Should we/I pick up litter?

[Captain Crunch]

It can be great for business, like the window cleaner who started cleaning local road signs:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-47668406

Yeah, it's that sort of thing that puts me off, but I'm planning to do this when I'm retired. Get one of those grabber sticks, like David Sedaris.

I love that bit where he keeps finding KFC buckets and condoms – do they eat the chicken then have sex or have sex then eat the chicken?

[Mobbd]

is litter actually bad for the environment. or just unsightly. no one has been able to answer me this.

i suspect a crisp packet rotting in a hedge is just as bad as it rotting in landfill. and dont tell me they're all getting hedgehogs stuck in them.

I have wondered about this too. Sorry to bring up the wankbeast, but remember his bit about "New York's not the environment!"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NK4CANI0_U

If it's not harmful for the environment, maybe we can "win" against litter by deciding not to give a shit about it (like they do in India!) or deciding to actively enjoy it on some level. Like how old farts still cry their wrinkly eyes out about graffiti but younglings see it as artful self-expression. Bit different but you know what I mean.

I once considered joining a scheduled beach clean-up. I am genuinely, profoundly, upset at the thought of plastic twaddle going into the sea and torturing marine life forever. It was too tricky for me to reach said beach because I don't drive, yet it prompted the thought: maybe you don't need to go to the beach to intercept plastic's reaching the sea: the beach is simply the last chance to catch it. Loads of those fucking take-away forks and whatnot in my own street probably get washed into the drains and/or into the river and end up in the sea anyway. This is part of my motivation for picking up litter locally (i.e. "upstream").

I've not heard anyone else make the common-litter-plastics-in-the-sea point so I could be talking out of my hat. But (a) that's possibly-maybe a contribution towards an answer to your question, and (b) a motivator for my getting off my arse.

[confettiinmyhair]

When I take my son to the park I tend to pick up a lot of litter. The most common are empty cans of Emerge energy drink and big packets of Doritos from the local Co-Op. On Monday me and my son witnessed a man flying a tiny drone wearing some kind of VR headset. That was strange.

I'm not sure all beaches are affected by litter. Tends to be ones near larger coastal towns with fast food establishments. I walked along Cley beach today and didn't spot any litter for miles.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

is litter actually bad for the environment. or just unsightly. no one has been able to answer me this.

i suspect a crisp packet rotting in a hedge is just as bad as it rotting in landfill. and dont tell me they're all getting hedgehogs stuck in them.

My semi-informed understanding is that chemicals from plastics can get into groundwater and soil and from there into the food chain, via consumption in small quantities by animals and humans.  Whether it's any worse than the fertilisers and pesticides that have been used in farming for decades, I've no idea.

[bgmnts]

Litter kills animals as well right and pollutes rivers as well surely?

[idunnosomename]

My semi-informed understanding is that chemicals from plastics can get into groundwater and soil and from there into the food chain, via consumption in small quantities by animals and humans.  Whether it's any worse than the fertilisers and pesticides that have been used in farming for decades, I've no idea.

so what stops this happening in landfill? it is amazing that despite all of humanity's achievements, our approach to waste is dig a big hole and throw everything we dont want into it

i would guess littering is such a tiny percentage of waste, especially compared to industrial disposal, it doesnt really do serious lasting harm to the environment.

it still does make me incredibly angry when I see it. literally, it's so incredible i barely believe someone did it and then the moment to challenge them passes

[weekender]

I think we should just burn the litter and then make use of the fumes to make space wheels.

[Brian Freeze]

so what stops this happening in landfill? it is amazing that despite all of humanity's achievements, our approach to waste is dig a big hole and throw everything we dont want into it

i would guess littering is such a tiny percentage of waste, especially compared to industrial disposal, it doesnt really do serious lasting harm to the environment.

it still does make me incredibly angry when I see it. literally, it's so incredible i barely believe someone did it and then the moment to challenge them passes

I think a well designed and built landfill is more of a sealed hole to prevent runoff than just a big pit. The juice is presumably pretty nasty.

