Yesterday I decided to go for a walk. Inspired by Ilona's rubbish walks, I took a couple of bin bags and a pair of rubber gloves with me, in order to pick up any rubbish I found. (Mum came with me as the official “holder of clean stuff and photographer”).
I didn't get far before I found my first piece of plastic. In fact, I didn't walk very far all day. I walked a grand total of 0.4 miles before I had to turn back.
Why did I turn back so soon? I simply couldn't carry any more rubbish!
My lane is a single track, poorly maintained road running through dairy fields and cropland. It is not highly populated or busy with traffic, yet I collected 2 bin liners full of rubbish.
On the face of it, the lane didn't look too bad. I'd seen an old fertiliser bag on the side of the road and a plastic bag attached to a bramble, but nothing much else. The problem was that it was all half-hidden in the foliage of the hedges.
Amongst other things, I found:
- A half-full soy milk carton – OH, THE SMELL!
- 5 coffee cups
- 2 Red Bull cans
- A beer bottle
- A ring-holder for cans – prime choking material for wildlife
- Agricultural rubbish – black liners from hay bales and fertiliser bags.
- Lots and lots of clear plastic – mainly cellophane.
- Several cola bottles, including one half-full 2 litre bottle!
- Two plastic bags full of soy milk cartons.. (this was definitely the strangest find, but they were in a ditch so it was a deliberate dumping)
Why do people feel the need to fling things out of the window as they drive through the beautiful Cornish countryside? It's polluting and damages the health of wildlife. The next free day I have I'm going back out to clear the next section of lane of rubbish. I WILL get round my 4 mile circuit!
Have you ever collected rubbish? Would you give it a go?
4 comments:
I have never understood people who throw rubbish out of windows either! I recently learned that it is routine for lorry drivers in some countries to wee into plastic bottles and then throw them out of the window - to save the time it would take them to have a toilet-break. Can you imagine? how disgusting is that.
I have only been litter picking once I confess, when I was volunteering for the RSPB in SUffolk for a week. Beach litter picking - hard work - mainly seemed to consist of female sanitary items (!!). Good for you keeping your patch clean - I think that's great.
I remember a while ago they were on about making companies who produce the goods more responsible. Tbh, I don’t think the onus in necessarily on them but the people who use the products. The stuff that gets me is the large amount of McDonalds you see all around Cornwall. Despite sending out their own people on litter picking duty there’s still plenty left due to it being drive through foods. This means they’ll be miles away from McDonalds by the time they’re done with it (not that they should be eating and driving in the first place).
I have both collected and willing to collect in the future, however unless change is instigated in the people who feel the need to do this disgusting act then its simply just coping with a problem rather than dealing with it.
great job! ive done it a few times, on a beach in south africa even, i hate the way people just leave it lying around, drives me nuts! glad to see another person taking a bit of responsibility for thier area :)
great job! ive done it a few times, on a beach in south africa even, i hate the way people just leave it lying around, drives me nuts! glad to see another person taking a bit of responsibility for thier area :)
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