LitteractionThe blog site for www.LitterAction.org.uk

The litter picking done by the many LitterAction volunteer groups throughout the UK is highly commendable and makes a real difference to the cleanliness of our outdoor areas. The efforts of the litter pickers could be greatly helped by installing more litter bins. Whilst this would not fully eradicate litter it would greatly help the problem with less litter being dropped. There will always be a mix of attitudes towards littering and these can be split into three groups of people; those that never drop litter and always ensure that their litter goes in a bin regardless of whether there is one close by; those that make no effort to put their litter into the bins; and those that will dispose of their litter into a bin if there is a bin close by and it’s made easy for them to dispose of their. By providing sufficient numbers of litter bins it is this third group of people that will drop less litter. 48% of people admit to dropping litter (source: http://www.keepbritaintidy.org/KeyIssues/Litter/Default.aspx) and I believe many of these people would not drop litter if there were more bins for public use.

To be effective, litter bins need to be emptied regularly – there’s no worse sight than an overflowing litter bin. Councils can be contacted to empty litter bins should there be a council-owned litter bin that is full and needs emptying. I would encourage everyone to do this should they see a full council-owned litter bin. Please also do the same and contact the relevant organisation for any other overflowing bins in public areas as when bins overflow litter often gets blown around by the wind, creating a worse litter problem than if there been no bin present at all. Litter bins with fully open tops are the worst offenders for this. When purchasing an outdoor bin where there is a possibility that it could overflow, choose a litter bin with a lid to minimise this problem.

There is a broad range of different types of litter bins available to meet different needs. Traditional style litter bins that have a modern construction are a popular choice. Their aesthetically pleasing design combined with a high density polyethylene construction allows traditional appearances to be retained whilst keeping costs low and providing a much longer usable life. Most new litter bins also come with ‘TidyMan’ logo printed on them, this universally recognised symbol provides a clear visual reminder to put litter in the bin.

By Lee Newell from ESE Direct, a UK-based supplier of litter bins

In our ‘throw away’ society, some people drop their litter on the ground even though a council rubbish bin might be only inches away. I joined the Lee Litteraction group to help remedy this situation and work towards an environment that we can all be proud of – when I see how clean other countries are it almost makes me feel ashamed of our streets.

I personally look after my local park, children’s playground and surrounding roads. Every citizen needs to be morally responsible – sadly not all children appear to be taught this important lesson; my grandchildren wouldn’t dream of chucking their rubbish on the ground. The most satisfying feeling of being a grandparent is seeing the values you put into your children being passed on to the next generation. A lot of young people seem unaware of the consequences of littering with regard to biodegrading times and the effect on wildlife.

Until littering is deemed socially unacceptable (as well as illegal) by the mass population we will always need volunteers to help keep our roads, open spaces and beaches clean and to fight the litter louts.

I find the work quite therapeutic – I once came home after a 2 hour pick after suggesting I might return in half that time, also if you think you will fill 1 bag you will probably fill 2 or more! I light-heatedly call it ‘my   community service without doing the crime’. Of course you have to be careful what and how you pick up the rubbish – safety has to be the primary concern.

I was recently successful in getting a bin placed on a local road where none existed before – at least it negates the excuse that there “were no bins around”.

We advertise events such as beach cleans on the internet, church newsletters and magazines and have tried to make businesses more pro-active by giving them free pickers and encouraging them to sponsor a bin. This dialogue has resulted in a fast-food company allowing some of their employees to swell our ranks on the last 2 beach cleans. We accept any help offered !

The neighbourhood beat PCSO [Police Community Support Officer] has encouraged the nearby primary school to support us – a recent cleanup brought in 20 young helpers. This is the ideal age to educate…. I feel councils need to do more to teach the kids and also highlight the benefits of recycling. Happily out efforts have been acknowledged by the Mayor, the Council and the general public – it’s gratifying that our contribution has helped to improve our environment. A few months ago I watched a lad open a chocolate bar and immediately throw the wrapper on the ground. I asked him how he thought the wrapper might get into the bin (which was only 10 yards away). To his credit he picked up the wrapper and put it in the bin, after which I thanked him. Conversely, I overheard a father telling his son that littering “kept a council worker employed” ! How do you deal with an attitude like that ?