[idunnosomename]

im sceptical any landfill is that well designed beyond being located away from major water sources. they seal them when they're full but they dont have a lining to the pit to contain the leachate do they???

oh ok some do, they either have natural impermeable rock underneath or some that are lined with geomembranes.



i think the real rubbish is us: humans. ahhhhhh

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Yeah, I think landfills in developed countries nowadays are lined with material to stop run-off of nasty stuff, and they are at least a controlled and regulated environment, but no doubt some nastiness is getting into soil and water anyway.

[Brian Freeze]

I'm reminded of someone I know who reckons not to recycle her veggie waste into a compost bin, despite having a big enough garden to benefit, because putting the fruit and veg waste might improve the contents of landfill and make it more pleasant.

[Mobbd]

so what stops this happening in landfill? it is amazing that despite all of humanity's achievements, our approach to waste is dig a big hole and throw everything we dont want into it

This might not be true for everywhere, but only 10% of general waste in my town goes to landfill. 90% of it is burned for household energy. And even though 'burning' doesn't sound environmentally great, it apparently reduces carbon emissions from the rubbish's decomposition by about 60%.

The burning-for-energy thing has only been the case here for about a year. But where I grew up (in the Midlands, certainly not a fancy place) burning-for-energy has apparently been the main destiny for household waste for yonks.

So basically, it doesn't all necessarily go to landfill. I know this only tempers the urgency of your question rather than answers it properly (since some junk still get buried - but not yer crisp packets and conventional litter, that's got 'energy' written all over it, that has).

[beanheadmcginty]

If you ever see discarded scratchcards amongst the litter, check them. There's a baffling and surprisingly high hit rate of winners.

[idunnosomename]

oh well good because a lot of what I've seen of the tip of the waste disposal has been shockingly shit - if more clever stuff goes on beyond tip level then phew. certainly in my borough there isn't proper recycling though.


why dont wine bottles get washed and filled with more wine? i mean for all i know it takes more energy to sterilise them than to melt them all down

[Zetetic]

Don't produce much wine here, which presumably frustrates actual bottle reuse (compared to crushing here and shipping the resulting cullet back to France, Italy and so on).

[idunnosomename]

WELL THATS ALL ABOUT TO CHANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

beer bottles then

[Flatulent Fox]

I'd take action if it's annoying me,the Wombles taught me well.


The wombles went a bit Happy Mondays to appeal to the youth

If it's trash outside,I'll turn a blind eye to the odd Mr Tom wrapper flying about,but definitely grab a floating carrier bag if it's windy.

Used to keep the shared garden clean in the Glasgow Ghetto I live in,but regularly have tons of building rubbish dumped there and left for months so fuck that.

[Mobbd]

why dont wine bottles get washed and filled with more wine? i mean for all i know it takes more energy to sterilise them than to melt them all down

They ought to get washed and refilled but they never are. Reuse is more efficient than Recycling.

Why, you ask? Because it's another obvious solution against the ecopocalypse that's been around for ages but which nobody with organisational clout can be arsed with.

Bottle deposit schemes are the solution you're looking for. For a while, I lived in Canada where bottles can be returned for 10c or so to any supermarket for return to their various breweries/wineries etc. for reuse. Bloody works too.

[Mobbd]

I live in a fairly shitty place. No not there, there.

It's the posher, tidier part of the shitty place but there's still fucking litter everywhere and it gets me down a bit. I sometimes think about going out to clear it up. Nothing stupidly ambitious, just a couple of local blocks worth on Sunday mornings or whatever.

What holds me back, aside from bone-idleness are:

1. The council send someone out to pick up litter infrequently. Would my clean ways stop them from coming out altogether?
2. Will my picking up litter like a smug cunt make people feel bad/angry about themselves/the world in some way I don't currently appreciate?
3. Is litter actually a problem at all? Does it matter a shitty jot?

Anyway, back to my poo.

Update! I've been picking up litter a fair bit. I paused for a while in the first ten days or so of lockdown because I didn't want to (a) get corono from touching dirty litter, (b) get stopped by the rozzers for being out. Solutions: (a) wear gloves, don't touch face ever; (b) assume I won't be stopped (I have not yet been) and have "this is my exercise" lined up as an actually-true excuse.

