Oh you've picked a subject dear to my heart! I HATE to see litter and rubbish. It actually hurts my soul to see (sorry to be so melodramatic but that's how it feels). India is so much worse than UK though - give a child a sweet and it will drop the wrapper straight on the floor - but this in your own (or their own) living room!!! When I rented a house all the local kids knew not to drop any litter in the street outside my house (they dropped it in front of next door who didn't care.) You learn not to see it and that's what I had to force myself to do...and I go on blanking it out here because where I live there is SOOOO much I couldn't begin to pick it up. Plus it's very yucky.
I don't know how to change people's behaviour...once long ago when I was waiting for my son to come out of primary school, a high school kid who was waiting for his little brother finished a can of coke and put the empty can between the railings of the park we were waiting outside. I said 'Oy, please don't leave that there. You're setting a bad example to the little ones. Take it away with you.' And he refused. He was all of 13 and he just refused. In the end I took it away with me and put it in a bin. It's horrible. But what to do?
We live opposite a primary school, one day in the summer there were 3 ladies (I use that word loosely) sitting on a area of grass outside the school gates. Children duly came out of school and sat with their mothers and had a lovely picnic. Later I saw them get up and walk away leaving the remains of their picnic, empty crisp packets, can's and plastic bottles. Unfortunately I couldn't get to them before they disappeared or I'd of given them a piece of my mind but saying that normally I get the 'F' off word so wonder is it worth it.
What is this world coming too, I always use a rubbish bin if I can find one if not it goes into my bag until I get home.
Cis
I will continue to pick up the rubbbish when I see it on that little patch of land.
in the big scheme of things, it is a tiny act, but I think that patch of land is happier for it.
I once saw something moving in the shrubs. It was too big to be a cat and did not move like a dog...then got more of a glimpse, and saw it was a fox.
It could not have a den there ..goodness knows where it actually lived.
In the spring some red and yellow tulips come into bloom..they look like an Edwardian circus when they are all out
tigress
I have been known to return people's rubbish to them when they have chucked it out of their car window into the street - I pick it up, knock on the car window and hand it back to them, saying 'This is yours, you've just dumped out of your car window - please will you take it home with you. I don't expect the rates I pay to be spent on clearing up your litter!'
They are usually so dumbfounded they hang on to it 😉
It makes me furious that people just chuck stuff out of their car windows without a thought - especially in the countryside. Our neighbours took a wheelbarrow one sunny Sunday down to the village putting in it all the garbage from the roadside on the way - it's a single-tracked country lane - and it was full by the time they had only reached half way - so hey had to do a second trip. Take-away cartons and cans seem to be the major part of it - I often take a carrierbag when walking the dogs to put rubbish in.
I've travelled to many places abroad and made a lot of comparisons with the UK on this issue but I've not seen much of England, I live in Manchester and did not realise how dirty it was until I visited a friend in Southampton years ago, there street cleaners are visible everywhere, here in Manchester there appears to be too many of them in the better areas and the areas in the city centre where all the posh shops are but none anywhere else and it always annoys me there is no happy medium, I've never understood people who litter and it dismays me to tell you that I am so not happy about the amount of times in a week people give me funny looks and whisper to each other when I put my fags out on the floor then put them in a public bin and if there is no bin I put them in my pocket until I get home, I've even known people to watch me do this and laugh......very sad.
Love
Rebecca xx