Litter

[MINESAPINT]

Heard about the lady who threw an apple core out of her car window on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2. Don't think it was a particularly wise thing to do but seems to be a bit of a storm in a teacup.

However it leads me on to one of my pet subjects. My particular concern with regard to littering is the potential for damage to wildlife. The amount of litter & rubbish accumulating on grass verges around the area where I live (North Yorkshire) is staggering. Plastic bottles, plastic bags, tins, glass bottles, car parts, plastic 5 gallon drums, recycling boxes! etc. The whole of the countryside is becoming an enormous wate dump. Occasionally I notice a council team despatched to clear this litter but a couple of weeks later everything back to normal. Glass bottles & tins cause a particular hazard as when the verges are cut they shatter and become dangerous to any person or animal unfortunate enough to come into contact with them.

Contributors to the Jeremy Vine show as always had differing opinions. Some condemning the lady outright & some having sympathy due to the reasonably innofensive nature of an apple core. During the discussion a yachtsman came on and said something to the effect " dumping of even biodegradable waste is banned within 3 miles of the coast". This is correct for the Atlantic & Irish Sea but in the English Channel & North Sea which are designated "Special Areas" the total exclusion zone is 12 miles. What the yachtsman did not have time to do was make it clear that dumping of plastic waste & oily waste is illegal irrespective of distance from land and would attract fines if caught of £25,000 and £250,000 respectively. I have often been asked "who is going yo catch me"? answer is quite simple, there are now dedicated enforcement vessels & there is also Google Earth!.

When it comes to dropping litter in general we all fall into 1 of 3 groups.

1. Those who drop litter.
2. Good folk who do not drop litter and condemn those who do.
3. Good folk who do not drop litter, condemn those who do and additionally take opportunities to pick up other folk's litter & dispose of it responsibly.

Whichever category you are in I implore you to move up 1 category until you are in category 3.

Enough for now. This could turn into a novel.

MINESAPINT

[johnhcrf]

Nice topic. My view from ZWP is that the throwaway society, where plastic is king, is behind all litter. Lets ditch 'throwaway' and become sustainable.

John.

[MKG]

I don't necessarily agree about a storm in a teacup. The apple core may have been innocuous in itself, but that's not the point - what is serious is her thoughtless attitude in just opening the window and chucking it out. Had that been a bottle in her mitt it would probably have gone the same way, because I don't believe that people like her do a waste-effect evaluation before launching any unwanted object.

I've always wanted to be one of those people who picks up the crap, sprints to the next set of traffic lights and hands it back to the offender, but I'd be knackered after 20 metres.

[Milims]

Have you checked out this site www.mscuk.org ? Very interesting and there's something we can all do. I agree about this litter issue. I've seen real horrors on the way to nearby towns. Unfortunately much of it seems to come from the bin waggons themselves! I think that there is a complete lack of education on thses matters. Respect for your environment should start when our children are tiny. Mine were taught that if they had litter it went straight into the nearest bin and if there wasnt one it went into a pocket until they found one. Sadly this caused no end of confusion and distress at the railway station where litter bins are banned and the instruction is to drop it on the floor and someone else will pick it up
I live in an area which is considered to be of outstanding natural beauty and villages are being positively encouraged to do away with plastic bags. A fantastic idea and I'm all for it.....but..... sadly the main industry here is tourism (yuck) and although it's been relatively easy to convince the natives to change I do wonder how easy it will be to convince the passers thru!
Also our local council has a guy who goes into schools and gives talks about litter and recycling etc - something that needs to be done everywhere. We all need to have a real hard think about litter and its impact and do something positive about it!
As to the apple core issue - I confess I've done it myself - it biodegrades if the wildlife doesn't eat it first - but then I live in a country area where it seems that this is more likely to happen. I would NEVER consider doing it in a built up area and I would NEVER throw anything out of my window that will not biodegrade quickly or be eaten harmlessly by animals.

[red]

I guess I am in group 3 - though mostly the litter i pick up has blown into my garden...

I would not hesitate to lob an apple core out of the window.. like Milims.. but then I live in a rural area and would be aiming for the hedge. I figure if it biodegrades, and is out of sight while it does it then no harm done. But more likely to take it home for my own compost heap.

