Dirty Britain

[graduate_owner]

I've just seen a snippet on the news about the amount of litter on our streets. It's a part of a Panorama programme.

My wife and I had a holiday in Scotland about 5 years ago and I was dismayed to see the amount of litter there. We stopped the car on so many occasions to look at the view across their beautiful lochs, but when we walked to the water's edge we saw literally dozens of dumped black plastic bags spilling their rubbish about. It could be the locals, it could be visitors and tourists, it could be anybody (it wasn't us) but I had to wonder - who just throws a bag of rubbish in the road / field / river/ anywhere? What's the point? Is it just sheer laziness?

And it's not just Scotland. We have our share of rubbish around Wales too.

K

 

[Jacob]

I was told about a light aircraft pilot new to Australia who noticed what seemed to be light coloured shiny bands along the sides of roads everywhere across deserts etc. When he investigated it turned out to be a continuos beer can dump.
Noticed the same sort of thing when cycling in Scotland - anywhere remotely nice to sit is surrounded by empty Mckewans cans and 1/2 bots Bells. This was in Sunday pub closing areas so I blamed the wee frees.

 

[Max Power]

You see it every where and smokers are amongst the worst offenders. I constantly see them throwing the remains of their cigarettes and empty packets from cars :evil:

 

[Cottonwood]

I've seen heaps of old tires dumped in lay bys and remote lanes around here, also seen 3 piece suites, old toilets, several burned out vehicles dropped off in farmers fields. Being a sparsely populated rural area I guess its harder to be caught out
The most bizarre has to be those "wishing trees" you know the ones that end up strewn with dozens of plastic bags full of dog dirt :roll:

 

[No skills]

Come work in the yard where I have to work. Completely changes your views on dirt/mess/danger. The carrier bags here have human poo in them.

 

[markturner]

Well.........I have long held the view that most inhabitants of this green and pleasant isle of ours.....actually, the world really when you think about it....are simply a waste of oxygen....The levels of ignorance, stupidity, and general obnoxiousness never ceases to amaze me. This sort of thing is just one in along list of symptoms of the malaise....depressing really.

 

[thick_mike]

Well.........I have long held the view that most inhabitants of this green and pleasant isle of ours.....actually, the world really when you think about it....are simply a waste of oxygen....The levels of ignorance, stupidity, and general obnoxiousness never ceases to amaze me. This sort of thing is just one in along list of symptoms of the malaise....depressing really.

Bloody hell...that's a bleak world view!

You should get a subscription to the Daily Mail...it's right up your street!

(Joke by the way...I'd not wish that on anyone)

 

[MIGNAL]

Upsetting to say the least. I've walked down certain inner city streets and it seems that the contents of several big Green wheelie bins have been deposited. Pretty soon it will be forming a sedimentary layer.
Local Parks that look appalling. Hate to think what tourists think of the place. It's embarrassing. It's a real problem and one that won't get sorted anytime soon.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I had a discussion with an aquaintance, a county councillor, about litter. He told me that unfortunately nothing much could be done about it. I replied that that was the stock answer, because no one would try. He insisted he was right, so I said it was different where I'd just come from. Where's that? he says. Singapore. I say. Oh, that's different! he says.
Why should it be?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Upsetting to say the least. I've walked down certain inner city streets and it seems that the contents of several big Green wheelie bins have been deposited. Pretty soon it will be forming a sedimentary layer.
Local Parks that look appalling. Hate to think what tourists think of the place. It's embarrassing. It's a real problem and one that won't get sorted anytime soon.

Unless it's been changed recently (which I doubt), I wonder what foreigners think of Britain when the first they see of the country is from the Heathrow - Paddington train. :roll: :roll:

 

[Alex H]

I've seen heaps of old tires dumped in lay bys and remote lanes around here,

This is a 'feature' of EU legislation.

