A nice crop of plastic bags

[Primrose]

Having just returned from a few days away over Easter, we were truly shocked to see the vast amount of plastic litter which seems to be spread everywhere along the sides of the motorway, and also down the country lanes. Virtually everywhere you can see torn plastic bags caught on twigs and shrubs. I can't imagine where it is all coming from. We certainly need another Keep Britain Tidy campaign. When we have such beautiful countryside it is truly criminal to litter it up in this way.

[Suzie]

Horrid isn't it! I assume it comes from landfil - getting blown around?

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Primrose, it always does look worse at this time of the year, when the grass grows up a little and the hedges and trees break bud it does help to hide most of it.

But i do get so annoyed by the amount of litter that is discarded everywhere, when returning home from the other end of the village after working, i normally pick up rubbish every time.

[glallotments]

This is something that really bugs me too. When we first went to France years ago I was shocked by the amount of litter in hedge bottoms etc but we now seem to have swapped over and we are far worse than anywhere else I visit.

When dustbins were emptied any dropped litter used to be picked up but not any longer - bin emptying day always sees and increase in litter - health and safety I suppose. Other plastic looks like discarded packaging presumably from industry.

We also have a fair share of discarded crisp packets. When teaching I remeber asking one child to pick up a crisp packet that he was walking over - he didn't drop it but I suggested it would be a good idea to pop it in the bin. His mother was furious that I had asked her son to pick up litter that he hadn't dropped!!!

One of the trees in our garden has a plastic bag flg at the top. We just can't reach it to remove it. It's been there a couple of years now! and irritates the life out of me! One part of our garden is forever needing tidying of litter that has blown in and become stuck in corners or under bushes.

NO landfill near us so we can't blame that in our case!

[Elaine]

I agree with you all too. Travelling by coach down to Torquay, we were amazed by the amount of rubbish we saw along the motorways...we also saw a few folk chucking their rubbish out of the car windows. It must come from somewhere so this may well be the answer to the roadside mess. Disgusting. I cannot see why some folk think it an inconvenience to put their rubbish in a bag, then wait to put it in a bin when they reach their destination.
Cheers.

[Colin_M]

..we were amazed by the amount of rubbish we saw along the motorways...we also saw a few folk chucking their rubbish out of the car windows.

Yes. Round our way the council have put up signs along the road reminding people not to throw litter from their cars - guess what you saw is happening quite widely now.

[glallotments]

Trouble is no-one takes any notice do they. I notice that around the roundabout near to us is particularly bad - motorists pull up and wait at the traffic lights and just throw litter from the window.

It doen't make any sense to me at all - all they need to do if leave their rubbish in the car until they get home and then bin it. No extra time - no real effort!

[Shallot Man]

Why not get the long term unemployed doing 4 hrs a week picking up litter.

[Suzie]

and if not the long-term unemployed then the 'naughty boys and girls'

[madasafish]

As most of the rubbish blown into our yard consists of ciggie packets, all smokers should be forced to clear up.

And crisp eaters...

[retropants]

Having just spent a month in OZ and NZ, I am absolutely appalled by the amount of rubbish just lying around here. It is quite a revolting sight. Down under, the streets are clean as a whistle, not a crisp wrapper in sight. Hardly the same can be said of my driveway. I think passers by must use front gardens as waste bins. We get crisp wrappers, fish and chip wrappings, beer cans, the lot. Absolutley disgusting.

[Tony Hague]

The thing that leaves me most gobsmacked is the dog owners who, whilst out in the contryside, carefully bag up their dogs turd in a plastic bag - only to leave it hanging from a tree, fence, gatepost etc. Do they think there are people employed to patrol the countryside collecting them ? It would be better not to bother than to leave it sealed up in plastic.

[pongeroon]

I'm with you on that one, Tony, one of biggest pet hates (no pun intended, but mildy funny. )

Our allotment is the one next to the fence, and the prevailing wind blows all the plastic pots, bits of disintegrating plastic sheeting, crisp packets, etc etc into it. We have a rubbish bag in the shed for it all. We also have a footpath running along the end, so we get the kids chucking their beer cans over.

Not all bad though, we have aquired a set of small plastic cloches through the same method

[Primrose]

We have a public footpath near us which is often used by the pupils of the local secondary school as a shortcut to the local Fish & Chip shop in their lunch hour. During term time it is continually littered with polystyrene chip trays and Coca Cola cans disgarded by pupils. During the holidays, it is usually blissfully litter free.
I'm thinking of collecting all the rubbish in a black bag, personally taking it down to the Headmaster's office and asking him to display it in Assembly to shame his pupils.
Or am I an old fashioned fuddy duddy who doesn't realise that morning school assemblies with headmasterial admolishments were probably abolished years ago?

[Redfox]

As far as I am aware most school assemblies only happen once a week, so I dont think that approach would work .
I live on a busy street and have a small wall next to the house and all the rubish from the street seems to collect here, I tend to go into the house everyday with hands full of plastic bottles and beer cans etc.
Not sure where it all comes from.
Jane