Clean Up Britain - Litter

[andrew1]

I came across this having seen it on the BBC Breakfast news.

 

I've just moved into a place where it seems passing cars, especially in the evenings, think that passing Burger wrappings out of the window and cans or anything else they don't want to take home is acceptable. It's not.

 

I spent 30 yrs+ on a private estate where this kind of thing didn't happen, we certainly didn't wake up in the mornings to find a heap of old car parts or tyres left or building rubble fly-tipped. We do here and it's disgraceful.

 

What is it that makes it acceptable to dump rubbish on someone else's space?

 

These guys seem hell bent on making sure it doesn't go on - let's help them.

 

http://www.cleanupbritain.org/

 

 

We all need to educate our children that spitting on the street where others walk, dropping chewing-gum on the floors which we all walk on, dog fouling (don't get me going!) and throwing wrappers, fag packets or anything else onto other people's streets is just not acceptable and should be disposed of responsibly. In some countries you'd go to prison for dropping litter, let's help these people help us enjoy our environment.

 

Thanks

 

 

A1

[citizenB]

Please don't get me started on Litter Louts.

 

As for kids spitting, when they see their sporting heroes do this !!

[Desperate Daniella]

One London Borough, Barnet I think, has banned spitting and is giving out on the spot fines. Good for them. It is an absolutely disgusting habit.

 

I would never dream of dropping anything in the street, and as for people who drop their disgusting chewed gum.....

 

My car got covered in coffee when the guy in the van in front of me threw out the remains of his Starbucks and I was so livid I called his company and reported him. I should have asked them to pay for cleaning, come to think of it.

[citizenB]

I sat behind a vehicle stopped in heavy traffic, in Sidcup a few years ago. I was gobsmacked to see two of the occupants wind down their windows and dump out their fish n chip papers onto the road !!

[Desperate Daniella]

A friend of mine was behind a car in heavy traffic in Putney when a boy threw out the remains of his MacDonalds and chips. She was the passenger so she got out, retrieved the box and wrapper, walked round to the driver's side, and said, very politely, "I will put these in a bin for your son, but perhaps you could tell him that chucking his rubbish in the street is not the right thing to do." The father went bright red and started to tell off his son, saying he was sorry and hadn't noticed him do it...... Obviously that was their usual practice but maybe they might just think about it next time.

[andrew1]

Thanks folks, if you read the links on that first post it even goes in to telling you how to approach the councils to clean up.

 

Educating people is by far the best solution, but you sometimes take your life into your own hands by telling someone to pick something up. Just be careful who you tell.

 

This should be embedded into the pyschi of every child from birth, but that'll take years to filter through. Policing the law which already exists would be okay if there were enough people being prosecuted, but how many coppers are there dishing out tickets?

 

Now put those traffic wardens on a bonus to catch a few and now we're talking.

 

Please read right though that link and start the process as I am.

 

Thanks....Sidcup ? mmmm, that's just down the road!

[Conniff]

I agree with all that is being said above, but you will not be able to educate to stop it. First you need to conquer the laziness that makes them do it, the can't be bothered attitude and the firm belief that the world owes them something needs to be beaten out of people.

 

I know that it is basically bad parenting that is the cause, but the government could stop this attitude. They were saying that more accidents are caused and more people die because of drivers using a mobile phone than driving drunk. If that's the case, then why isn't the use of mobile phones attracting the same punishment as driving under the influence, 12 months ban and £200 fine.

 

The same can be done for litter, make it a £100 or even £200 fine for dropping it. It is one, if not the worse, antisocial and disgusting habit of all of them.

 

While my rant is on a roll, this government could make or save a lot of money by making drunks who are taken to hospital after their binge and vomit night out, pay for that ambulance, £80 would seem a fair amount.