In some states of America littering penalties are 1,000 dollars (approximately £640). Should we increase our fixed penalty from the current £80 – would this action have the desired effect ? In the US I see they advertise which groups have kept the highway clean – should we follow suit?

My pet hate is bagged dog waste thrown in the bushes. It’s the owners that are irresponsible, not the dogs; how on earth do they expect these items to decompose?

I recently cleared 2 local lanes near my golf club – a session which lasted over two and a half hours resulted in a bag full of general rubbish and another containing 158 cans which are now in my recycling wheelie bin – the only downside was that my wife wasn’t too happy I’d been out so long !

I realise that this work is an uphill struggle but anything that helps improve the look of our town has to be a success in itself. It seems to me that the key aspects are ATTITUDE and ACCEPTANCE.

David Ede (Lee Litteraction)

When I talk to people, observe people, read articles or watch documentaries regarding litter and climate change to me they are intrinsically linked and, unless any government or local council does not understand this, I believe we will never achieve the goals most of us want.

Recently, I was watching a programme on BBC1 Tuesday 19 Feb called “Litter Wars”. One courageous woman was trying to keep her town and area clean by politely telling people that when they drop litter it was the wrong thing to do. The documentary went on to show some other people who were calling her a busybody and should not be telling people what to do. I remember when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister she was so appalled at the amount of rubbish she had seen travelling back from Heathrow to Downing Streetthat she headed a campaign against litter. Our leader was actually showing us how to pick the stuff up all neatly displayed in a beautiful Londonpark. Great I thought, this is the head of the country against litter, a change is gonna come. Well no, I cannot say it has got any worse but, I can say, there has certainly been no revolutionary change – litter as normal so to speak.

There are countless voluntary litter pick groups, organisations and endless campaigns all aimed at getting us to keep our environment clean of rubbish, but who is the target audience for these well meaning campaigns? Is it the person seen on the same documentary proudly extolling his freedom to flick his cigarette butt wherever he wants to ? I think not. Or the people who think that telling a fellow citizen that it is wrong to discard their waste in the street, again, I think not. I believe the feckless, ignorant and the lazy is the target audience but they are not the sort of people to be swayed by cosy articles of well meaning folk who continually clean up after them. 

Is there any hope? Well there are 15 councils who have in my opinion decided to really tackle the issue and employ a company called “Xfor”. To date they have issued nearly 64,000 tickets making themselves £45 for each fine along the way. At last a positive move, I embrace this approach but again there have been complaints about the wardens being overzealous or ignoring pleas of ”it was only a cotton bud”. It is obvious that some people have no sense of pride within our communities. They do not notice or care about the litter and graffiti that surrounds them or the seas we pollute, for them global warming is just a nice warm fire. Politicians love to say how much they support the prevention of climate change but what is the point? We could save millions of pounds if we just do what we are supposed to do, dispose of all waste in the correct manner – politicians, just make it happen? 

I also caught part of a programme shown on BBC2 News Night, another snap shot of the problem we are facing. It featured the results of plastic found inSouthamptonwater after a small drone had been dragged for about 10 minutes. Yes, the amounts were small but it was explained how long the environment takes to break plastics down, as opposed to other types of litter. The attention was then turned to the people who manufacture plastic for our drink bottles etc. As the spokesperson pointed out, there is nothing wrong with plastic, we want it back, we want to recycle it and so we can use it again. He did not spell out the obvious but I will – it is people who are polluting the sea and the planet, we are the polluters whether it is a drink can, cigarette filter or industrial waste – it is all gut-retching stuff that does not belong in our seas.

