Letter: Volunteers pick up litter and hours later the rubbish is back
Litter – it's the one thing which I despise. Why feel the need to drop your cans, bottles and burger boxes on the floor when you can quite simply put it in a bin?
As a nation of fast food lovers, some unfortunately like fast-litter too. It's beyond me. Bins are there for a reason and that is to use them.
The council spends its money on installing bins for us to use, yet some individuals cannot fathom this idea into their heads. Anyway, enough of me ranting.
We have a wonderful group of people in our village called The Hinstock Village Initiative.
Every few months, some proactive villagers get together to do a litter pick. Having joined them a number of times to clean the village back to front, I know first-hand how many rubbish bags we get through. The initiative do it for nothing; they do it purely out of kindness.
My father, Patrick Greatrix has been chairman of the group for many years and it brings him nothing but joy to take a pro-active role in the small village we live in. He is generally a positive and optimistic person, but today I saw a different side to him.
Just like the other members of the initiative, dad spent two hours of his time litter picking on Sunday. Two whole hours picking up other people's litter. The village, it's fair to say, looked spotless afterwards.
Despite this, after picking up KFC packaging yesterday, some McDonalds' packaging was found on the Hinstock Memorial Hall car park this morning. As the hall is a centrepiece to our village, what kind of message do you think this sends out? I think that it is a particularly negative one.
Furthermore, my dad and the other members of the initiative were distraught when they heard. After spending a chunk of their weekend tidying up that very car park, it was yet again messy. Whoever did this, I would like you to travel 30 seconds on foot to the car park bin next time.
I want you to do one thing today. Think before you litter. There are plenty of global consequences to litter such as animals getting stuck in cans and being hurt by sharp materials, but litter can have more harmful effects on a local community. So, for goodness sake, use a bin.
Lydia Greatrix, Market Drayton
