National Highways - litter?

[Condi]

I know this is a very middle age and middle class problem, but so many roads these days which are managed by National Highways rather than local councils have verges which are deep in litter. It always looks worst at this time of year with no greenery, but do they actually employ anybody to clean up the litter, or are we just accepting it? I don't remember it being this bad years ago, but then I don't remember ever seeing many litter pickers either. At least local councils do try and keep their area clean, but the A roads are filthy.

In America I believe they use prisoners to do work like litter picking, wouldn't that be a good use of otherwise un-used resources here? Obviously better if it wasn't dirty in the first place.

[Condi]

Terminator X said:

Fundamentaly why are people littering. I've lnever chucked anything out of the car when going somewhere. Lack of respect and general ttishness.

I guess some of it is intentional - lorry driver's and their bottles of piss - but some will be blown in from elsewhere and then get stuck in verges and hedges, some will be rubbish left from road works etc, some will be fly tipping.

But yes, much better if it wasn't there in the first place.

[Condi]

Pica-Pica said:

Depends where you are, we regularly see litter pickers working along our verges in Gwynedd. Those on probation are often used.

Can you send them to the Midlands please?

Strange, we have plenty of criminals here. Wonder what they're doing instead.

[Condi]

To be fair to McDonalds they have massive bins at the end of their car parks and do often employ litter pickers, but a lot of what I see is often things like builders plastic wrap, or other stuff which has most likely fallen off a van or lorry. Some areas to the East of Birmingham, around the airport look terrible at this time of year. HS2 are doing work there and instead of cleaning up first they're just working among the rubbish and it inevitably gets incorporated into their trenches and soil, making it impossible to clean up.

Not sure I agree that poorer areas are more likely to have rubbish, its true to some extent, but main roads (A roads, motorways) do seem to have a lot more on the verges than smaller roads.