 When I moved toGosportjust over a year ago, I joined the local community group, I litter picked, I also started a local litterpick group and I regularly clean up my own area. I have even reported people for throwing a television into the nearby lake - this involved the police and the local MP. I have hauled items out of the lake, I have been doing what I can when I can. However, I have now reached the point that I am going into semi retirement regarding litter action. I am not doing more than my own immediate area unless I see some form of government, big or small, that will tackle the problem head on. Namely against the relatively small amount of people who are continually creating the rubbish we have to live within our society.  

Just a final note, as I look out of my window I can see a discarded plastic bottle on the grass verge – part of the area that I had cleaned up yesterday ..

Richard Gowen

Someone asked me recently why we bother spending time litter picking. ‘What makes you want to pick up other peoples’ litter? It will all be back before you know it. Why bother’?

There are times when I wonder why we DO bother! And what is it that motivates us to go out armed with sacks and litter pickup sticks, to march down the road collecting cans, bottles, cigarette packets, fast food packaging, half eaten take away meals loosely wrapped in the abundant packaging – tray, sachets, paper cup and on occasion all helpfully contained within the bag it was bought in in the first place. Crisp packets, chocolate bar wrappers, sets of drinks cans strewn over a few metres, plus the plastic collar that held them together a few strides later. The list is endless! It doesn’t deter us though. In fact it actually encourages us to keep on ‘picking’!

The whole thing about litter picking for me and my husband, grandly known as the Appleby Litter Pickers, is the fact that we CHOOSE to litter pick. And we do it for a number of reasons.

Number one is ‘because we can’! No one forces us to go out. No one dictates when we will litter pick. We do it when WE want to, when WE feel like it. It works for us!

Secondly, we do it for the exercise! We keep three sets of roadside verges leading out our village tidy, roughly covering three miles in each direction. We can easily maintain each stretch in a couple of hours following the initial ‘deep clean’ we performed a couple of years ago. We park at one end, march along at a brisk pace, grabbing litter without a pause. We hop into our pickup truck parked ready at the other end and then drive back, picking up the neatly tied bags as we go. Job done! Home for a mid morning coffee, leaving the day free for our ‘jobs’!

Second equal, we do it to show, quite simply, that it can be done! Even a small litterpicking group of just two can make a difference! We have to drive those routes regularly and so we benefit from the improved visual amenity. It really irritates us when we drive along roads and have to look at litter bestrewn verges, resembling overspill from an open landfill site!

There are times when we don’t feel like going out litter picking at all. When there are other jobs needing doing; the garden requiring our attention, the cars needing a wash, or when we fancy going out cycling. And in our minds it just doesn’t matter! The litter will still be there when we DO want to go pick it up and something always spurs into action.

I was thinking about this when that friend asked me what drives us to do it.

Last weekend it was someone I heard on the radio saying he decided he could make a difference to Mt Snowdon! He walks up there with his sacks collecting discarded litter. He too does it because he can make a difference. I thought, ‘Well, if he cares enough to tackle a mountain, surely I can manage Ermine Street’, and off we went again!

A few weeks ago another friend telephoned bemoaning the litter on the lane behind her house. I suggested she simply nip out with a bag and gloves and sort it out. She declined saying she would feel daft!!!!! Haha! But she has now agreed to pop out with a bag every now and then. Out we went and we didn’t feel remotely daft! The litter was causing a problem, twenty minutes later, it was gone! No big issue. Hopefully she realised just how easy it was and will now keep it tidy for herself.

I think people are driven to litter pick for diverse reasons. Once you find a way that fits in with your lifestyle you will always feel like doing it. Yes, there will be times when you don’t want to bother, but inevitably when the time is right, something WILL spur you back into action. If anyone is thinking about giving up altogether, I would say to them not to think of it as being forever, just that you feel like a break.  That is why how we do it works for us, we are not forced to go at a set time, in fact sometimes when we get up we don’t expect to go out at all, then the day progresses and we will look at one another and say, ‘are we going then’! I wish I could pinpoint exactly what it is that makes us say that!

