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Litter-loutism


AnneMarriott

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I'm sure this has been covered before but I'm being driven mad by the amount of litter deposited in our neighbourhood.  We live on the edge of Eton College playing fields and are surrounded by open countryside and parkland, riverside footpaths and cycle paths and public footpaths to Eton and Windsor, Dorney, Wraysbury and Heathrow Airport (although I've never tried the latter myself). Our out-of-the-way little cul-de-sac has access to all of the above. It's a paradise for dog walkers, joggers, hikers, cyclists, rowers, kayakers and picnic-ers.  Unfortunately many of them drop litter and sometimes what should be pretty countryside looks more like an annexe to the municipal waste disposal unit.

 

Yesterday I witnessed the driver of an immaculate white Mercedes, of the luxury limousine type, throwing the packaging from her lunch/picnic/whatever from the car as she speeded down the road.  A brown paper carrier bag, a polystyrene box, a chip carton, some empty sachets and several ketchup-stained paper napkins flew about in the slipstream.  No actual food, thank goodness.  Needless to say I went and picked it all up.  I won't record the comments muttered under my breath at the time.  

Edited by AnneMarriott
typo
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I was waiting at a 'pelican' crossing once, when a car turning left at the immediate next junction, opened a window and dropped out a half eaten bag of monster munch (or some-such ghastly savoury bag of yuck) right at my feet as the lights changed. I gave her my best deadly Paddington-like STARE. Well, the verbal abuse I thus attracted confirmed that most litterers are just unadulterated low life scuzz buckets

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8 hours ago, John Mallinson said:

Brings back memories of Mrs Thatcher picking up litter - not, let me hasten to add, that you remind me of Mrs T, but I'm sure she would have had words for the white Mercedes!

 

I'm glad I don't remind you of her!  And I picked up the litter with my own fair hands, unwitnessed by reporters or cameramen.  Blue is the colour of the Conservatives but  I doubt if her words for the white Mercedes would have been quite as blue as mine ...

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I was going to ask if there are enough bins for depositing litter (and dog waste) on the footpaths, but of course if the major culprits are drivers who can't be bothered to take their litter home and dispose of it properly, all the bins in the world won't help.

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39 minutes ago, Melody said:

I was going to ask if there are enough bins for depositing litter (and dog waste) on the footpaths, but of course if the major culprits are drivers who can't be bothered to take their litter home and dispose of it properly, all the bins in the world won't help.

There are no litter bins on the playing fields or along the paths, but it beats me why, when people go to the trouble of taking tons of food with them on an outing they can't manage to take the packaging home with them.  There is a MacDonald's a stone's throw from here and from casual observation it is their customers who are the main culprits.  Eton College (presumably in despair at having their pitches fouled) have installed dog waste bins at strategic points but of course they get filled with other things such as empty drinks bottles and cans deposited by tidy-minded people who can't read the signs: "dog waste only".  So dog walkers have to leave their little offerings beside the bins.  There are litter bins in the parks but even those sitting on a bench right next to a litter bin are unable to reach out to put their litter in the bin - far easier to drop it on the ground.  But I can just about see that this sort of thing is just thoughtlessness whereas chucking litter out of a car in a residential road seems more like a deliberate insult.

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11 hours ago, alison said:

A shame you couldn't photograph her numberplate, Anne: you could have reported her for littering.

Good point, Alison, but even if I had a camera handy (don't own anything resembling a smart phone) I was too taken aback even to notice the numberplate.

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