Dirty Scruffy Nation?

[bluebell]

getting worse where i live? maybe my problem is ive lived in my village to long? we like to keep our farm neat and tidy, its not just about money , money to plants trees, i plant trees because i like them, i pick up rubbish and keep the verges trimmed because i like it tidy, but the rubbish, including dog poo in bags gets worse most of this is from people in the village, behind their electric gates, im all right jack? talk about the environment ? noone cares here rubbish tipped in river, signs still in the river? last insult yesterday utilty company was installing new cable, i see this morning they have left all their rubbish including bits of cable in my field?

 

[thesilentone]

getting worse where i live? maybe my problem is ive lived in my village to long? we like to keep our farm neat and tidy, its not just about money , money to plants trees, i plant trees because i like them, i pick up rubbish and keep the verges trimmed because i like it tidy, but the rubbish, including dog poo in bags gets worse most of this is from people in the village, behind their electric gates, im all right jack? talk about the environment ? noone cares here rubbish tipped in river, signs still in the river? last insult yesterday utilty company was installing new cable, i see this morning they have left all their rubbish including bits of cable in my field?

I agree, however the problem is much deeper. Our local Council has now abandoned many local roads, some of which are now no better than tracks. Our Council Tax money is wasted on red-tape, pension black holes, consultants and ill advised court cases. We have a political Mexican Stand Off which see's rural dwellers as those that suffer the most. The normal route of redress is via the Parish Council, who in most cases are at best useless. So, try the local Councillor and you will get a standard response about lack of budgets, so go to the top and try the local MP. When (and if) you get an answer, they will ' refer ' it to whomever is the current Cabinet MP who is responsible, and eventually in a couple of months, yet another pc answer, nett result NOWT !!

The time for change in Rurual areas is here, where local communities are delegated their fair share of the Councils budget to cut roadsides, clear ditches, pick litter, keep run-offs clear etc, etc etc.

Rural people are getting fed up of paying high council tax and getting little in return.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

last insult yesterday utility company was installing new cable, i see this morning they have left all their rubbish including bits of cable in my field?

I would be naming & shaming them on social media. These big companies take their CSR very seriously, but their subcontractors just want to get the job done as cheaply as possible.

 

[Woolless]

I would be naming & shaming them on social media. These big companies take their CSR very seriously, but their subcontractors just want to get the job done as cheaply as possible.

And/or complaining to them directly with photographic evidence.

 

[matthew]

And/or complaining to them directly with photographic evidence.

... and request to clear it, or an invoice for your own labour.

We had the best solution. A local scroat was clearing garden shrubs for cash, and as he hadn’t got any form of license to tip, was dropping all his clippings along the verges. Including ours.
He was seen doing this, and took off like a rocket, clutching one bunch of twigs and with his trailer bouncing behind his car. He didn’t return home that night to be told to clear it responsibly, so at daylight the next morning, one of our tractors removed the detritus with a 6’ silage grab and dropped it in his driveway. ??

We didn’t hear any more, and the verges are clear. ?? Return to sender?

 

[Chasingmytail]

Its the worst I have ever seen on the road verges here its pilled up seeing that so many so they cant afford to live they can consume so many bottles of fizzy drink and confectionery. Its for miles along the busy lane.

But I have to say farmers are still as dirty and the litter picks I do I am pulling up sileage bags constantly driven over and breaking up. Over the way there is lick buckets, plastic etc all the fields and gateways . There are gateways full of domestic rubbish but they are never cleared farmers just drive over it - Honestly 10 mins of a short litter pick wont kill some of them to clean it up whats with the attitude of its not my problem.

Its the voluntary groups that are making the effort here but its the same people but they cant do every road/area and the council cant physically please every one.

What I cant understand is some houses along the lane have tons of rubbish along their entrance FFS who wants their house entrance smothered in litter? There is such an attitude in this country little pride in surroundings. Shocking for my boys future.

 

[Chasingmytail]

Some nice houses along this lane and pretty comfortable retired people who pass this every day. There are supermarket bags thrown out of vehicles which break open the rubbish is strewn all along. Does no one else think they should action this? Its a total embarrassment and seeing that our LA want to promote tourism they need to get some labour (probation etc)

 

[down n'dirty]

Its the worst I have ever seen on the road verges here its pilled up seeing that so many so they cant afford to live they can consume so many bottles of fizzy drink and confectionery. Its for miles along the busy lane.