[Cassiepod]

I'm in group three, but I also throw my apple cores out of the window, if there are hedgerows and no houses about because I think it's nice treat for an animal snuffling along....

[MKG]

Well, I can see that I'm geographically surrounded by litterbugs

But can we really have a set of laws which allow people to throw stuff out of car windows on the basis that it's bio-degradable? That would mean that paper - our most visible street litter source - would be OK too. There's a line to be drawn, and I simply can't see that it would be possible to draw it anywhere else but (C'mon, John, where are you?) zero.

[johnhcrf]

I don't do litter at all beause all my rubbish is accounted for. Eating in cars is a habit for busy people and throwaway is an easy option for them.

John.

[ina]

I'm in group three, but I also throw my apple cores out of the window, if there are hedgerows and no houses about because I think it's nice treat for an animal snuffling along....

Same here!

[ina]

I don't do litter at all beause all my rubbish is accounted for. Eating in cars is a habit for busy people and throwaway is an easy option for them.

John.

Don't see everything so black and white, please! I eat a lot when I have to drive, because otherwise I'd fall asleep at the wheel. That I'm a busy person has nothing to do with it, and throwing stuff out is not an easy option for me.

[Annpan]

If I was eating an apple in a car I would most likely chuck the core out the window I wouldn't want a apple core sitting in a hot car for any longer than int needs to .

I'd never do it with sweet wrappers though they are necessary for me to keep travel sickness at bay.

I don't usually pick up other people rubbish, I don't know where it has been and that is what I pay my council tax for. However if it is outside my front door on in my village (it is a small village) I do pick it up 'cause I want my village to be tidy.

I used to live opposite a McDs... I could have spent my whole life picking up other peoples rubbish.

[johnhcrf]

Fair point, Ina, on a long journey Johnstone-Aberdeen I would have a stop for coffee/cake 20 miles south of destination. Sticking to ZWP, packs of sweets, biscuits are out.
As for windblow( Stonehead), dog dirt near the house, count and bin the first. For the latter cover with soil, scrape up and bury deep.

John.

[marshlander]

We always pick up plastic off the beach as we care about the birds and seals. I didn't know 'til recently that cigarette ends are plastic too birds eat them and die

Why is it I find crates and carrier bags but my friend always is the one to find beautiful bits of driftwood?

[MINESAPINT]

I am on the beach at Runswick Bay 3 or 4 times a week and inevitably come away with a couple of carrier bags of lost fishing line & plastic. I did recently speak with the lifeboat crew there to ask if it might be possible to get something organised, first Sunday each month or whatever. A group of likeminded individuals with a tractor & trailer would do more good than me running about with a couple of carrier bags.

I often witness the activities of people in group 1 and group 3 while I am there. On the slipway down to the beach there are some large granite rocks acting as coastal defences and I often notice a plastic bag of dog poo on these rocks. Someone who has picked it up when someone else is looking then cast it aside later. When I leave the beach the bag of poo noticed earlier has mysteriously disappeared. Someone from category 3 has kindly removed it for the general good of us all and our slimey & furry friends but this has to be a sad state of affairs.

And another thing. After I started this thread this morning I headed off to the smoke (Harrogate) to see the inlaws. I was walking along a path alongside the railway when I noticed a group of 3 men walking along with a dog. The dog had a poo, one man picked it up, fair enough. A little further along I walked past them and as my back was now to them I heard a swish then a thud as the bag landed on the railway. I could not resist & turned and said I was waiting for you to do that. The culprit said "DO WHAT"? I am 52 yrs old & these 3 men were in their 20's so I did not push my luck any further. I suppose I should think myself lucky I did not have a knife pulled on me!

MINESAPINT

[ina]

I know just what you mean... I've often wanted to tell people - hey, you've lost something - when it was obviously litter they'd dropped - but I'm always, always too much of a coward.

I've also watched folk on a beach clean-up day. There were quite a few - the majority, it seemed - who'd gone along for whatever reason, maybe to earn some brownie points somewhere, but really weren't interested: they kept walking past the most obvious piles of litter, and only bent down to pick up something when they thought they were being watched. Not much good that way, is it!