What can be done to clean up the litter plaguing our streets?
PEOPLE’S apathy towards litter in their area astounds me. My council seems to have given up trying to keep my area clean, apart from the tourist areas. The roads are rarely swept and there are few litter bins. The result is that people seem to accept this filthy environment as normal. Green spaces and even some front gardens are eyesores. Without a sea change in attitudes, education and funding there will be no end to this problem.
G. HULL, Broadstairs, Kent.
IT never ceases to amaze and disappoint me how much rubbish we Scots drop in our beautiful land. Much of it is junk from fast food outlets – plastic boxes, drinks cups and the like. We need to educate our children better and we need to force the fast-food industry to use paper and cardboard, not plastics.
J. GLoVER, Ayr.
MORE effort should be spent in prosecuting people for dropping litter instead of motorists who drive a few miles over the limit.
JoHN LoWARCH, oswestry, Shropshire.
I TAUGHT my daughters from an early age not to drop litter. If they had sweets or lollies, they would throw away the wrapping in a bin or take it home. If I saw anyone dropping litter, I pointed out to my girls it was wrong. This is just one of the many things that it is a parent’s responsibility to teach their children. Why expect teachers to do it?
KATHLEEN THOMPSON, Stockport, Gtr Manchester.
DISGUSTING litter beside our roads is a disgrace, but so is the failure to deal with it. In Florida, prisoners clear litter from verges and notices tell motorists who is doing the work. Driving through South Carolina, we didn’t see any litter. But there was this sign by the road: ‘No littering — $1,000 fine or prison.’ JOHN PRITCHARD, Ingatestone, Essex. I OFTEN struggle to find a litter bin on my travels around Scotland. Is this due to council cutbacks? And it is a disgrace that so many firms get away with using packaging that cannot be recycled. Where is the action from politicians?
TONY PATTERSON, Glasgow.
THE idea that councils charge for the weight of bins is short-sighted. This would result in fly-tipping. Surely bin collection is included in council tax? In Ireland there is no council tax but you have to pay for rubbish collection. To avoid this, some people burn rubbish in their gardens or dump it in the countryside.
Mrs P. FLETCHER, E. Yorks.
ON holiday in Lanzarote, I couldn’t get over how tidy it was. There was not a scrap of litter to be seen. It made me feel ashamed of Britain.
Mrs A. AMBROSE, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.