Lockdown has actually helped me to get over my initial reservations (listed above) too:

1. The council are not coming out at all at the moment. So that temporarily solves this concern.
2. Wholesome activities are less taboo now - people are digging their front gardens, talking to neighbours, etc. Picking litter feels less like putting head over parapet now.
3. We talked about this a little before, but the real reason I pick litter up is not that it's unsightly (though it is a bit, even though i try not to be so fucking bourgeois) but that litter end up in the sea. Just as I thought before:

The WWF (not that one) confirms: "Litter dropped on the street doesn't stay there. Rainwater and wind carries plastic waste into streams and rivers, and through drains. Drains lead to the ocean!" https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/how-does-plastic-end-ocean

So I'm doing this while in lockdown until being told not to. Will hopefully have the nuts to continue IRL too.

I encourage you other Internet Slobs to do the same if you feel like it. It feels (and is actually) pretty rewarding. The effect of your efforts is actual and direct - not like buying organic hummous or whatever slight thing people think gets them off the hook in the Planet is Almost Dead Now stakes.

[poodlefaker]

Kudos, I might start too; the lockdown doesn't seem to have stopped the people round my way who sit in their cars eating takeways then chuck all the shit out the window.

Do you use a grabber? Have you considered a hi-vis waistcoat? No-one challenges anyone if they're wearing hi-vis. There's a little old lady near me who comes out every morning to pick up litter and also sweep the pavement and road outside her house with a dustpan and brush. Dedication.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Yeah, nice one Mobbd.  When I've been out for walks, I've been tempted to pick stuff up from verges since the roads are so quiet and the ground is so dry just now (unusual, for this neck of the woods).  The fear of Covid has put me off. I've been sanitising my hands after touching gates or things like that.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Where I live is an absolute state - litter, fly tipping, crap everywhere - and it's not a shithole, it's a N.  London suburb where the council make it incredibly easy to throw stuff away. We have massive wheelie bins, there's a tip nearby, and they'll come and collect stuff if you phone them up. Arsed, mate, dump it on the pavement or down by the brook; if I can't see it, it's ceased to exist.

Same. Some bastards even dumped a stripped out caravan under an old railway bridge here. Just pulled up on the kerb, unhitched it and fucked off.

If there was just a little bit, I might be inclined to do something. But I don't have a flatbed to pick up all the mattresses, fridges and chests of drawers, and broken window theory is in full effect.

[Jerzy Bondov]

There's three kinds of people: people who drop litter, people who pick up litter, and people who moan about litter but do fuck all about it. I know which I would rather be.

That's why I drop litter all over the place.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's mad how councils can abuse ripa to catch dog foulers or bust open dodgy takeaways but it's beyond them to clamp some temporary cctv cameras on lampposts near tipping hotspots.

[sick as a pike]

Have I posted this before?  [edit: yes, in this thread]

[Replies From View]

There's COVID-19 on litter now isn't there?  Why rub any part of your body on it that isn't your cock?

[Mr Eggs]

It's mad how councils can abuse ripa to catch dog foulers or bust open dodgy takeaways but it's beyond them to clamp some temporary cctv cameras on lampposts near tipping hotspots.

For every tipping cunt you catch 20+ secret wankers/doggers. I think that might be why we binned it off.

[ollyboro]

Yeah, nice one Mobbd.  When I've been out for walks, I've been tempted to pick stuff up from verges since the roads are so quiet and the ground is so dry just now (unusual, for this neck of the woods).  The fear of Covid has put me off. I've been sanitising my hands after touching gates or things like that.

Just pretend the litter's an old copy of Razzle. Or a new copy of Razzle, if you're a complete fantasist.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I pick up and bin litter (albeit usually when it's easy for me to spot and bin) and I haven't encountered anything in my life to suggest that isn't within the norms of human behaviour, barring at school where one kid tried to claim the Head was a weirdo for picking up litter. The guy was a smelly little incest though so credibility of zero.

[Goldentony]

YOU SHOULD little TIT dropping BOLLOCKS all over the SHOP