You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
i dont drive much, but weve been away in the van the past few weekends over the summer holidays, so have racked up a few miles more than the usual Zero.
Is it my imagination or have people started just throwing their litter out of the car windows?
WTAF?
Every driving day, at some point the car in front of me rolls down the window and flicks out a cigarette but, mcdonalds cup, chewing gum.
Yesterday was a KatiePrice esque hand dropping chewing gum out of a 23 plate range rover on the A30: I mean, i get it, youve just leased or financed a massive dick extension you cant afford, and dont want to get chewing gum in the cup holder, but equally, i dont want it on my bumper.
****.
This is definately my biggest irk at the moment, i guess cause its not actually a car thing. People do it all the time.
I understand that you cant be clear over crimes of passion, or accidents, but when it comes to littering which is clearly just a total disregard for other people or the world around, that should be a death penalty.
It does appear to be getting worse, I've been trying to decide if this is a result of grass edges being cut or not though as when the grass is long you often can't see it.
I do think people are becoming more selfish and self centered though and as a result shame around littering appears to be less common. I've noticed in the past year taking my dog for a walk there seems to be disposable vapes absolutely everywhere too.
You only need to look at any verges near a fast food outlet, or at the exits of motorways. I don't get what's wrong with taking it home and binning it/recycling. Then again, have you seen the state of the interior of a lot of vehicles ! I'm of the mindset if I'm spending a fair amount of time in there, it might as well be pleasant, not a rolling shit tip. Although I hardly use my car now - it get's dusty !
Yup. See the thread started by @RustyNissanPrairie
It's a really good indication of the attitudes to others of wider society as a whole i think.
If you look at what level of care for the environment and thought for others humanity needs to adopt to tackle climate change etc, then look at how people behave right now chucking their shit about with complete disregard for anyone but themselves, well... 😐
All you can do is be part of a growing band of people who do something about it.
We all need to be more RustyNissanPrairie.
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/spring-clean/
https://www.trashfreetrails.org/
Edited to say - beaten by a fellow litter picker.....and Harold! 👍
Litter is generally getting better where I live due to a local CivicPride organisation that has transformed the town into representing in Britain In Bloom.
Broken window analogy - litter breeds litter.
The venn diagram overlap for these people and those that sit with their engine running while; other half pops in shop (maybe right in front of supermarket door)/ sat eating takeaway/ general waiting about, must be massive.
Yesterday was a KatiePrice esque hand dropping chewing gum out of a 23 plate range rover on the A30: I mean, i get it, youve just leased or financed a massive dick extension
A Katie Price hand and a dick extension is an unusual package.
Yes, it's now a thing.....i see it mainly done by both men and women in their 20's and 30's. In our village we have organised litter picks and it is incredible how much we pick up.
I believe that there should be a tax placed on all takeaway cartons / cups, plastic bottles, chocolate wrappers etc. I know it's the minority, but the amount of litter generated is obscene. I do some road riding and what you see in hedges and bushes is astounding. I have never littered even as a kid, i just don't get it. Throwing it out of a car window is just not acceptable when you can just put it in the bin at the destination.
Like most things in life it's the selfish pricks who spoil it for everyone else.
I've just walked past a load of KFC litter scattered all round a litter bin. I think it's a combination of disempowered 'I don't give a f' and an element of Thatcherite 'no such thing as society'. Yep, and the self-entitled imbecils leaving their engines running deserve a hosepipe into the vehicle.
Ive mentioned before in my litter thread - I pick up the same litter daily namely Monster/Redbull/McDonald's/Costa. All multi million/billion companies - if they put 1% of their turnover into campaigns to educate littering it would be eradicated.
But they don't and I genuinely think people don't know what a litter bin is or how to use them.
I’ve just walked past a load of KFC litter scattered all round a litter bin.
Crows are bad for pulling litter/bagged dogshit out of bins. I often have to tidy the park bins where this has happened.
if they put 1% of their turnover into campaigns to educate littering it would be eradicated.
Sadly I don't think you can educate selfish people to not be selfish, they just don't care...
Imprisoning them on the other hand...
Eating or drinking junk food in your car / van all the time is a relatively new and increasing thing.
Imprisoning them on the other hand…
The penalty shouldn't be prison, that's tremendously expensive. Much simpler to simply make them eat what they drop.
Then again, have you seen the state of the interior of a lot of vehicles !