I had 8 old tyres to get rid of when I bought the house next door (found them in the barn and the garden)

Took them to the tip and was told they don't take them :shock:

Wrote to the company that runs the tips and they said either take them back to the place you bought them :? or get a private agent to take them (no doubt for a price)

Cut the worst ones up, put them in a bin bag and they got taken away with the household rubbish - still have 5

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Our "recycling centres" take them - but people still drop them in lay byes.

 

[mseries]

I don't like the rubbish on the side of the road. Not just fly tipping but selfish motorists throwing rubbish out of the car windows, cyclists and pedestrians dropping litter. I can understand why fly tipping happens. Cowboys disposal outfits don't want to pay to have things disposed of properly. Local councils will not collect everything from a household and if you don't have a suitable vehicle it can be costly to have your things collected by a properly licenced operator or costly to rent a vehicle to take your item to the recycling centre. I speak with first hand experience. I don't have a car and don't know anyone locally well enough to ask them to take my rubbish to the tip in their car. My local council will collect bulky items 13 times a year, so far this year, they have collected my carpet+underlay, a sofa and chair - two visits. They would not take a wrought iron gate even though the recycling centre will accept it so I could have taken it there myself. It would have been easy for me to carry it to some wasteland and fly tip it. But I didn't, I am more socially responsible than that. I waited until a scap collector came round, he saw it in my garden and asked if it was for disposal and took it. I doubt he would have taken the trouble to ask if he was going to dump it anyway. On another occasion we rented a car and one of the tasks that weekend was a visit to the recycling centre with: a motorbike battery, some bicycle tyres, a VCR, a shower screen.

 

[bugbear]

Well.........I have long held the view that most inhabitants of this green and pleasant isle of ours.....actually, the world really when you think about it....are simply a waste of oxygen....The levels of ignorance, stupidity, and general obnoxiousness never ceases to amaze me. This sort of thing is just one in along list of symptoms of the malaise....depressing really.

David Attenborough agrees with you.

BugBear

 

[RogerP]

Upsetting to say the least. I've walked down certain inner city streets and it seems that the contents of several big Green wheelie bins have been deposited. Pretty soon it will be forming a sedimentary layer.
Local Parks that look appalling. Hate to think what tourists think of the place. It's embarrassing. It's a real problem and one that won't get sorted anytime soon.

Unless it's been changed recently (which I doubt), I wonder what foreigners think of Britain when the first they see of the country is from the Heathrow - Paddington train. :roll: :roll:

It's no different in this country than the rest of the world apart the odd exception where a country has draconian laws for everything.

Many countries are much, much worse - ever been to India?

 

[MIGNAL]

Can't say I have. Unless Spain, France and Germany have become much worse in the last 10 years (they may have) I've never seen the kind of litter I see in some of our Cities. Somewhere I have a picture of rubbish that was dumped right next to a relatives house. Pretty horrendous.
On the positive note I walked a good quarter of a mile through Ilkley and saw 2 cigarette tabs and one single broken plastic spoon. Incredibly clean!

 

[Max Power]

I read in the local paper when I was down Carmarthen that some local oink was caught dropping litter for the second time and was fined £500 =D> Should be enforced everywhere

 

[RogerS]

Well.........I have long held the view that most inhabitants of this green and pleasant isle of ours.....actually, the world really when you think about it....are simply a waste of oxygen....The levels of ignorance, stupidity, and general obnoxiousness never ceases to amaze me. This sort of thing is just one in along list of symptoms of the malaise....depressing really.

+1

BTW the link to your company website is broken.

 

[RogerS]

.....if you don't have a suitable vehicle .....

Like this you mean ? :wink:



That box is nearly 2m deep! Always gave me a bit of satisfaction when I went to the tip fully laden. They couldn't ask for a permit as it wasn't trade :-" and they couldn't ask for a trailer permit as it wasn't a traller. Yet there was several cubic metres of detritus inside.

Unfortunately I got caught by one of those car accident scamming bast**ds and ended up with this

 

[mseries]

"suitable vehicle"
I was actually thinking of something with more load carrying capacity than my bicycle !!!