins with black bags in which are not anchored at the bottom consequently as soon as there is a significant gust of wind the bag blows up and out and deposits the rubbish everywhere and because the wind is blowing. . . .
I raised the issue with “BDC” a long time ago but as yet no action has been taken to eradicate this problem.
Report abuse
dont blame the kids, adults throw it too, and ultimately children just reflect the upbringing their parents gave them
Report abuse
When i used to work at Butlins in Scotland i used to catch kids shoplifting on a regular basis. They had two choices, go fill a bin bag with litter or your parents find out..A similar approach should be taken with people caught littering.
Report abuse
KB @ 3
Do you know I think you’ve just hit upon a really good idea – it’s easy to pay a fine and then forget why you were paying it, if you had to actively rectify the fault litter droppers might take more notice of what they were being punished for.
Report abuse
Tom is quite right. People don’t care anymore. What’s worse though, is the packaging used these days – foil wrappers, plastic bottles, polythene bags, polystyrene – none of it degrades quickly or easily. Industry needs to be taken to task, too.
Report abuse
David, your letter was going well until the last paragraph, then I nearly choked on my biscuit laughing !!!!
On a more serious point, in years gone by we always had people cleaning the streets but not now.
The Councils have cut costs by getting rid of these people and now they, and you, are reaping the rewards.
Report abuse
We should take more responsibility as citizens for the litter problem. Many people do use the bins – that they are often full when I pass by is testament to this. Part of the problem is not enough bins and bins absent in key places. I have tried to suggest this to T+W council and, although they were keen to implement some of my suggestions, there has been no follow up.
I do a run of litter picking on the regular routes that I walk from my house. I know where the bins are and know how much I can carry at a time. It pleases me to do this as one person can reverse the damage of perhaps ten or more individuals having dropped litter. I believe that we should be seen to pick litter up and show that we do care about the state of the place.
Finally, the Highways Agency should do more to clear litter from the sides of the major roads/motorways. They have obviously just cleared along the A5/M54 but it soon builds up. Signs along the roads should shame people into not discarding litter from vehicles.
Report abuse
‘ad’ puts it succinctly and hits the nail on the head – i.e. ‘children just reflect the upbringing their parents gave them’ – In eight years of teaching and regularly remonstrating with kids who have dropped litter purposely, including throwing contents of home-made sandwiches onto the ground, it was clear who had responsible parents who who are the products of feckless adults and so it goes on. Locally to me, in beautiful countryside, I see on most days rubbish that has been obviously been chucked out of car windows by adults who have stopped for a rest on the verge etc.. This doesn’t happen in Austria or Germany where I have also lived and worked, because the mindset is a more responsible one, where parents and adults act as role models. Too few people seem to have any interest in looking after the environment in the UK, no interest in wildlife or nature and the consequences their littering has.
To solve this? A hugely difficult question to answer I’m sure. I’d start with toughening up the law and REALLY following through fines for littering. Schools do try to educate kids, but schools are up against outside influences – ie. peers, older siblings, the more feckless adults etc..
Perhaps appealing via television to keep your local area tidy during trash television shows. Perhaps the likes of McDonalds, KFC and other fastfood joints investing some of their hefty profits in employing litter pickers further afield from their doorsteps? To be honest, I don’t think there’s realistically an easy solution to this disgusting habit in the UK, but with unemployment as it is, alot of litter-picking jobs could be created (and without any stigma attatched to it). It takes unity in pride in our local area, region and country – pride, which has sadly disappeared in many households.
I must admit, I’m sick of having to pick up beer cans, fast food cartons etc.. that lie across the road from me. I could pick up the litter of others too on country lanes, but would this discourage others from littering again? I doubt it.
Report abuse
I meant to add, more recently I worked for the National Trust for a couple of years on Visitor Reception – the NT property and grounds had just one little litter bin for the hundreds/thousands of visitors who would visit each day and week, and yet there was almost NO litter dropped. Perhaps this tells us something?!
Report abuse
I was driving home through Shawbury the other week and the moronic occupants of the car in front decided to throw, piece by piece, all the wrappings and cartons from their recent trip to McDonalds out of the window, a couple of them hitting my car as they flew through the air.
There must have been getting on for a dozen chip and burger boxes, napkins, cups and paper bags that these idiots left strewn across the A53.
It was potentially dangerous too as the first couple of missiles that flew at me in the dark made me jump as I didn’t know what they were!