I take offence at that. My car is said shit tip, but I wouldn't even contemplate littering and my children are brought up the same way. Therefore rubbish stays in the car until I get round to clearing it out.
Imprisoning them on the other hand…
Sterilisation would be more effective in the longer term.
Cars seen ejecting litter should be towed away and crushed. Preferably with the litterer still inside.
Glasgow has a horrendous litter problem. A remarkable lack of stigma about dropping litter. The city centre is an absolute pigsty.
A car passed me the other day, window came down and an empty water bottle launched out it. Didn't see the driver but it was a modern, expensive SUV.
I watched a guy launch an empty coke can out the window at traffic lights a few weeks back.
My route from home to my nearest trails takes me up a country road that's constantly strewn with litter.
I've lived on a new build street for the past couple of years and it was eye opening watching the tradesmen at lunch. The wrappers, bottles and cans of whatever they had for lunch were thrown on the ground. Not a single F given.
I can honestly say in all my 45 years I've never knowingly, intentionally dropped a piece of litter. I was simply brought up better. When did this message stop getting taught?
Although I notice a lot of litter - and find it amazing how much there is even by very out of the way rural roads (you must have driven for an hour from the nearest McDonald's to chuck that there 😒) - I can't say I've ever seen someone in the act. Same with dog mess not being picked up. So I assume the visibility is disproportionate to the amount. Depressing all the same though.
I often eat in the car, and I have a "bin" - it's a little fabric pop-up thing - that I chuck everything in and then bin/recycle when I get home. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I wonder whether if this was somehow made the norm, whether it would help. Probably not, maybe people wouldn't want their sleek interior ruined by a bag of rubbish and would chuck it out the window at their earliest convenience anyway, but it's a nice thought.
Yes, lots of people throwing out mainly cigarette butts. Where do they think these go?
When Costa opened a coffee shop nearby, the amount of their rubbish ending up on country lanes, farmer's fields, lay bys and grass verges in the nearby area was astounding. These people must have money to afford the luxury of a nice coffee and cake, yet they don't give a flying fig about our gorgeous countryside.
The latest thing is youngsters driving out (in the daytime) to hidden away places, parking up, smoking dope and throwing out everything from their car, we cycle past and it's something I never saw before covid.
I'm always amazed at the number of empty lager cans I see thrown on the verge when out riding country lanes. It's always crap lager like Fosters too, never a decent craft beer.
So I assume the visibility is disproportionate to the amount
It's sort of that. In my mind it's a combination of three things
1) It takes but a second to throw something out of the window, so you have to be there at precisely that second to witness it, whilst
2) It then lives in the verge/gutter/wherever for months or years, so you see it for ages, as does anyone else who passes by
3) Those two factors are then combined with the fact that many things are made of non-biodegradable materials these days - plastic or cellophane or glass or aluminium or waxed cardboard etc. So stuff just takes longer to rot down than it used to when sweeties came in paper bags. Or never rots at all. Hence visible for much longer.
Anyway, yes, machine-gunning is too good for them.
you must have driven for an hour from the nearest McDonald’s to chuck that there
A couple of years ago I cleared up someone's McD remains just outside Buttermere. I'm not surprised they ditched most of it, it must have been stone cold by the time they got there from Whitehaven.
It’s always crap lager like Fosters too, never a decent craft beer.
😂 Only on STW! Not only do I object to your littering per se, but I absolutely abhor the quality of your litter!
We now have road signs as you enter the village from both directions reminding drivers that littering is an offence carrying a £150 fine. I’m pretty sure this will make no difference to the problem.
This coincides with the recent opening of a local Costa and Golden Arches!!
As said by others above, society is broken and littering is a symptom.
I was speaking to a local councillor after a burger drive through was opened on the edge of town. She said it was now taking triple the amount of time to clean up the roadsides near the drive through.
I contacted McD's about the amount of their litter in the grass verges around my area.
They replied they do have a litter picker but only for their car park.
In my area you can tell the type of some people who live in the villages by the litter on the verges as you ride in and out.
I live afew minutes drive from a McDonalds. In my area it either gets lobbed out while driving through or just dropped out where they've parked. Boils my piss! We do have a brilliant team of voluntary litter pickers round here and keep meaning to help when I get the time.
