Our reputation for littering

When I sat down to watch the film Enough Said, which I had recorded late on Channel 4 last week, nothing was further from my mind than the recent articles on littering in the Kentish Gazette.

The first thing I noticed about this romantic comedy, set in 2013 Los Angeles, was that the Americans now have the same sort of cars that we do; the single mum Eva driving a Toyota Prius, which was the car she used on the school run to take her daughter and two classmates to the local High School. On reaching the school entrance one of their classmates drops a ball of wastepaper, whereupon Eva says: “You littered there.” When the girl responds with “What did you say?”, Eva replies: “Pick up your trash – you are not British!”

So it would appear that our reputation as a nation of litterers has spread as far as the west coast of America! Ironically much of the litter I pick up locally comes from the ‘fast food’ takeaways imported from America, but it would

‘We can only hope that our courts will take up the baton and extend the scope of the law to protect those who must breathe nitrogen dioxide and diesel particulates, suffer severe lung damage, and even die’

appear Americans, at least in films, have more respect for their country than we do!

I certainly never saw any litter on the streets when I lived in California in the 1960s and heavy fines were imposed on people caught throwing litter from their cars onto the highways or parking areas.

Mike Armstrong

Queens Avenue, Canterbury