Litter

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

captain_cynic said:

Hasn't quite worked that way in Australia where cans and bottles have been 5-10 cents (depending on which state you're in). Still plenty of bottles cans lying about as 10 cents isn't worth people's time to bend over. 10p isn't a huge amount when the min wage is £7 an hour.

Hey, but I'm a cynic

The only way to make this a self correcting issue is to make the litterers pick up rubbish as punishment.

So make the can/bottle tax £1 - problem solved.
The problem with punishing people is that you have to spot them doing it in the first place - I would hazard a guess that 99.9% of litterbugs will never be seen.

[captain_cynic]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

So make the can/bottle tax £1 - problem solved.

More like problem created.

No-one wants to pay £2.50 for a bottle of drink, retailers will see huge declines in sales.

You cant tax your way out of a non-financial problem.

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

The problem with punishing people is that you have to spot them doing it in the first place - I would hazard a guess that 99.9% of litterbugs will never be seen.

Then work on catching them.

As long as they're not being caught, the problem continues regardless. If the penalty is financial, catching them doesn't matter as they'll just claim victim status... If the punishment is physical, they'll start to think twice.

[227bhp]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

captain_cynic said:

Hasn't quite worked that way in Australia where cans and bottles have been 5-10 cents (depending on which state you're in). Still plenty of bottles cans lying about as 10 cents isn't worth people's time to bend over. 10p isn't a huge amount when the min wage is £7 an hour.

Hey, but I'm a cynic

The only way to make this a self correcting issue is to make the litterers pick up rubbish as punishment.

So make the can/bottle tax £1 - problem solved.
The problem with punishing people is that you have to spot them doing it in the first place - I would hazard a guess that 99.9% of litterbugs will never be seen.

It's a waste of time as you won't catch them in the first place.

Correct, at 10p, wtf? It was 10p back in the 70s.
It does work, I've seen people in Mexico searching the streets for cans so they can weigh them in for cash and they have machines in China which pay out money on plastic bottles.
At Chris Evans' Carfest the site is reasonably tidy, maybe it attracts the right kind of people perhaps, but what they do have is money back on plastic drinks cups, it's a family event so lots of kids there, they run around collecting them up in return for cash.

[Smiler.]

captain_cynic said:

The only way to make this a self correcting issue is to make the litterers pick up rubbish as punishment.

Oh yes.

I was out walking the dogs earlier, a route I haven't done for a couple of weeks.

During that time, a hoard of simpering mouth-breathers have risked daylight & emerged from under their rock to st the place up. It's a 3-mile walk & there is letter everywhere.

As the OP says, WTF is wrong with people?


Mind you, I drove down a lane in South Bucks the other day. A lane off which is a Council refuse site. There are huge piles of fly-tippings every 5 metres.

Why they don't just set up some covert surveillance & nab the buggers, I don't know.

I imagine it's what heaven looks like.

[vixen1700]

227bhp said:

it's a family event so lots of kids there, they run around collecting them up in return for cash.

Child labour ftw.

[Alucidnation]

Bring back community service.

[Turn7]

I hate littering too, big time. Vile habit from scumbags.

Round here, the council have just had a big clean up, and it looks great.

What grieves me tho, is they have bought a load of signs and left them everywhere, ASKING scumbags to take their litter home.....

Words fail me...

I can just see the '52 plate Transit driving meathead, about to launch his third McD's of the day, wrapper out the passenger window - seeing such a sign, and thinking - Oh, Ok, I'll take it home.....

This country really makes me despair of late.Theres no pride in anything, and if there is, someone nicks it or damages it out of spite.

[STe_rsv4]

Yep, littering really boils my urine.
My dad thinks nothing of smoking his cigarette then flicking the butt anywhere.
He did this while stood outside my house the other day so just as he got in his car I jammed the discarded butt between his rear windscreen wiper to take home with him, the dirty tramp.
Wonder if he's realised that his rear wiper won't clear the water away yet?

[Jer_1974]

Funny this thread came up. I purchased a litter pick-up stick from ebay about a year ago but never used it as I thought I would look a bit weird out with the dog picking up litter. I bit the built this morning and took it out on my usual four-mile dog walk. I walked the 1.5 mile lane past the golf club and school filled a carrier bag and emptied it into a rubbish bin then walked along the river collecting another bag. Got some good comments and made me feel good all day. I'm going to do it a few times a week until I don't see any crap lying about on my usual dog walks.