The litter isn’t going anywhere! Each and every bit of litter only needs to be picked up once, and above all, it means you care enough to do something positive.

Anita Cross

http://www.litteraction.org.uk/appleby-litter-pickers-

It’s my favourite day of December, apart from the obvious of course. Wonder how many bags we’ll get today. I hope Number 11 has got a replacement blue bin. Last week there was food all over the road.

 I did mention we’re going for tea and cake after didn’t I? Yes, I sent emails and texts and phoned Rosemary and Bill. Reckon I’ll have enough money in our collection pot for at least six of us. Still got a bit left from that £20 I found on the pavement last year.

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“Come on fellas, here comes the blue bin. The handle’s still broken. I’ll knock it over and we can get to that fish I can smell. Oh here we go. Dust carts coming up the road now. Best get out of the way don’t want to end up as a flat pack meal for carrion along with that pile of mushy chips.”

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“Did you watch I’m a Celebrity final at the weekend Dave?”

“Yeah Steve, what a load of rubbish!”

“Foxes been out again.”

“Yep…wish we ’ad time to pick this lot up. We’ll get the blame, you know.”

“I know. We don’t have time, there’s snow on the way and anyway we’re not paid for picking up what’s on the road, only for emptying the bins.”

“In three weeks we’ll have the turkey carcasses to deal with. Don’t you just love Christmas?”

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If Bill comes today, he can take the barrow and I’ll wheel the shopping trolley. Should have taken it last month. Can’t believe somebody dumped a boiler part. It weighed a ton.

 Hope I can persuade them to wear the Stop the Drop hi-vis jackets especially as it looks like snow. We need some retractable litter pickers. These ones we bought with the money from the council are great but too big to cart about for two hours.

 Must contact the council about these broken ones. Paul said they wouldn’t be a problem to replace and next time I’m in their offices I’ll get some pink sacks.

 Got to apply for another Tesco Clubcard, now I’ve read about Can Man on the Litter Action blog. I could put the money towards more equipment. I hope the workman replaced the bins along the new pathway. It took so long to get them. That reminds me I must write to David. If he hadn’t got involved we’d probably still be waiting for them. I’ll send him next year’s task dates. I know his diary is probably full already-an MP’s work is never done, but he may have a Wednesday morning free.

Wonder if Councillor James will come out today. Will ask him to promote our next task day in his newsletter. Thanks to his article last December we got another volunteer.  

 Shame the Waitrose ladies couldn’t make it. We always have lovely weather when they come out and they have such a good time. Makes a change from stacking shelves I guess. I’ll ask Karen to write a bit for our next newsletter and I’ll offer to do an update for the Waitrose Chronicle with another photo. I must get the big tidy up certificates done for the volunteers and some ideas for our fifth anniversary next March.

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“Thanks everyone for coming out on this wintry day. I’ll just phone the council and tell them we’ve finished our litter pick then we can go for tea and cake. That makes a total of 76 bags for 2012. I don’t like to say well done, because it means the more bags we get the more litter there is but well done us and thanks for all your help this year.”

http://www.litteraction.org.uk/prittle-brook-community-group

Plastic bag monsters descend on Birmingham

We at Lush are very excited to join the coalition for the Break the Bag Habit campaign. It is an issue we have tackled in Lush shops globally with our Bag Monster campaigns in the past, in promoting ‘naked’ products and reducing packaging throughout the business.

At the moment, we offer compostable paper bags made from 100% recycled post-consumer waste and also encourage customers to stow products in their own bags or use a canvas one as an alternative to plastics. The campaign’s focus on a charge fits with our Lush shops experiences in Wales and Ireland, so we are fully aware of the positive impact it could make in England!

Last week, some 90 Lush shops took part in the Break the Bag Habit campaign. Up and down the country, staff were encouraging customers to feed our bag monster bins, support a 5p charge for single-use bags in England and get active in telling the Treasury why it needs to act on this issue.

