I'm one of what appears to be an increasing number of people who've taken it upon themselves to pick up litter. Sometimes I've deliberately gone out to clean up a particular patch of park but usually I just do it casually basis when walking the dog. While she sniffs I spot, pick and think.
Once you've got an eye for litter its hard to ignore it. You get a sense of what it is, where it is and how quickly it accumulates. Here are some observations in the order in which they occur to me.
Litter attracts litter. Clear up a patch and, for a few days at least, it tends to stay clean. Once there's more than a few bits of litter the rate it accumulates shifts back up.
Some things are destined to become litter from the moment they leave the shops (and retailers ought to take a bit of responsibility). As soon as it starts to warm we'll be into the ice-pop season. No child is likely to put a sticky strip of plastic in their pocket and take it to the bin. Neither are they likely to keep hold of the little plastic straws that once contained sherbert.
Cigarette packets are harder to carry empty than when they contain cigarettes. This may be because they actually weigh more empty (the cigarettes being full of phlogiston) but more likely their previous keepers simply can't be arsed to carry them when they no longer hold the prospect of a short term fix for a nagging dependency.
If there is a group of young people the norm of behaviour is set by the most slovenly. This is a little bit like the dietary effect of living in a shared house with just one vegetarian. Once one member of the group starts to drop litter then its unlikely that there'll be anyone else in the group that's brave enough to challenge them. Even putting their own personal litter in a bin could easily be seen as implicit criticism. Indeed, it has been suggested to me by a fellow picker that the adult criticism of littering has lead some young people to use litter as a way of marking territory.
The rate of deposition of dog shit along a nearby 500m stretch of old railway was at least 6kg per week on at least one occasion. My partner's Nursery School were planning an outing along the track. She was concerned about the little people becoming too intimate with dog muck so I offered to get out first thing and clear that stretch. Having done this one week it occurred to me that if I waited a week I could get some idea of how quickly it got deposited. So, I went out with a few plastic bags and picked up all the new poo. To weigh it I used a broom handle, some kitchen weights and a tape measure and applied the principle of moments. It came out at about 6kg. This does not take into account any drying or any decay. Hence the "at least"s.
I'm glad white cider doesn't come in glass bottles. There's been a noticeable shift away from cheap alcohol in bottles towards cheap alcohol in cans. It doesn't make the containers any more likely to make it to the bin but it does cut down the number of punctures.
The last cm of lager in a can is undrinkable. Cans of cider or soft drinks are usually completely empty but there's nearly always just enough lager left in a can to satisfy 4 or 5 slugs. I did talk about this phenomenon to someone who looked like they knew and it turns out that the blast cm does indeed taste "mingin" because of the accumulation of spit from previous gulps. This is particularly true for Carling Black Label.
It's not just the poor, or the young, who drop litter. I used to regularly cycle a route to work that took me along a long stretch of empty country road. There was plenty of litter in the verges.Mainly cans cigarette packets and fast-food cartons. These had all been thrown out of car windows by people keeping their personal space tidy at the expense of everyone else's.
Since we all went on-line there's hardly any pornography in the hedge rows. Nuff said.
Dogs' brains have loads of space devoted to sniffing while ours have loads for colour vision. Whilst this has enormous evolutionary value in helping us to spot ripe fruit it also means that the unnatural colours of litter can't help but stand out against a natural background. Therein lies the offense and, by picking it up, therein lies the resolution. When asked by a group of 10 year olds why I was doing it the simplest, and most acceptable, answer was "well it looks better doesn't it".
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