Op - I think you are very lucky to live in a part of the country where litter isn’t so much of an issue, and in fact anti social behaviour is minimal. I’m not sure if that’s just because it’s a low population area or because people that do live there have more respect.
Unfortunately I think it’s just a case of Oswestry falls outside the distance of the nearest McDonalds littering distance. Just wait until the new one opens
(apologies Op if I have misinterpreted where you live)
'Litterbug' is a delightfully Famous Five-esque term for these people.
I tend to use a different term. 😐
I was brought up not to litter. Wasnt an angel and got caught by my Mum throwing a drinks can into the bushes, who then told me what would happen if my Dad had seen me. Never did it after that.
Except when I became a smoker. It just wasnt seen as consequential, at all, just what was done. Until I reverted back to non smoker many years later and realised.
I think some people just don't value the places where they are, see them as shit holes so not worth the bother. People who think nothing of buying new bags for life from the shop and throwing it in the bin as soon as they've unpacked it.
Maybe signs that speak their language?
don't be a **** pick your ****ing litter up you massive prick!
Maybe not for the village green.
1) It takes but a second to throw something out of the window, so you have to be there at precisely that second to witness it,
Fortunately they have provided us with an identification system:
It is one of my pet hates,but what bothers me more,is that (some) other countries seem to manage things a lot better.At the weekend I Spoke to someone that was just back from a trip to Norway,they said it was 'immaculate' everywhere. Now I am sure it won't be everywhere, but it sounds like they have managed to build in a way,where most of their citizens do the right thing. 😞
A75 full of it and bottles of truckers Tizer....
Folk are right its always the same few brands you see... there must be a certain demographic.
If disposable vapes turn out to be toxic, won't be a problem as far as I'm concerned as everyone who buys them from our local shop drops all the packaging on the walk back from it.
I would not be surprised if a lot of these litterers are simply totally unaware that it's a problem. Their parents did it, their friends do it and there are no bad consequences when they do it.
Meanwhile the Conservative government have been cutting police and council funding.
Maybe signs that speak their language?
Don’t be a * pick your * litter up you massive prick!
Maybe not for the village green
I need to get pics of some signs near me. A couple of residents have obvious had enough of litterers and dog walkers.
One reads "Pick up your dog shit you lazy bastards."
Another is "People who litter are arseholes."
😆
Anyone done anything about it or planning to other than tutting on here?
Lead by example. It doesn't look like the McCorpCosta****s are going to spend that 1% to run an ad campaign and the government couldn't give a shit if you wallow in filth or not.
Grab a litter picker and clear your local area. Start a CivicPride group.
My hometown group has been going for 20years, Rawtenstall has appeared on the best place to live list a few times and has just been entered for Britain in Bloom. The town looks fantastic.
I collected 2 bags of litter this morning on a long walk with doggo, posted in my thread that Kayak23 linked to.
Doggy bags have started turning up at the end of our street, seems someone can't be bothered to carry them any further and has resorted to dropping them off on the pavement at the corner of the road.
Unfortunately I can't keep an eye out from our house, but if I lived in that corner plot...
Fortunately they have provided us with an identification system:
Actually, that's just reminded me. Yes, I did use that very system on one occasion a couple of years ago. Was out for a lunchtime ride not far from Hampton-in-Arden, when two youngish blokes (20s or 30s) emerged from a Severn-Trent site in a car, the passenger launching a can and assorted food wrappers into the verge as they did so. Obviously they were uncatchable on the bike, so I grabbed the litter, turned into the site and spoke to the site foreman about it. He acknowledged that he'd had previous reason to speak to the two occupants of that car about 'poor behaviour' on site, and would do so again, promising to present them with the evidence to back it up. So hopefully that actually happened. (For clarity, they weren't Severn-Trent employees, there was some sort of construction going on at the site, and they were contractors on the job)
Numerous times I’ve challenged folks who just chuck rubbish out of cars onto the ground whilst they are parked up. They genuinely seem surprised when I do
only time I’ve ever knowingly littered is when I had to stop for an emergency shit at side of road and had to use my t shirt to wipe up the mess..no way that was coming back in the car with me given I had no means to bag it up. Poked it under a country hedge with a stick as a treat for a fox to find later that evening..
one of my favorite tshirts as well..
Did we really need to know that? I only came back to get all nostalgic about cassette tape hanging from bushes, and what do I get, shit-in-a-t-shirt stories. 🤣