The most common sign of A is litter. The wretched individual might not be present, but they've left their mark. I've always hated litter since childhood and my thoughts on those who deliberately chuck their rubbish about are best kept in my head right now. We seem to be a race of litterers though, as all the space junk orbiting the earth shows. What self respecting alien is going to want to visit this planet when they see it surrounded by crap, like one of those houses with an old burst sofa, a car up on bricks, and a selection of old TVs in the front garden. I'd think 'look at those scummy baskets - not going there' and fly on by I think.
Litter really pisses me off, none more so that when it's in the countryside, as it nearly always points to deliberate littering rather than accidental. Mind you, not all accidental littering is bad as last week proved when I found three crisp tenners lying in the road!
Old cans and the like are not just an eye sore, they can be a hazard to wildlife too - The RSPCA gets an average 7,000 calls a year to incidents involving wildlife caught up in, or otherwise harmed by, litter.
It bugs me when I take a photo too. I try to illustrate why I enjoy riding my bikes in the countryside, and the beauty to be found out in all the greenery, but there un-noticed by me at the time, is a Maccy D's Milkshake cup and straw, or some other defilement, lurking in the frame and ruining the shot.
Well recently, after muttering to myself about the state of the place whilst stood gawping at the view with someone else's rubbish around my feet, I decided I should really do something about it rather than just using bad language under my breath, cussing the low life that left it there. I'm not working at the moment due to all the crap I've got going on, and that rankles deeply believe me, so I have got the time (when I'm able) to do a bit of litter picking, so why on earth not do a bit? It'd give me something useful to do for a change!
So I got myself the cheapest litter picker grabby thing from Amazon I could find to see how I get on with bike borne litter pickery. I can't walk far without knackering my back so would be using a bike for collecting duties. There is also a chap who walks round the village collecting rubbish, so that's taken care of already anyway. It's the lanes that are my target. The panniers fitted to the old clatterbus Carrera would be ideal, being bigger than those I use now, and they're already a bit tatty, faded and generally tired.
So yesterday, Tuesday, I finally got around to setting out for a ride but with the sole intention of picking up litter rather than 'enjoying myself.'
It was a nice morning too, little to no wind and bright and sunny - very Spring like in fact.
Just last Thursday this was all white, as the snow blanketed everything. Yesterday was just a very pleasant Spring morning.
For some dopey reason, I only brought one bin bag with me - attaching one side of it to the pannier with a Bulldog clip in a rather useless attempt to keep the bag gaping hungrily to ease litter ingestion. But as with all these things, you start off, make mistakes, learn things and modify until you end up with something slick in operation. Hopefully. Well that's the plan anyway, and stronger bin bags, more clips, and maybe removal or tying back of the pannier lids are all in mind now.
The village litter picker went on his rounds on Monday, I know this 'cos I saw him, out in the rain and wind doing his stuff, and that meant all was looking nice and tidy as I left the village up Tregassow Lane as far as his wanderings take him - the bench on the bend near the solar farm. I couldn't go much further myself due to the lane being officially closed for some work or other, and full of tipper trucks. But I didn't get far beyond the bench before I started finding rubbish, with an old water bottle and a crisp packet the first articles to feel the long arm of my grabber.
Turning round I retraced my steps and then turned down towards Trevella Stream, and once again, found the limit of the village litter picker's range - the bridge over the stream. All down the hill was clean, and at the bridge, where I've often found bits lying on the verges, there was nothing to be seen. But I can't pass over the bridge without a good gawp at the water and soon spotted a couple of bits in need of plucking.
The nearest McDonald's is probably the one at the bottom of the hill at Penhale, Fraddon, on the A30 - Hamburger Hill as it is now known by the locals. One day I'd like someone to do some sort of test to see just how far the litter roams from one single fast food outlet - discover the average radius that crap can be found from its source. I bet it'd be quite surprising, and shocking in equal measure.
Long ago I started thinking it was high time certain businesses were charged for their contribution to the litter problem, something brought home to me when I was driving buses in Reading, and noticed just how many discarded bus tickets there were and how they seemed to get into every nook and bus free cranny of the town, even well away from the bus routes. Businesses producing lots of potential litter are often easily identified by their packaging and their willingness to advertise on it, and also show clearly who contributes to the sullying of the country. Maccy D's and Burger King aren't food outlets to me, they're the sources of large amounts of litter.
Maybe they do already pay some sort of fee to cover litter collection, probably in their business rates if that is the case, I don't know, but I don't see it as being enough. People will always litter, despite it being anti social and also exposing themselves to the risk of being fined if caught, so maybe the answer is to give them less to litter with in the first place, and also make what ammunition they are given, bio degradable. If these companies were made to pay quite high fees for litter recovery, then they'd soon find ways of reducing their output.
Despite my focus being on other matters, I still couldn't resist popping off the occasional 'normal' photo.
It's not all crap in the lanes, there's plenty of beauty too of course.
A South Australian Sauvignon of 2015 vintage.
I've noticed a lot of litter in the past, when I actually went looking for it I soon discovered just how much there actually is out there. I stopped to bag this bottle and then had a look around...
... and found all this within about a twenty yard radius.
Hoisting the GoPro up on the selfie stick at Four Turnings.
The single black bag I'd brought was soon filling up, and I started using the unlined left pannier as a result. At least these panniers are easily hosed out!
Having started filling the left pannier as well, I no longer had somewhere handy to plonk my grabber, so ended up carrying it.
Still, it was a nice day as I've said, and to be honest, it was pretty theraputic slowly making my way along and picking up the crap. I had feared I'd just get frustrated and annoyed at it all, but instead, I tried not to think too much about it and just got on with it.
Oh hayup, that sky is looking a bit fruity, but I managed to get home before the heavens opened with a short lived, but pretty lively, shower.
Litter just ahead of the bike - you're never far from crap it seems.
Back home and the results of about 4 mile's worth of litter removal. I only did a short loop, and ran out of room in the panniers before I'd got all the way round, so did about three quarters, so I didn't even get the lot, but still.
I had planned to empty the lot out onto my garden to photograph what I'd got, but imminent rain put paid to that idea, and anyway, why should I pick the darned stuff up twice?!
So, on my shopping list are heavier duty rubbish bags to prevent rippage when pressing all the rubbish down to make more room.
As for the panniers, I'm thinking of removing the lids completely as they don't roll up and out of the way easily, and ideally I'd like somewhere to plonk the grabber quickly between picks. The ultimate litter picking bike would have bags on the forks as well, and clips across the handlebars, or along the crossbar for the grabber.... Hmmmm...
So is the litter problem getting worse I wondered? Well a quick bit of Googlery found that according to the 2013 Local Environmental Quality Survey published by the Government, the amount of litter chucked about has remained consistent over the last decade, although the nature of some of it has changed. The 5p charge for plastic shopping bags has greatly reduced them being littered, and bearing that out, I found only one on my travels whereas they used to be a very common sight. Countering that though is a rise in cups and their lids, and food wrappers from some of the fast food or coffee outlets.
The bad news for me was that all the hopping on and off the bike gave my back a bit of grief, which is something I feared before embarking on this mission, but not so bad as to stop me planning more such trips as long as the recovery remains quick.
Something else that annoys me almost as much as litter is the modern trend for 'Virtue Signalling,' and I've got a horrible feeling about this post, and all the photos I took, that it's all a bit 'look at me doing my bit' and all that. That's not the intention at all, I'm just having a moan about litter while finding something useful to do at the same time. And anyway, it's a bit of a selfish thing too, 'cos these are the lanes I love and want to enjoy litter free in the future! (well for a few days at least...).
----------------
No comments:
Post a Comment