Throw away society?

mickysf
mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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edited February 2016 in General Chat #1

Why cover our roadside verges in so much rubbish. Travelling north on A roads and motorways in last few days I see it all over.  I know it's always more visible at this time of year but I rarely see anyone throwing things out of vehicle windows. Plastic
products just linger for years and much of it is that. Hopefully the ban on plastic bags will help matters, but having been to Denmark and Switzerland in recent years I just wonder why we have such a big problem back here in Blighty? Surely it's not just about
enforcing law but more to do with mentality! I love my country but hate to see it so unloved!

Comments

  • volvoman9
    volvoman9 Forum Participant Posts: 1,053
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    edited February 2016 #2

    Its a very good point.If you are the passenger in a car on a dual carriageway and take a good look at the side of the road or the middle its surprizeing how much litter has been thrown out of cars.As you say it shows a really poor attitude
    Sad.

    peter.

  • briantimber
    briantimber Forum Participant Posts: 1,653
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    edited February 2016 #3

    It's a pity that the traffic cameras cannot show these offenders and pass the details on to the highways agency, something should be done to deter these vandalsYell......Cool

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #4

    Some areas are definitely worse than others, going down towards the Tamar Bridge in Plymouth is really bad, not just small litter, large items thrown down the banks! I think anyone coming off the ferry might be thinking that's how we do it here!

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #5

    There seems to be a concentration of such rubbish where motorway/dual carriageway slip roads join the rest of the network. This suggest the people who deposit it are able to keep it inside their vehicle for a while, and then tip it out while waiting at traffic
    lights/give way signs.

  • Kerry Watkins
    Kerry Watkins Forum Participant Posts: 325
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    edited February 2016 #6

    Yet again, a sad reflection on Society today I am afraid to say.

  • tigerfish
    tigerfish Forum Participant Posts: 1,362
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    edited February 2016 #7

    But in our village a group of dedicated & public spirited people have formed a litter picking group. Every Sunday morning in all weathers about 15-20 of them armed with black bags and special litter picking grabbers, go out and literally cleanse the village.
    Ive lived here for over 30 years and I have never seen the village looking so clean & smart.

    The Local authority supply the black bags, the "grabbers" etc and also arrange to come & collect the filled black bags.  The cynic would say that we are doing the LA's job for them, but the truth of the matter is that they no longer have the staff to do
    it, so it would just not be done at all if our group didnt do it.

    TF

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited February 2016 #8

    Our LA try to encourage residents to "adopt"their area,and give equipment (nothing mechanical)to help with keeping our Garden City as most residents want it to stay,as TF says it is CG giving with one small hand, and taking with a much bigger hand and i
    agree its all smoke and mirrors 

  • Nuggy
    Nuggy Forum Participant Posts: 512
    edited February 2016 #9

    I am for ever picking up litter in our road and putting it in the bin at the bus stop or my own wheelie bin, depending which way I am walking. I think litter encourages more, and I refuse to live in a dump. I wish the council would stop agreeing to more
    and more fast food outlets

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #10

    I think you are on to the source of the problem there.

  • SteveL
    SteveL Club Member Posts: 12,303 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #11

    Sometimes wonder if rubbish blows out of already overfull bins that the councils have not got the time to empty. We have a small but delicated team in our village who work for the parish council doing a brilliant job of keeping our environment tidy, but
    go to town and it's a different matter

  • robsail
    robsail Forum Participant Posts: 1,441
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    edited February 2016 #12

    I think part of the problem is a lack of education by the government, when was the last time you saw a keep Britain tidy advert? People seem to consider that they are providing employment to the litter pickers!

     

  • RichardPitman
    RichardPitman Forum Participant Posts: 127
    edited February 2016 #13

    Walking through the grounds of Gloucester cathedral a few weeks back, following two young chaps. One was unwrapping some sort of package as he walked along, computer game or something similar. As each piece of cellophane came off, he allowed it to float
    away in the breeze, despite having just passed two litter bins.

    I pointed this fact out to him, at which point he replied 'Why don't you pick it up then ?'

    At which point all carefully prepared logical arguments fled and I just lost my temper, language from me was something not befitting a cathedral close.

    As my wife said later, 'You'll get knifed, or your head kicked in, one of these days'.

    Just makes my blood boil. How are these folks dragged up ? I was brainwashed as a small child, and am incapable of dropping litter to this day.

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #14

    I think part of the problem is a lack of education by the government, when was the last time you saw a keep Britain tidy advert? People seem to consider that they are providing employment to the litter pickers!

     

    Sometimes I wonder if the Anti Nanny State Brigade have had a detrimental effect on such things. Not that I'm in favour of a nanny state but just sometimes those regular nagging messages aimed at us can help. As Richard also says, I was 'brain washed' with
    that KBT campaign of my childhood. This technique can work, I recall spitting in the street was a common occurrence in my childhood days, rarely see it these days. Remember those signs on busses and on train station platforms. 

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #15

    I think part of the problem is a lack of education by the government, when was the last time you saw a keep Britain tidy advert? People seem to consider that they are providing employment to the litter pickers!

     

    Surely it's parents responsibility to teach their children not to throw away their rubbish but to put in a bin or take it home. We can't keep saying it's up to the government!!!! 

  • Navigateur
    Navigateur Club Member Posts: 3,880 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #16

    it's parents responsibility to teach their children

    Indeed, but as the parents were not taught in the first place, and probably not the grandparents either, it is now the responsibility of the people who run the country to take the action. Either by clearing up after all and sundry, or by providing the resources
    for children to be taught in schools.

  • nelliethehooker
    nelliethehooker Club Member Posts: 13,644 ✭✭✭
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    edited February 2016 #17

    Well I was taught not to throw litter and so were our children, as I am sure you were too, so I don't see where you are coming from. Teachers have enough to do without having to train children in the everyday things that are in fact the children's parents'
    responsibility. Why must it always come down to the government having to fork out more and more money?

  • briantimber
    briantimber Forum Participant Posts: 1,653
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    edited February 2016 #18

    Well I was taught not to throw litter and so were our children, as I am sure you were too, so I don't see where you are coming from. Teachers have enough to do without having to train children in the everyday things that are in fact the children's parents'
    responsibility. Why must it always come down to the government having to fork out more and more money?

    Fully agree with what you say nellie....Cool

  • ADP1963
    ADP1963 Forum Participant Posts: 1,280
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    edited February 2016 #19

    But in our village a group of dedicated & public spirited people have formed a litter picking group. Every Sunday morning in all weathers about 15-20 of them armed with black bags and special litter picking grabbers, go out and literally cleanse the village. Ive lived here for over 30 years and I have never seen the village looking so clean & smart.

    The Local authority supply the black bags, the "grabbers" etc and also arrange to come & collect the filled black bags.  The cynic would say that we are doing the LA's job for them, but the truth of the matter is that they no longer have the staff to do it, so it would just not be done at all if our group didnt do it.

    TF

    Write your comments here...This takes place in our village also,my wife and I are on rubbish collection duties every 2 months.If you love something you have to care for it.