Topic: dirty uk

[jimtheworzel]

 Litter levels in the UK have increased by 500 per cent since the Sixties, and we now have more rats in this country than people. Who is to blame, and what will the effect be on our health?
Litter is an eyesore for everyone, and figures show the ugliness has significantly increased in the last thirty years, along with a substantial list of associated problems.

It is illegal to drop litter under section 87 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, and local authorities can issue fixed penalty fines of £80 for each offence or go to court and issue a fine of up to £2,500.

So far government initiatives have failed to stop the public dumping their leftovers, however, and 30 million tonnes of human waste are collected from our streets and disposed of by local authorities every year, according to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), at a cost to taxpayers of £500 million.

[caroline7758]

Did you hear the report on the Today programme this morning?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7932111.stm

Love the slogan of the anti-litter campaign in Australia- "Don't be a tosser!" ;D

[Busby]

My wife is Swiss, that's why we live in Switzerland. Last time we were in England we travelled by train from King's Cross to Hertford.

What a mess.

[daileg]

I am amazed at the amount of rubbish there is in this country where ever you go you see it under shrubs in bushes the amount of plastic .

this is a up bringing in my mind as when i was being brought up you wouldn't dare drop litter even Blue Peter was behind it these days I'm amazed

but our town did the strangest of things to combat this they removed some of the bins in the town centre there is a man with a giant hover goes around sucking it up on the floor

what I'm getting at is even though the council removed some of the bins it seems to be more productive there is less rubbish in the town centre I'm not sure if this is shame exercise if one would put something on to the floor or not but seems to have worked .
Until you get outside the town centre then it all goes Pete Tong as normal 

[Kea]

I was really shocked when I arrived in the UK.....all i could see for months was litter it completely distracted me from seeing anything else. Plus i spent years walking around looking at the ground so I didn't stand in either a dog turd or a pile of vomit!
 
I don't look at my feet anymore  not since I moved South (sorry everyone in Mid Lothian) but it's cleaner down here, I still prefer Scotland though or anywhere with decent hills/mountains.

It's really not hard to put your litter in a bin, and if you have a dog stop pretending what it leaves behind is nothing to do with you and smokers the cigarette butts take a long time to break down, now there is a pile outside the door of just about every building.

[ugly gourd]

We went to new Zealand in December last year and 5am as we walked in Auckland a lady street cleaner was on her hands and knees removing stickers from the pavement with a paper scraper

[skintnbitter]

My solution would be for all those people claiming dole / benefits and have 'no intention' of working a day in there lives should be made to clean the streets in return for the monies they are receiving from the state.

England would be lovely and clean in no time and a much better place to live.

[Kea]

We went to new Zealand in December last year and 5am as we walked in Auckland a lady street cleaner was on her hands and knees removing stickers from the pavement with a paper scraper

That's pretty obbsessive but you probably know I'm from NZ though I've never seen that but it is noticably cleaner than here. They ran a 'be a tidy Kiwi campaign' when I was a child and it seemed to work (amazingly!! :o) Ibelieve the slogan still exsists. People do throw rubbish out their car windows though and the population is still small.

If you want to go somewhere really clean try Singapore.....oh and thank you to the person a number of years ago on a flight to Singapore who got rid of their incriminating chewing gum on my arm rest while I was out of my seat....it got stuck in the sleeve of my jersey!