End the blight that’s shaming our country

I VERY much welcome the Mail’s campaign against the blight of litter that is shaming our country. This problem has become more noticeable in the past few years and appears to be getting worse.

Why do so many people use the countryside as their waste bin? Since when has it become acceptable to wind down a car window and chuck out your rubbish?

All the main roads, particularly junctions, are awash with cans and plastic bottles. Even quiet country lanes and footpaths are covered with litter.

We’ve started a litter picking group in our village and would encourage others to do the same.

A strong message needs to be put across to the nation of greedy must-haves who don’t care one jot about the countryside, the wildlife and the problem of plastic for the generations to come.

J. M. PRATT, Groby, Leics.

Teach respect

I COMMEND all the people taking part in the Great British Spring Clean 2020. But I have to ask: who is taking on the louts who drop this litter?

If more was done to stop the problem, the clean-up job would not be such a massive task.

I was brought up to respect my surroundings and would never drop litter. I have passed this ethos on to my children and grandchildren. Like me, they are amazed to see people littering the streets, countryside and beaches.

Picking up litter from the playground in the break was a punishment at my daughter’s school, a small lesson in teaching respect.

We should be pressing for action against those who drop litter instead of constantly being asked to go out there and pick it up. Mrs JILLIAN TAYLOR, Bury, Gtr Manchester.

WHITTLESEY Street Pride was set up 13 years ago to litter pick twice a month. We’ve collected an astonishing 127 tonnes of rubbish and are slowly seeing a decline in littering.

We have diversified into gateway projects to beautify every entrance into the town with flowers. The aim is to make it a cleaner, greener and safer place to live.

PETER DAVIES, Whittlesey, Cambs.

Adopt a street

I HAVE joined my council’s adopt a street scheme. As well as keeping my local area clean and tidy, it’s great exercise.

We tend to get two types of litter: takeaway food and drink, such as wrappers and cans, which people just drop when they’ve finished; and carrier bags full of rubbish thrown from car windows.

Volunteers aged from 20 to 70plus target hotpots. It’s all about community spirit.

Most people do a couple of hours a week, but you can do as much or as little as you want — even a few minutes makes a difference. If a neighbourhood is spotless, people take more pride in it, even if they’re just passing through.

ROD NEEDS, Wokingham, Berks.

Pupil power

ALL power to the volunteers who go out and pick up other people’s litter, but the only way we will rise above this sea of rubbish is to educate young people.

When I suggested to a headmaster that the children could pick up the rubbish outside their school, he told me quite rudely that his pupils did not do that.

Name and address supplied.

I LIVE near several schools and all the verges around them are full of litter dropped by the children.

Eco-aware youngsters may bleat on about how their parents have trashed the planet, but they are happy to trash their home town.

M. SOUTHON, Ferndown, Dorset.

TEACH children not to litter when they’re young. When my son was not yet two, I gave him a sweet while he was in his pushchair.

When he threw the wrapper on the footpath, I made him pick it up and put it in a bin. He’s never thrown rubbish in the street since.

K. LANE, Carterton, Oxon.

LITTER picking is not just for spring, it’s for life! Every day I pick up litter in my lane off a main road, including bottles, drinks cans, dirty nappies and KFC and McDonald’s containers, despite the nearest takeaway outlet being miles away.

K. HANNAH, Carlton Green, Suffolk.

Junked junk food

I LIVE near a busy A-road and for the past seven years I regularly fill two carrier bags with sweet wrappers, soft drinks bottles and crisp packets on my one-mile walk to buy the Daily Mail from the nearest garage.

This junk food is what people buy when they pay for petrol — they eat and drink it in their cars and then dump the empties out of the window. Sadly, too many people are just lazy.

JUNE HIGHGATE, Little Marlow, Bucks.

AN ARMY of dog walkers armed with litter pickers and rubbish bags could make a huge difference to the state of our streets, parks and countryside. And why isn’t the Government deposit scheme for bottles and cans being introduced until 2023? ELIZABETH AMBROSE,

Broxbourne, Herts.

Put pride back in Britain

TRAVELLING to London by coach, I was appalled by the state of the streets. Fast-food wrappers, containers, overflowing dustbins and rubbish sacks everywhere. Have Londoners no pride? Other capitals around the world may be over-crowded, but in many countries you could eat off the pavement. In Japan, they even pick up individual cherry blossom petals that have fallen to the ground. We need to put the pride back into Britain.

E. M. CARTER, Yaxley, Cambs.