Top of the Litter Pops......

I did a lot of thinking while hooking bottles out of the ditches as to what could incentivise people to stop littering, and after I'd fantasized about knee-capping the culprits, my conclusion was penalties don't work, as you need evidence to fine people and catching people in the act in country lanes is very difficult too. There's no point having draconian laws if they can't be enforced. I favour the method of taxing the cans and bottles and plastic wrappers highly at point of purchase, and then giving some of that money back when the item is recycled or disposed of correctly. Thus meaning a van cab full of cans and wrappers actually represents money, so is less likely to be thrown out the window, and indeed if it is and I pick it up, I can get the refund money. Thus meaning picking up litter would be a source of income for kids etc. Its a win/win, less incentive for the purchaser to throw litter away, and more incentive for everyone else to pick it up if it is.
They do this up here in Iceland, you pay at the start and then take your bottles and cans to a sorting place and dump them on to a conveyor and they get sorted out, counted and then you get your money back. You can end up with a nice little pay out... like money you find tucked in a book that you’d forgotten about.
(Got pictures in my Iceland thread)
Works wonderfully!
Very little litter lying around the verges.
School kids go around asking for cans and bottles to cash in for their fund raisers.

the dirtiest scum of them all is farmers who dump their waste bales still in their wrap to just rot. Not to mention the stuff that gets blown away and caught in fences.
(Wrap is done the same way, taxed at the start and then collected for free)
 

sahara

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Somerset
That does not appear to be the case of anyone working in Somerset. Can normally tell the make or model of a crashed car long after it is gone because half of it is left behind.


The section of main road passed our farm had a spell of lots of crashes last year. With all the bits left behind by the recovery /grab and go companies I could probably built myself a new car.
 
I just can’t understand the mentality that thinks it’s acceptable to just sling your empty can or bottle into the hedge.
,
If we could understand that, perhaps we could find a lasting cure for the problem. Maybe changing our label from 'throw away society' to 'caring society' and teaching it in schools and homes, as well as in the national media, would help.

I better not hold my breath whilst waiting for the change though!
 

bluebell

Member
what about the sights after the music festival has ended? picture in the national press of one recently, showed a sea of abandoned tents and general rubbish the festival goers had come with, then just left it all behind?
 

Hampton

Member
BASIS
Location
Shropshire
We are 30 mins drive from a Mc Donald’s but live on a dead end lane with a campsite below us.
always surprises me that people choose to come on holiday here because it’s pretty but feel it needs decorating with their McDonald’s meal packaging once they get here.
They drive for 30 mins then Chuck it out on the lane, less than one minute from the end of their journey.
Have caught a few but they shouldn’t need telling.
What was the phrase I heard on here the other day…twunts!
 

bluebell

Member
I personally think that the problem of littering has to addressed from many different angels, from changing plastic, plastic every where, it adorns the sides of the A12 from chelmsford to colchester and every other road, to the spring growth of nature tries its best to hide it ?, you know there was a time not that long ago when alot of things were not made of plastic? Education in schools, teaching children from a young age, then fines, hard large fines for commercial flytippers, also publicly named and shamed?
 

Lincs Lass

Member
Location
north lincs
Been a few groups of volunteers picking litter round my way , they made an excellent job , all left in bright pink bags for the council to pick up which they did .
6 weeks later the road sides look they had never been there ,,to make matters worse ,,some pillock flailed the verges and turned it into confetti,,now its smashed glass and shredded beer cans.
Then on the side of the A15 and 200 yards from the M180 junction ,,there's numerous van loads of waste been tipped in a gated road end ,,scrufy R soles
 

Ffermer Bach

Member
Livestock Farmer
,
If we could understand that, perhaps we could find a lasting cure for the problem. Maybe changing our label from 'throw away society' to 'caring society' and teaching it in schools and homes, as well as in the national media, would help.

I better not hold my breath whilst waiting for the change though!
I think in Japan the school children clean their own schools (so no need for cleaners), I guess this makes them grow up respecting the local environmet.
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
I think in Japan the school children clean their own schools (so no need for cleaners), I guess this makes them grow up respecting the local environmet.
I cycled over 750 miles in Japan and saw one discarded wrapper! We all commented on it.
but they do have a huge number of litter bins/ recycling bins which were never full. They actually burn most of their rubbish for energy generation.
 

David.

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
J11 M40
I've got a nice delivery of cannabis farm waste to sort later, by all accounts the compost is good to go again for tomatoes next year...
 
I've got a nice delivery of cannabis farm waste to sort later, by all accounts the compost is good to go again for tomatoes next year...
On the bright side our local school student council has decided to do litter picks around the school. They were so over subscribed with volunteers that they did part of the town as well.
Lets hope they are as tidy when they start driving!
 

Paddington

Member
Location
Soggy Shropshire
I have littered picked only once officially. At school we were given bags, but no gloves and told to tidy the grounds. I put a piece of reddish stained pipe in mine from near the railings...of course a teacher had to check the contents of each bag. Which led to the police being called and me fingerprinted as the stain was blood and the pipe had been used on someone the previous night and who was now in hospital. We didn't do litter picks after that.
Wonder if they still have my dabs ?
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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