h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It seems that the amount of litter dropped on Britain's beaches has increased 93% over the last few years. The media depict an awful scene of garbage strewn all over the beaches and urge us all to consider our actions.

I've no problem with that, but why stop at beaches? Many cities and towns are veritable cess-pits. It's not the council's fault, but the fault of those gits that drop litter.

Why can one town be immaculate and the next be a health hazard? Is punishing offenders an effective solution or is there an underlying reason that needs to be addressed?

I don't have any answers but I do agree: I remember my excitement when I first learnt my American fiancee (then girlfriend) was coming to the U.K to visit - and was suddenly awoken to just how messy everything was - it was heartbreaking.

I don't suppose the lack of bins in public places helps. I go without breakfast if I'm gettinbg a train simply because there's nowhere to put my food wrappers or drinks containers. It's not very helpful.

Wasn't that a legacy of IRA bombings or am I mistaken?

If so, since with the notable exception of the 2005 suicide attacks in London, mainland bombs in the UK are thankfully consigned to the past - can we have our litter bins back please?

Bins on train platforms around here didn't disappear until *after* the July Jihad Tube Bombings...

People dump litter because they are lazy, antisocial and know someone else will have to deal with.

Bins aren't an automatic solution - they tend to attract a halo of litter around them, whereas if there are no bins then people (ought to) take their litter home.

Well I find a bin or take my litter home
A lot of people just don't bother
See a lot of stuff just dumped by roadsides that the local council tip would accept (their deplorable record on recycling rather than just sticking it in a landfill is another issue)
Even in areas like city centres with plenty of bins still see loads of rubbish just chucked on the ground especially around fast food outlets
Its a personal responsibility thing and that doesn't seem to exist anymore

But it's the fact that some towns manage to be exceptionally clean whilst others don't that vexes me. Is it civic pride? Are there socio-economic factors?

Well Cardiff spends a lot of money keeping the city centre clean and attractive
The job they do after an international at the Millenium Stadium is amazing
A lot of residents complain that residential areas and commercial areas outside the centre of Cardiff don't get the same attention
So its probably a matter of budgets and priorities that accounts for the difference between towns but personally I'd rather see more money spent on enforcement and education to discourage littering and dumping of rubbish. Cheaper in the long run if we taught people to respect their environment I'd argue

Where I live there is, thankfully, very little litter. Even though we have a large teenage population, several schools and a large college nearby. On the odd occasion I find litter* (tin cans, ciggie packets, mainly) I pick them up and take them to nearest bin (unless I'm on my way home and I'll put them in my -many- recycling bags/boxes). I'm not the only one round here that does that, I've seen several people over the last two years doing the same thing. We *are* proud of where we live, and want to keep it clean and tidy.

I'm a bugger for recycling, and since I've found a tin foil recycling place

*Many years ago I used to work for Keep Britain Tidy, litter has always annoyed me (lazy, selfish, s)- I even have a small plastic bag in my pocket for my ciggie dimps

Its because capitalism has made it possible.

We got to the beach more because we can afford it in terms of time off and transport.

We buy more stuff. When i were a lad buy a bottle of pop though hardly ranking next to eating caviar buying a bottle of pop was a bit of an extravagance. Now most kids can buy a couple of bottles a day out of their pocket money. Whereas I used to collect empty bottles so I could claim the return money.

Packaging is so affordable that many products now come in fancy two and three part wrappers eg Jaffa cakes. This all adds tothe ammount of litter you see. There are more fast food outlets selling packaged food in disposabvle wrappers. I see children very rarely now with resuable plastic lunch baxes for lunch or food on trips.

We could tax such things but that's far too sensible an answer why should the use of environmetally damaging products be stymied or the use and producers be made to pay for the job of removing their environmental cost. That idea is as dumb as the ideas of the lying communists and tree huggers who say the frivilous use of transport should be punitively taxed. Just remeber what Churchil said we shall pollute them on the beaches one the sea and in the air...these are the freedoms they fought a war for us to have.