[andrew1]

Totally agree Conniff, but it's policing these habits that's the trouble isn't it? These people who throw things out of the car window generally do it when there's nobody around. I live in a fairly leafy lane, busy cut-through road during the day, but much quieter at night and we get up to find McDonalds wrappers, cans all kinds of drink cartons just lopped out and the occassional fly-tipper dumping building materials or car fairings of all things one morning on the grass verge further down the road. Perpetual 'couldn't care about anyone else' attitude as you say.

 

On the use of mobiles, we had this conversation yesterday at home here. My son works as a project manager in a very busy job -no, hectic job and his mobile is going 24/7. He drives endlessly some 60 miles to work each way most days of the week. He uses the hands free, but I have told him even that is a distraction.

 

A few days back the fuse in his ciggy lighter in the car went and his phone was at his side ringing whilst he was in the outside lane on the motorway and he look away from the road for a brief moment trying to scroll to see who was calling.

 

70 mph,possibly more, fast lane and when he looked down the traffic was moving fine, he looked back up the traffic had stopped and he was still hirteling along at 70mph +. He slammed on his breaks and managed to stop inches from the car in front and he said he had never been so scared in all his life - he was phsyically shaking like a leaf and he has now, as a result vowed to switch his telephone off when driving.

 

He is 37 yrs old, has a 5 yr old and a 2 yr old and he could have both killed himself and god only knows how many others for that brief damned phone call.One or two seconds more and he could have been dead. Thankfully, he's still with us to tell the tale, but that was the biggest lesson of his life and he said "I feel I have been getting away with using my phone while driving for years, now is the time to stop"

 

My wife was knocked off her cycle too by a guy pulling out of a side road while he was on the phone sending her over the bonnet of his car, she's never ridden again.

 

We've had enough warnings now and it maddens me every time I see anyone on the phone in their cars and there are hundreds of them doing it daily just around here. There should be extremely heavy fines for those caught on mobiles, not necessarily financial although that hurts, but bans on driving as this is driving with undue care and attention and potentially a killer, just as my son could have been or this fellow who hit my wife.

 

Banned, that'll wake people up to the idea they shouldn't do it.

 

A1

Edited May 17, 2013 by andrew1

[citizenB]

A wake up call for your Son indeed, Andrew !

 

My mobile is switched off 95% of the time - I take it with me if I leave the house, for emergencies. It is never switched on whilst I am driving.

 

I simply do not understand why people feel the need to be plugged into a mobile 24/7 !

[Desperate Daniella]

Your son is so lucky, Andrew. It's frightening to think what carnage might have been caused if he hadn't stopped in time. I was on the A3 coming in to Guildford last year just as you come into the built up bit as you come in from the South, and the traffic suddenly stopped and the girl in the outside lane was caught out in exactly the same way as your son. She skidded when she braked and almost slid sideways into me - she missed me by inches. The air was blue with what I shouted at her but of course she wouldn't look at me. She was only about 20 in an old banger so clearly couldn't have had a licence for very long. I'd seen her further back on her phone and I'd bet she was still on it when the traffic stopped simply because she was so slow to react. You see it every day and as far as I'm concerned these people are far more likely to cause accidents than someone going at 10 mph over the speed limit - not that I condone speeding, of course. I agree - using a mobile phone should be treated in the same way as drink driving, and more should be done about drug driving too.

 

I live in a quiet street, with pretty gardens and nice neighbours. Unfortunately we are on the way to a park and people returning from the park often leave us a present of their empty beer cans in our front gardens. When they finish drinking they drop the can in the street, or chuck it in one of the gardens. There is a rubbish bin about 60' away but the poor things can't be expected to carry an empty can all that way, can they?

[Desperate Daniella]

And I totally agree with CitiB: Why do people have to be attached to their mobiles 24/7? The number of people who step off the pavement with absolutely no awareness of cars coming towards them is absolutely terrifying. I'm already drilling into my daughter's head that they are complete fools, as well as pointing out all the litter droppers, spitters, and all the rest of them. She's pointing them out to me too and sounding suitably disgusted, so I think it's having an effect.