But I have to say farmers are still as dirty and the litter picks I do I am pulling up sileage bags constantly driven over and breaking up. Over the way there is lick buckets, plastic etc all the fields and gateways . There are gateways full of domestic rubbish but they are never cleared farmers just drive over it - Honestly 10 mins of a short litter pick wont kill some of them to clean it up whats with the attitude of its not my problem.

Its the voluntary groups that are making the effort here but its the same people but they cant do every road/area and the council cant physically please every one.

What I cant understand is some houses along the lane have tons of rubbish along their entrance FFS who wants their house entrance smothered in litter? There is such an attitude in this country little pride in surroundings. Shocking for my boys future.

Absolutely agree-people seem to have no regard for their surroundings. Just drove into Bristol via M32. The roundabout at Fulton is a disgrace, as are most of the roadside verges. What visitors must think of us god only knows!

 

[honeyend]

Some nice houses along this lane and pretty comfortable retired people who pass this every day. There are supermarket bags thrown out of vehicles which break open the rubbish is strewn all along. Does no one else think they should action this? Its a total embarrassment and seeing that our LA want to promote tourism they need to get some labour (probation etc)

I had a long discussion on another forum about this, because somone had placed rubbish in her bin. I would love it if I had a bin and thought people would actually put it in rather than stew it a long the verges, where I have to pick it up and put in the bin myself.
Workmen seem the worst for tidying out their van and putting their pack up neatly in a plastic bag and then throwing it out the window. The foxes then drag it into the field for a rummage. We had one set of workmen one of which would daily empty his car into my yard, the skip being about 10 feet away.

 

[SRRC]

It may be bad here but I have been across several middle east countries and they are appalling. On a MTB trip across Jordan we stopped for a picnic at a "beauty spot" out in the countryside, I don't exaggerate when I say the litter was ankle deep. It wasn't just there but everywhere.
Saudi, Egypt and much of Africa are much the same. The locals just don't seem to see it, maybe it's the same with the examples given above.
As an aside, many of the most emotive photos of wildlife tangled in plastic come from these areas. It's not the use of plastic that is the real issue, it's the disposal. Some of what I saw will end up in the ocean.

 

[Chasingmytail]

I had a long discussion on another forum about this, because somone had placed rubbish in her bin. I would love it if I had a bin and thought people would actually put it in rather than stew it a long the verges, where I have to pick it up and put in the bin myself.
Workmen seem the worst for tidying out their van and putting their pack up neatly in a plastic bag and then throwing it out the window. The foxes then drag it into the field for a rummage. We had one set of workmen one of which would daily empty his car into my yard, the skip being about 10 feet away.

Yes open van windows and trailers full of lunch wrapper easily blow out. How any business thinks it OK to have the dashboard covered in paper and lunch wrappers need to sort out their professionalism.

I also think that since petrol stations have been doing more 'food on the go' there seems to be a link with that too. These bags (Coop etc) are packed full of sandwich packs, crisps, wrappers and fizzy drinks. Tie the bag up and throw it out.

 

[Suffolk boy]

I think there's a real disconnect between people and their surroundings and how they value it. People just don't seem to care as it's not them having to clear it up or live next to it. I'm sure the vast, vast majority of them do not live in squalor and do not treat their homes like how they treat the countryside or even urban areas. As Chasingmytail has just said the increase in food on the go and convenience outlets has played a significant part in this increase. Albeit it's not them directly causing it but rather their customers. I've seen the idea of having vehicle registrations printed onto the bag/ packaging of food bought from 'Drive thrus' such as Mc Donalds, KFC etc discussed on Twitter which I think would help make people more accountable, however how is it going to be enforceable?

It's not just the roadsides that are blighted by this issue, even down rural footpaths dog walkers bag up their dogs waste and then just toss it to one side or what's even worse is when they hang the bag from a branch .

Having been to the continent quite a bit recently and looking at their roads, their verges do seem significantly cleaner than ours.

 

[bluebell]

old values of being polite to your elders, care of the countryside and your local area, helping your community ? what community, i think many see where they live as a temporary stepping stone to somewhere else? I watched the cornish fishing series being shown on TV last night and it was sad to here how locals born and bred are being driven out by rich incommers ? So cant afford to live where they live and work.