The biggest campaigning moment so far was travelling to Birmingham and coordinating some 25 Lush bag monsters to descend on the Conservative party conference. Here we met Zac Goldsmith and shared the results of our in-store consultation – with 80% of the 70,000 customers in favour of a 5p charge. As someone attending the day, it was fantastic to see the reactions of passers-by to our huge rustling bag monsters; people were instantly shocked and awed by so much walking waste. The poor council’s litter collector looked very relieved to see us walk on by without dropping anything along the way.

Around the country we also had visits from several other MPs including Caroline Lucas, who met Lush staff in Brighton and heard directly how her constituents felt about the bag problem. We hope the campaign is successful and will be ready to convince the Treasury of its merits again just before the Autumn statement in December.

So  in October 2010, i decided to undertake the challenge of collecting and removing  aluminium drinks cans from the streets of where i live and putting them into the recycling machine at a Tesco store where they have a recycling centre. After doing some research i found the machine gives 1 point for every 2 aluminium drinks cans you put into the machine.

As the weeks went past i found myself spending more and more time going out and collecting cans, there never seemed to be a shortage in the area, and the total amount that i had collected went up and up.

During one evening whilst out and about an off duty Leicester Mercury reporter saw me working away collecting cans, a story was reported in our local paper about my efforts, and to this day i have become nicknamed ‘Can Man’ - partly because of my can recycling but also because of my ‘Can Do’ approach to my efforts. I’ve had a lot of press coverage about my recycling and my work, and also a lot of good responses from members of the public about the difference i make while out and about. This helps me push on further and gives me the determination to make it more of  a success.

My work was recently recognised in the way of a National award from Keep Britain Tidy, in which i was awarded the ‘Local Environment Champion Of The Year 2012′. It’s taken a lot of hard work and can collecting to get recognised for my work, currently nearly 35,000 cans have been put back into the system for recycling, and more importantly taken off the streets, making the place look nicer and cleaner.
I’ve also set up my own website www.canman.org.uk to promote my work and to show what can be done, I highlight my work on my adaptable wheelie bin and also my bike and trailer from which was kindly donated by Bikes4All. I advertise the total i have recycled as i walk and bike around.

The work i have done has also caught the eye of the City Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, and a public event is being staged when i reach the 50,000th can sometime later in the year.

I want to highlight what can be done and i’d like to expand my work with a sponsor. I think it just goes to show what can be done. Recycling rates would be increased dramatically if other items were incentivised like glass for example, and a return of the bottle back scheme, then we could have a new person called the ‘Bottle Man!’

Adrian Ablett

Mike Grant takes a different approach to fighting litter

Like you all I detest litter. It seems to be everywhere. Endemic road side rubbish is a particular eyesore that constantly irritates me. Whilst I admire and respect the excellent work that many supporters of Litter Action do in organising groups to pick up litter in their spare time I am not a member of a group. However at times I have been driven out of sheer frustration to litter pick areas close to home, the North Harbour beaches of Eastbourne and a recreational green in Northiam, a village in East Sussex where I previously lived, regularly trashed by teenagers drinking and dumping the detritus of their take away dinners.

Although volunteer litter picking has a great benefit in tidying many blighted environments I do have a fundamental issue with volunteerism. A one off scour does not provide a permanent solution and it cannot be deployed in certain environments such as major highways or rail tracks. However more importantly it abrogates the responsibility under law that a duty body such as the local council or a highways agency has to do the job. If the work of litter picking is done for them there is little need or incentive for the duty body or land owner to provide a service. I accept of course they don’t need much excuse here – local authorities and highways agencies are shockingly insensitive to the mess that is allowed to accumulate in their patch, which then becomes a permanent visual monument to their lack of care. The financial austerity cannot be used as an excuse in my view, although it will be offered. Prior to the 2008 banking crisis and subsequent recession the commitment to and provision of  litter picking services was no better despite the inflation busting council tax rises that we incurred year on year under Labour’s watch.

