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UK Population Keeping Britain Untidy
May 20th, 2009 by
Campaigns have done little to reduce the dirt and litter on our streets. So Flemmich Webb of the Guardian ask’s what will it take for people put their rubbish in a bin?
It has happened to most of us at one time or another. You’re strolling along the pavement, when suddenly one shoe gets stuck to the ground. With a sinking feeling, you realise you’ve stepped in chewing gum – or worse.
Walking through British towns and cities, it’s often hard to avoid the litter strewn across the pavements, roads and green spaces – anything from food wrappers, cigarette butts and dog mess to bottles, cans and plastic bags. A staggering 30m tonnes of litter are removed from our streets every day.
Despite numerous anti-litter campaigns over the last decade, the amount of litter being dropped is not decreasing. The latest data, from the Encams (Keep Britain Tidy) local environmental quality survey of England for 2007/08, shows that while there has been a modest reduction of 3% in the amount of litter compared to the previous year, levels have risen since 2004/05.
Since the 1960s, littering has increased by 500%, according to Litterbugs, a recent Policy Exchange and Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) report. It is an unwelcome consequence of the increasingly throwaway society we now live in.
The problem is not just an aesthetic one. Litter is expensive – it costs local authorities in the UK about pounds 500m a year to clean up our rubbish, money that could be better spent on more critical services.
Applying the law can be a problem, too. Councils don’t have the resources to fine everyone who commits an offence. And dishing out fixed penalty notices can backfire, with local people seeing it as yet another ruse by officious councils to squeeze more money out of them.
“Enforcement is important as it helps people understand that littering is illegal but it could never in a million years solve the problem on its own,” says Peter Ramage, the royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s director for waste management, culture and leisure.
Source & Full Article – The Guardian
It’s so frustrating! I walk around my inner-city London area and see people drop rubbish literally feet away from a litter bin – on the ground. Sometimes I pick it up, hoping this will encourage others/them to do otherwise. But I can’t see any solution to this and associated problems like vandalism, graffiti etc apart from encouraging more authority figures on the street eg community police officers to say “Don’t do that” and do on the spot fines. Reduced fines could be given to people on benefits. The only other thing that could help in my view is campaigning in schools against littering.