Bill Bryson on panorama about litter

nodwah

Anyone watch this?

I was keen on the volunteer litter pickers as I've been doing that for ages, does anyone else?

IamJen

I wish I'd seen this. Littering is a wonder to me, as a transplanted American, as well. It's a very big problem here in Oxfordshire. I see people throw rubbish on the ground when they're just a few feet away from a bin. It seems to fly in the face of much of the ethos of British culture...good manners, protecting the environment, etc.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7543554.stm
There's some more info about the subject on Panorama's site.

My other half and I pick up rubbish occasionally on the path near our house, and when we're walking a nearby lake.

I wish I knew what was going through people's heads when they dump this stuff. From the time I was very little, I knew that littering was wrong.

margaretclare

This is something that depresses me personally. I see it all the time where I live, and everywhere I go within my own country. In fact, DH and I have come back from a trip across the Channel and immediately we drive out of Dover docks, it becomes apparent all over again, whereas it isn't so prevalent in other countries.

Throwing rubbish out of car windows is something that I can't comprehend or excuse in any way at all. McDonald's bags are favourite. I have no great love for McDonald's, but at least they place their food in a convenient paper bag. What is wrong with keeping that in the car and taking it home? Why has the car got to be kept pristine, and the food bags chucked out of the window at the first opportunity?

Another pet hate is the habit many people have - often younger people - of swigging from soft drink bottles or cans as they walk along, and just dropping the bottle or can wherever they happen to be. Or beer cans.

Since the smoking ban, we see more dropping of fag-ends outside, whereas before they'd have been discarded in an ash-tray inside the pub or wherever.

Nowadays young people can't wait until they get home before they buy a snack, sweets, soft drinks etc and eat it as they walk along. Needless to say the papers, plastic packets etc, are just discarded anywhere. We didn't have that luxury - we had to wait until we got home for tea. They can't wait that long now - they'd die of hunger or thirst if they had to walk 2 miles on nothing.

People buy cigarettes, come out of the shop, tear off the cellophane wrapper and just throw that down anywhere. And plastic carrier-bags which get caught in trees and bushes along the roadside.

This is something that I see dropped everywhere, out of toddlers' push-chairs, you name it: http://www.britvic.co.uk/Brand.aspx?id=52

We have picnics out, but we always take litter home, or if we go to a RSPB site or similar, we always put it in a bin provided.

I don't know how to get through to people.

bob_a_builder

I wish I'd seen this.

Why don't you watch it here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00d1z0b/

and the answer to you own question, was in your own text

"I wish I knew what was going through people's heads when they dump this stuff ? . ____ ___ ____ ___ VERY LITTLE "

msmicawber

Another point Bill made that I've noticed myself is that there aren't bins at railways stations, especially in the cities, so there's nowhere to dump rubbish which contributes to the mess. The bins on trains are often tiny and overstuffed, and every train I've been on over the last few years is littered with discarded newspaper (usually those wretched Metro things) and bottles and cans that roll around spilling their sticky contents all over the floor.

nodwah

Well I live near a high school and the kids have various hideouts in the local woods which are just chock full of cans, fag ends etc. I once found a blackbird all trapped in plastic that it had managed to wind round itself in it's panic - got it out eventually after it nearly pecking my hand off!!
Anyway I go in there during the holidays and pick up loads of cans for recycling.

msmicawber

I'm impressed as the only volunteer litter picking I do is to pick up the items on our road that blow out of recycle bins each bin collection day. I always think it's strange how many people just take their empty bin in again without picking up anything that has been dropped.

IamJen

Thanks for the link, bob. I could only find the teaser online before. I think I'll watch it with the man later. :up:

margaret, I could make a replica of the Eiffel Tower with the number of those blasted Fruit Shoot bottles I see around our area (loads of children, and 3 minutes from a park).

My favorites in the past few days....

A big bucket from some sort of candy floss type stuff that was left in a green patch along the walking path. We picked it up and will put it to use.

A broken umbrella, tossed in the bushes, some 90 seconds walk from a rubbish bin (actually, 2 bins).

A woman's high heeled shoe. I mean really, how drunk do you have to be not to realize that you've lost a shoe?

I'm wondering if I can collect all of these castaways that I find and then apply for some sort of grant to develop an art show. Heh.

Altarf

msmicawber wrote: »

Another point Bill made that I've noticed myself is that there aren't bins at railways stations, especially in the cities

Not since the IRA put bombs in them at Victoria Station and Warrington there aren't. And after 7/7 I don't think a return of bins at railway stations would be sensible.

msmicawber

I'm sure there must be an alternative to big, heavy metals bins, such as plastic bins that could be used instead.

IamJen

Altarf wrote: »

Not since the IRA put bombs in them at Victoria Station and Warrington there aren't. And after 7/7 I don't think a return of bins at railway stations would be sensible.

See, I've heard this argument many times over, but really couldn't a terrorist just put a bomb in a toilet, newspaper machine, etc. I strongly feel that this is one of the things that doesn't actually make us safer, it only makes us (well, some of us) feel safer. I was just having this conversation with someone from Spain, while we were waiting at the rail station in Oxford. She had something from one of the vendors (coffee cup, I think), and was surprised to find no place to dispose of it. I said that she could take it back to the shop and they'd dump it, but that meant going back through the turnstiles, etc.

At some point, the desire for safety and security is outweighed by the measures' effect on our quality of life.

Sorry to be on the soapbox, but this is a big issue with me. How does my toothpaste getting confiscated (because it was labeled 4 oz./100 ml) make the world safer?

Argh argh argh.

/end rant