Over recent years I have taken a different approach to fighting litter other than picking it up. Back to my time in Northiam, after regularly removing rubbish from the public green outside my house, I became fed up with paying council tax and not getting a service, doing the work others should be. This has been a fundamental issue that has shaped my thinking. We are familar with the phrase, “No taxation without representation,” a 1750s slogan to reflect a grievance that contributed to the American War of Independence. Today I think the equivalent should be, “No taxation without service.” We all complain if a company takes our money and provides a shoddy or non existent service or product, so why not complain to a local authority that we pay tax to about a failure to remove litter?

The green was managed by the Parish Council but when I raised the issue of the litter problem, all I received was excuses, a no can do attitude and the dubious advice that I should photograph the teenagers dropping litter and report it to the police. Right. Who are you kidding? That’s a sure fire way of being accused of being a paedophile. Subsequently I learned the green was held on a lease by the Parish Council with the District Council as the freeholder. On inspection of  the lease I discovered that it contained a clause that it had to be kept in a clean and tidy condition. I subsequently brought the matter to the attention of the District Council solicitor who concurred and forced the Parish Council to find and pay for a litter picker. After a while he left the village and I took over the job and was paid £50 p.m. for my efforts to tidy the green and a separate playing field. I undertook the work for several years with great satisfaction that the job was done properly; I enjoyed good exercise and fresh air, whilst walking the dog – and was happy in the knowledge I was getting an effective rebate on my Council Tax.

A recent move to Eastbourne has brought new issues with litter. The town centre streets and beaches are kept immaculately clean but Eastbourne has its dirty little corners. The North Harbour beaches, at the edge of town abut private developments of flats and a promenade. It is a beautiful area to live, I am a minute’s walk from uncrowded and uncommercial beaches with a back drop of a old Martello Tower and a sweep of the bay to Hastings. However the beaches are blighted with litter especially dog poo bagged up and dumped by rocks, between groynes and by the Martello Tower. The problem is endemic in Sovereign Harbour, the largest residential and leisure harbour in northern Europe. In one sense it is odd that dog owners bother to carry bags with them, pick up the pooh but then dump it. Then again there are simply no litter bins along the promenade or on the beaches which stretch for just under a mile. The miscreants are not entirely irresponsible – some people are happy to walk around carrying the unsightly and smelly bagged remains of their dogs’ dinners over a long distance to find a bin elsewhere, others are not. I don’t condone it but I understand it.

The council’s response was to issue an well intentioned but ineffective “Dog Poo Fairy” campaign, leaflets and posters to remind the culprits there is no magical person there to remove the bags. I think they have completely missed the point, aside from the fact the irresponsible don’t read these things or change their behaviour, that litter on the ground has to be removed.

And there’s the rub of it, the Harbour suffers from multiple ownerships and responsibilities. The management companies of the North Harbour developments are responsible for the beaches from the high water mark, the Environment Agency from there to the waterline. In reality there was no litter picking. This is a perfect storm for rubbish – no bins and no litter picking. Well to cut a long story short I complained to various people including the management company of my development, to whom I pay a service charge and also found an ally in a local councillor. The management company cleared up litter in their section and now Eastbourne Borough Council have adopted the beaches and are providing a proper litter picking service. The beaches are now much cleaner although promised bins have yet to be delivered.

I’ve rambled on enough now but to close I have also had some success in complaining about roadside litter. I would recommend using the online “Report a Fault” schemes run by local authorities and their highways departments and failing action to telephone complaints to the relevant cleansing department. One of the most satisfying results was the threat of a Litter Abatement Order some years ago on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council about the state of the A21 which resulted in a major clear up. Unfortunately indifference returns, the same areas become blighted again and repeated action is required. Sometimes I can’t be bothered to keep at it and of course life has to be lived. However I am satisfied a Victor Meldrew spirit and a different approach to litter action other than picking it up has achieved something positive over the years and hope others will take up the fight to badger local authorities, highways agencies and other duty bodies to get their finger out and deliver the service we are all taxes paying for. It does not require anything or anyone special. We can all make a difference by complaining to the right people.

Mike Grant