It astounded me that these prats couldn’t keep hold of their wrappers until they got home and could put them in a proper bin. Would it really have been so hard for them?
Sadly, even if I had been close enough to take their registration down, nobody would have done anything due to the fact it would have been my word against theirs for any complaint, not to mention proving who was in the car at the time.
The verges along most of our main country roads look like miniature landfill sites most of the time. Although, having said that, the council does carry out litter picking along the A53 a few times a year at least.
It is a sad world we live in where people are so lazy that they can’t keep hold of their rubbish long enough to dispose of it in a proper bin. Honestly, having pride in where you live means nothing to some people!
Report abuse
Its someone elses fault! Its someone elses problem! All to reticent in society today… no one takes responsibility…. its always someone else’s fault or someone else’s problem.
Report abuse
In response to Tom…. how can packaging be at fault? No matter the packaging… the problem lies in the mentality of the disposer of the garbage!
Report abuse
You can report people littering from there cars on http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/Campaigns/Campaigns/CarLitter/Default.aspx. Hope this helps.
Report abuse
As an expatriate Salopian living in Australia, the same things happen here. Fly tipping is very common and the law allows offenders to get away with littering. It seems that the common denominator is both countries have Labour governments who talk tough on crime but act soft. I was recently in Singapore where you can eat off the street pavements,litter in Singapore and you feel the pinch in your pocket and could end up with sore backside, if they lash you. Unless discipline is restored in schools and society in general what hope is there.
Nick Pearce
Report abuse
Very good letter then clearly lost the plot in the last paragragh dear oh dear.
They have been picking truck loads of litter from the sides of B roads out of shrewsbury for weeks not many estates around these areas David, we have fly tipping in the countryside, most litter is thrown from car windows or left in laybys, outside fast food places, pubs,clubs, in the town etc Rubbish is dropped or thrown by all sorts of people dont blame or target people or areas its a ALL problem.
Report abuse
i think the council should do more fining and getting the criminals to pick it up and not expect taxpayers to do it, get tough i say, zero tolerance
Report abuse
i think the simple answer is in germany, you buy a beer, you get charged like 2 euros for the beer, but they also charge another euro (which you get back) for the bottle, i cant see louts throwing stuff away when they would get cash for it, and even if they did, someone would pick it up to get the cash back
Report abuse
My daughter (who is 6) knows that dropping rubbish results in a good telling off. I always put any rubbish we accumulate on our walks in my coat pocket and put it in the bin at home. It’s a habit for both of us now. We also clean up after our dog too, unlike a lot of people.
Report abuse
Why is there so much litter? Because morons put it there. No other reason.
Tom in comment #1 is correct to some extent – it is because people don’t care, and have separated the idea of ‘right’ from ‘responsibility’. However, this is not a recent situation.
I believe there was a huge increase in this sort of mindset some decades ago, and it started with the idea that ‘there’s no such thing as society…’
Report abuse
I absolutely despair at the disgusting amounts of litter and dog dirt which degrade our towns and countryside. These are the actions of apathetic, despicable individuals with absolutely no respect for anyone or anything. And lets get one thing straight,it’s not just ‘uneducated’ youths chucking Macdonald’s wrappers and beer cans out of car windows, I’ve personally witnessed so-called ‘responsible’ adults in 09 reg cars allowing their dogs to foul footpaths on Haughmond Hill; Shame on you all!
Report abuse
The reason the bins are overflowing is because selfish individuals dump their household waste in them when their wheelie bins are full.
I could see this becoming a problem when the waste collections became fortnightly.
Report abuse
yeah agree dogs mess is worse problem than litter even, especially on haughmond hill, the council does not litter pick fast A roads either due to ELF AND SAFETY PC NONESENSE FROM THE EU!
Report abuse
coz people in shrops are scummers i reckon
Report abuse
KB @ 3. Great idea. I’d vote for that. Forget the fines ~ one week of rubbish clearing would do the trick ~ in open view of everyone.
Report abuse
Steven ~ 3 adults and 2 children in our house. Fortnightly collections are no problem at all for those who recycle properly. We barely fill half a bin. Fortnightly collections are only a problem for the lazy or the wasteful.
Report abuse
i agree with ad, when i was a lad we took the bottles back to the bottle shop for money, thats the way to stop litter. that and the cane!
Report abuse
Julie has a point however we pay our councill tax (rubbish bit) and then sort and sift our own rubbish and our CT still goes up and we get no reward for doing it .
Report abuse