Litter Pick

[roberts8]

We are heading down to Cornwall to visit relatives.
I know the locals are a little different but did not realise it was another country so we will pack passports, thanks for the heads up on this.

[Mick F]

Have a read at this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_nationalism

We know many Cornish people born and bred here who can trace their history back a long way.
They are all staunchly Cornish, and not English in the slightest.

Me?
I was born in North Wales but moved to Lancashire as a youngster, and brought up there.
Mrs Mick F is a Liverpuddlian. We've been married 50years this year.
Our two girls were born in Scotland where we lived for some years.
We've been living in Cornwall for 38years.

[Bmblbzzz]

There's a small nature reserve near me, called Narroways - it's a triangle of land sandwiched between 2 railways lines and a steep slope. Anyway, it became pop. with youngsters during lock-down and has been the site of several parties since. The huuuge amounts of rubbish left afterwards has prompted some to'ing and fro'ing online, with a postive result in that the nature reserve committee provide copious quantites of refuse sacks when the youngsters meet and so the rufuse is at least all bundled up ready to be removed, the next morning.

Positive news. Tidy youths in the 'Burgs.

[pliptrot]

It is an international problem. Berlin - where I live- is as dirty as anywhere. Singapore- where I lived- is clean where you get fined ($200 for a cigarette butt), but find any of what is left of nature and you'll find the most appalling fly tipping and litter. Japan - where I lived - is clean in the cities but go to, say, Mount Fuji and you'll find a mountain of dropped litter. As for Houston, Texas, where I lived, don't get me started on what is left on highways there.....

[plancashire]

A solution to some litter is a deposit system as we have on most drinks bottles and cans here in Germany. Although it is only 8 cents for a standard beer bottle and 15 cents for a plastic water bottle, it seems to be enough for people to pick them up and return them to shops. Some very poor people make money from this. You see them in railway stations. rubbish bins sometimes have a ring around them with holes for bottles, called a Pfandring. You donate the deposit to a collector by leaving the bottle there.

I gather the UK Government is finally thinking about introducing deposits. Why did it take so long?

Now we need a deposit on all packaging.

[Paulatic]

I gather the UK Government is finally thinking about introducing deposits. Why did it take so long?

Now we need a deposit on all packaging.

Scotland & Wales want a DRS England after having taking a 20K donation to Tory party funds don’t want glass included. The U.K. Tory government wish to prove its not an equal Union and delight in overruling devolved governments.
Here in Scotland DRS is delayed another 7 months.
Will DRS be the bottle which broke the Union?

[plancashire]

On Friday evening I rode up and down the dykes on the Rhein. Some people had left a neat pile of clean pizza boxes, a wine bottle and a deflated golden balloon on the ground next to a bench with a rubbish bin. The boxes were wet, so they had been there at least a day (it rained all day on Thursday). This is a well-used path for cycling, walking and dog exercising. I was the first person to crumple up the mess and stuff it into the rubbish bin, which is now full. We all live here, don't we?

[Paulatic]

It’s certainly a worldwide problem. I did a virtual ride this morning on Inverness road, Kalorama, Victoria, Australia. Half way up the climb a pile of rubbish tipped in a lay-by. Going to need a truck to deal with that.

[Ron]

I gather the UK Government is finally thinking about introducing deposits. Why did it take so long?

One reason is opposition from sectors of the drinks industry who are not prepared to take any responsibility for their customers actions in carelessly disposing of drinks containers.

[Jdsk]

New NAO report: "The government’s resources and waste reforms for England":
https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/governme ... e-reforms/

Brace yourself.

Jonathan

[Postboxer]

It's all just so needless, I'd go hard with the punishments. Drop litter in the street, you're on litter picking duty, in a chain gang, for 52 days, probably once a week. Drop litter from a vehicle, the vehicle is impounded, you get it back when you've collected it's weight in litter. Don't want the punishment, don't do the crime.

Seems it wouldn't be hard to target problem areas with a few hidden cameras, a few large fines, or worse, word would soon spread that littering isn't worth the hassle of not taking rubbish home with you. The problem of littering from cars may be reduced if cars were designed with an obvious place for rubbish. Cars keep on getting bigger and bigger and they have loads of cubby holes, drink holders etc but I haven't seen anything with anything obvious and easy to use as a bin. They've lost their ashtrays too.

The only problem I can see with deposit schemes is it puts the price up a lot on multipacks, which is a disadvantage to those on low incomes, who may already struggle to get the benefit of lower prices when buying in bulk. I would start at the other end of the chain though, seeing what the litter is, reducing plastic, make everything easier to recycle first.

[Jdsk]

"State Of Our Trails Report":
https://www.trashfreetrails.org/2023-st ... ils-report

"Over the last three years 4,500+ people have helped remove over 216,000 items of single-use pollution from the places they love. The State of Our Trails Report brings together their contribution in a one-of-a-kind Report on the state of terrestrial pollution on recreational trail ecosystems in the UK.
"This Report is not merely a collection of findings, but outlines our unique methods for understanding the causes, prevalence, composition and impacts of single-use pollution. No Report has been produced like this in the UK."

Jonathan
​

[Cugel]

The only effective solution to littering is to prevent its manufacture and distribution in the first place. Sadly, there's a huge vested interest in retaining "convenience" packaging for all sorts of stuff, especially junkfud & drank gulped down by dafties susceptible to the advertising of such stuff.

Even when its cleared up (and I've shifted probably tons, over the years, from about 15 miles of habitually-walked sections of The Lancaster Canal) it still exists and has to be disposed off. Despite attempts to recycle, much plastic and other toxic crap ends up in every part of the environment, from landfills leaching poisons into the water tables to micro plastics in all of our bodies and even the atmosphere.

LItter picking makes a place look better but doesn't do a thing to solve the fundamental issue.