 

[nelly55]

This country needs a kick up its backside,all the do gooders.break a finger nail (Male or female) and the worlds coming to an end.Everyone wants something now,I have sat many times at hospital with my wife and heard folk shouting at having to wait,half of them don’t need to be there.Litter pick it up ,I look at other countries on tv and think we are turning into the dump not them.

 

[jellybean]

My wife tries to be responsible for all our rubbish, anything compostible goes in the garden, when she goes shopping all the recyclable stuff gets taken in and any other burnable stuff goes in the woodturner, We have never put out anything for the rubbish men; it would be all over the road before they pick it up anyway. She goes for a walk each day from the farm to the village, about 1.5 miles, and takes a bag to pick up all the litter on the way. Other farmers are just as bad as the car drivers. Feed bags that just get sucked out of the back of Land rovers, and silage wrap just dumped in gateways or festooned on hedges. It' no good moaning about others until you have sorted yourselves out.

 

[egbert]

I pulled into a trunk road layby recently, with a view to getting in another car to do a site visit.
As I pulled in, a couple in a hatchback -young'uns- tossed their sh1t outta the passenger window.
Now someone had been along and tied trash bags in the hedge to try and stop this - it was epidemic thereabouts- but that wasn't enough.

I would certainly have had some unpleasant words with the little Rsoles, but was about to leave my truck unatteneded in the layby for an hour...so...I said nought

 

[Goweresque]

I've said for ages there is only one solution to this problem, and its a massive packaging tax that is then returned to whoever recycles the item. Make every piece of rubbish worth something, then people will make sure its disposed of, because if they don't they are throwing money out of the window. Not only that, if they do, the public spirited person who picks it up gets rewarded by being able to cash in the item instead. Every item is barcoded already, or could have one of those QR codes printed on it, with all the information needed. A crisp packet could be worth a few pence on its own, returned to a recycling centre.

Think of the advantages - everyone is incentivised to recycle, any rubbish that is dumped would be collected by voluntary organisation looking to raise cash. The whole country would rapidly be denuded of rubbish. There would be a commercial incentive for waste companies to stick compacters in accessible places (such as shopping centre car parks) that people could feed their waste into and get cash out, and arbitrage the difference. Ie a coke can delivered to an official recycling centre might be worth 5p, but Waste Inc's machine in a carpark near you might pay 3 or 4p, and they'd pocket the difference. The council would pay you to collect your household waste even. Once there is value there's a market and incentives, all of which are missing today.

 

[Paddington]

A neighbour was complaining about rubbish strewn about by the side of the road and pointed to a feed sack in the stream,"dropped by some careless farmer, etc etc. Of course if a feed sack has gone AWOL outside your front gate you assume it's yours. So, with him watching, I slid down the bank to find the water was just higher than my wellies. Almost falling over I grabbed the sack to find it wasn't one of mine. I turned to tell him this, but he had b****red off. Getting up the bank was fun as loads of nettles were in my way, but I had a brainwave and used the folded sack to grab hold of the largest nettle in order to pull myself out, wet feed sacks give poor grip when wet and I ended up back in the stream A over T..Next time they start complaining they can do the job themselves.

 

[Robt]

getting worse where i live? maybe my problem is ive lived in my village to long? we like to keep our farm neat and tidy, its not just about money , money to plants trees, i plant trees because i like them, i pick up rubbish and keep the verges trimmed because i like it tidy, but the rubbish, including dog poo in bags gets worse most of this is from people in the village, behind their electric gates, im all right jack? talk about the environment ? noone cares here rubbish tipped in river, signs still in the river? last insult yesterday utilty company was installing new cable, i see this morning they have left all their rubbish including bits of cable in my field?

invoice them for environmental damage and for haulage time etc...... if they dont pay, threaten to take them to court.

 

[Drillman]

I’ve just done a 600 mile round trip to visit friends.

I had food and drink in my vehicle which I munched and slurped at on the journey. All my rubbish gets chucked in the passenger footwell till I see a bin. Which when you pull up at services there are several. So gathered it up and chucked it in one as I walked past for a pee in the facilities provided.

It wasn’t difficult or time consuming. Had to walk past the bin anyway, So can’t understand why others don’t do the same.

Edit - footwell currently full of more crap it can roll about as is for a few more days till I’m passing another bin?