one love

Our street, which is pretty central town centre location, food shops, takeaways, pubs, cafes etc, used to be a nice clean street four or so years ago. Then the council put up the rates and symultainiously stopped having road sweeps in the summer, now the place is an absolute tip. The shop owners don't sweep up properly; they just brush it in front of the neighbouring shop, or as seems more frequently the case, into the front of my door. Then the council had another great idea; recycling, with open topped boxes for things such as paper, which, strnagely often blows out of the boxes and on to the street, or get tipped up by drunken chavs wondering back from city centre pubs. The amount of cigarette buts on the ground is disgusting (and yets I'm a smoker myself), I guesss a lot of which come from the underaged drinkers who loiter outside the pub a few doors away, I can't wait for the smoking ban as that will mean yet even more cigarette butts on the pavements. At least we don't have a major problem round here with dog mess on the pavements, when back at my Fathers its often an impossible task to walk in a straight line on the pavements for the need to swerve and turn to dodge the piles of dog shit on the paths... Yet there is a distinct lack of dustbins, and dustbins for people to put scooped up dog mess in, in both areas.. a yearly culling of chavs would probably help a lot.

"Its because capitalism has made it possible."

Are you seriously saying that we can't have capitalism without mess? How come Munich manages to stay clean with Germany's market economy? If I visit a country with a derigist economy will I find no litter or pollution? Does govenment control of the shops stop me dropping litter?

Might I suggest that the problem is with people and their attitudes, not what sort of system they buy their goods under?

Still better than it was 200 years ago.

*Sits firmly with the "too much cleanliness is why people get sick so easliy" camp.*

Are you seriously saying that we can't have capitalism without mess?

Nothing of the sort, howeverI do seriously suggest that you dont have a clue what Im talking about os I'll make it easy for you to understand.

If I say that the rise in obesity is linked to more fat drenched food being easily available. Im not saying we cant have fried foods without getting fat but that but having lots of chips on your plate makes it possible for you to have lots of chips in your gob, calories in your stomach and so on and so forth.

That people throw their packaging on the beaches so muchis made possible by the run away "success" of the capitalist system we live in where lack of intervention does not address the wider effects of lots of people being willing but unwitting cogs in the capitalist machine that is currently consuming and ollutuing the planet.

Moreover SWL has higlighted the *increase*. People have always littered the streets and rural spots, but we can afford to do it more now than we ever could.

Im not saying individual mindset has nothing to do with it. It has got loads to do with it but if you drop the crusts from a packed lunch and take your luch box home as opposed to dropping the packaging they use for "McDonalds "food" there is a huge difference.

one love

If people don't have a clue what you're talking about you might like to question if you are using the right words.

I remember being 12 years old and feeling totally disgusted when I saw my father toss his empty cig packet on the street - where on earth did I get that from? Not from him, obviously. But to me it has just always seemed wrong to litter.

Blicky is right that we have a lot more 'throw away' packaging crap nowadays. I also remember bringing soft drink bottles back to the shop as we would get a 5-cent refund towards the next bottle we bought. And often we would scout around and collect bottles to use for buying sweets.

Likewise you used to get a refund for returned beer bottles in Canada - I don't know if they still do this. So people would always lug back a 24-case of empty bottles to get a discount on their next one.

<> (blicky)

Not sure exactly what you mean by this. Do you mean we can afford to because we can buy more stuff with throw-away packaging or that we feel 'affluent enough' to be sure that someone else is going to clean up our mess?

In any case, I still find it disgusting when I see anyone throw anything on the ground rather than look for a bin. A few years ago I was at a beach in southern Spain and the family next to us was having quite a huge meal ... afterwards they actually just buried their garbage under a bit of sand! I was so upset that my friend had to stop me from going over and telling them off. I mean, there were bins within eyesight from where we were. Grrr.

I am likewise incensed when I see people not pick up and dispose of the huge steaming piles of shit left by their dogs ... and the other day I came across a human idiot peeing against the side of building near my house. Meanwhile, there are countless bars on that street that all have toilets available to the public. He looked up somewhat embarrassed as I passed and I gave him The Ray™ and told him he was a total pig. I mean, honestly ...

az

Dog shit is 1 of the few encouraging signs (or lack of) in the Uk.
When I was growing up it used to be everywhere. It was acceptable to take your dog for a walk and have it do its business on the pavement or in the park. Happily that attitude has changed

<>

I wish someone would tell the dog owners of Swindon that... it's quite common to see the stuff on the pavement when there's a proper disposal bin only six feet away.

One of the things that really annoys me about people not clearing up after their dogs is that then all dog owners tend to get tarred with the same brush. I carry scented nappy bags as a matter of course, they fit in the back pocket of my jeans so it's no inconvenience, and I ALWAYS take it home (mind you, it's easy for me cos my little terror tends to prefer home turf so usually only wees when we're out!).

Deb