[Grayedout]

Jer_1974 said:

Funny this thread came up. I purchased a litter pick-up stick from ebay about a year ago but never used it as I thought I would look a bit weird out with the dog picking up litter. I bit the built this morning and took it out on my usual four-mile dog walk. I walked the 1.5 mile lane past the golf club and school filled a carrier bag and emptied it into a rubbish bin then walked along the river collecting another bag. Got some good comments and made me feel good all day. I'm going to do it a few times a week until I don't see any crap lying about on my usual dog walks.

Started doing that on my dog walk down a local quiet lane but was finding the litter was growing faster than I could collect it !

[anonymous-user]

Jer_1974 said:

Funny this thread came up. I purchased a litter pick-up stick from ebay about a year ago but never used it as I thought I would look a bit weird out with the dog picking up litter. I bit the built this morning and took it out on my usual four-mile dog walk. I walked the 1.5 mile lane past the golf club and school filled a carrier bag and emptied it into a rubbish bin then walked along the river collecting another bag. Got some good comments and made me feel good all day. I'm going to do it a few times a week until I don't see any crap lying about on my usual dog walks.

I regularly pick up litter on my dog walks. Summer is particularly bad for picnic debris on the local field. It seems that a bin by every bench is still not enough incentive for some people to actually tidy up after themselves.

[HTP99]

Grahamdub said:

Jer_1974 said:

Funny this thread came up. I purchased a litter pick-up stick from ebay about a year ago but never used it as I thought I would look a bit weird out with the dog picking up litter. I bit the built this morning and took it out on my usual four-mile dog walk. I walked the 1.5 mile lane past the golf club and school filled a carrier bag and emptied it into a rubbish bin then walked along the river collecting another bag. Got some good comments and made me feel good all day. I'm going to do it a few times a week until I don't see any crap lying about on my usual dog walks.

I regularly pick up litter on my dog walks. Summer is particularly bad for picnic debris on the local field. It seems that a bin by every bench is still not enough incentive for some people to actually tidy up after themselves.

I sometimes take one of my dogs for a walk to a local park before work, there is always loads of litter there from the day before, my dog loves plastic bottles and will pick them up to wander about with, I've taught her to drop them when by the bin; she picks one up, I walk to the bin, she drops it and I deposit it in the bin.

Regarding dog ends (cigarettes) for as long as I can remember it has always been kind of acceptable to flick then on the floor, my dad did it but despised littering, very strange. But as someone has mentioned you see less and less of it now, given smoking is massively on the decline.

[WyrleyD]

I was over in the UK last week and was gobsmacked at the amount of roadside litter. Was staying near Shefford in Bedfordshire and whilst there they mowed the verges on the A507 Between the A1(M) and Chicksands which I think made the amount of the litter look very bad as they didn't litter pick first so all the rubbish was chopped up. Particularly noticeable was the shear number of those bright yellow "sausage" packing thingies about 3ft long ( had seen these spread all along the road previously) that got chopped up and made a right mess plus all the McD' packaging, plastic bags and plastic bottles.

Disgusting slobs who just chuck whatever they don't want out of the window.

[CoolHands]

Pity all you dog walkers can’t pick up your st though

[HTP99]

CoolHands said:

Pity all you dog walkers can’t pick up your st though

I do!

[Howard-]

kambites said:

At least the decline of smoking means that one of the worst forms of littering (at least IMO), cigarette butts, seems to be dying out.

Indeed. Flicking the cigarette butt out of your car window once you've finished it is an incredibly chavvy, degenerate thing to do. Your car has an ashtray, use it!

[anonymous-user]

HTP99 said:

CoolHands said:

Pity all you dog walkers can’t pick up your st though

I do!

And often that left behind by other dog walkers too. Probably the same people who litter.

[Smiler.]

CoolHands said:

Pity all you dog walkers can’t pick up your st though

I tend to use the toilet, so no need to pick mine up.

[227bhp]

Howard- said:

kambites said:

At least the decline of smoking means that one of the worst forms of littering (at least IMO), cigarette butts, seems to be dying out.

Indeed. Flicking the cigarette butt out of your car window once you've finished it is an incredibly chavvy, degenerate thing to do. Your car has an ashtray, use it!

Neither of my vehicles has an ashtray, manufacturers don't bother with them much any more.

[Nickbrapp]

I noticed this the other day too, on a trip from South Wales to London, as the driving standards decreased the amount of litter went up. I put it down to the English around there being so stressed and constantly wound up that they only think about themselves so they litter and think fk everyone else