Bryony Gordon
When did we stop getting angry about litter?
Forgive me if you are tucking into breakfast, but I want to talk about dog mess. It’s not a sexy subject, I’ll grant you that, but it’s an important one, a subject you will probably encounter at least once as you go about your business this sunny, autumnal weekend – I call this time of the year the Dog Do Do Danger Zone, as you can never tell what is lurking under those fallen leaves.
I mention it because this week, a survey revealed that UK dog owners are among the most responsible in the world when it comes to cleaning up after their pets. The research, based on sales of degradable poo bags, shows that Spain and America follow closely behind. “It is now widely regarded as something of a social taboo and to be deeply antisocial to leave dog mess around public places,” said George Bramble, the founder of Beco Pets, which carried out the survey.
But if Britain’s dog owners are the most responsible in the world, then I dread to think what pavements around Europe look – and smell – like. I shudder to imagine the sidewalks of Sorrento, and the boulevards of Belgium, awash as they must be with canine waste products.
British pet owners may be buying disposable poo bags, but if – as so many of them do – they then dispose of said poo bags on the side of the road, or by tying them to a railing, I am afraid they are being no more responsible than if I left my child’s soiled nappies on pavements willy-nilly.
(This week I spent a pleasant evening washing out our household bin with bleach and boiling water after a dog walker chucked their poo bag in, only for it to burst under the weight of our own waste bags. Dogs may well be a man’s best friend, but the same cannot be said of the man who fails to clean up after his pet.)
Then again, while dog mess is the most noxious and offensive of waste on British pavements these days, it is not alone. Go for a walk in any city or town and you will find yourself navigating an obstacle course of discarded crisp wrappers, fast-food packets, and coffee cups. Free newspapers sometimes take up more space in train carriages than people; if you haven’t had to pay for something, why should you have to dispose of it properly?
On Thursday, as I waited at a bus stop, I was astonished to see a bin with junk piled on top of it. The bin itself was almost empty, the act of actually using it clearly too much for many exhausted commuters.
When I was a child growing up in the Eighties, littering was considered only marginally less taboo than declaring your support for the National Front. But as the writer and broadcaster (and anti-litter campaigner) Toby Young pointed out this week in a video for Sky News, it is now more taboo to pick up rubbish than throw it away. Keep Britain Tidy estimates that cleaning up our streets costs taxpayers almost £1 billion a year in England alone. In today’s not-so-BigSociety, it seems many just expect other people to pick up their rubbish for them.
This is not simply an aesthetic issue. The most recent Local Environmental Quality Survey of England found that areas with more litter, graffiti and fly-tipping also had more crime. Discarded food wrappers, a relatively recent phenomenon, are a symptom of a society that does everything on the move. And when we litter, we don’t just show a lack of respect for our environment – we are also displaying a clear disdain for the communities we live in and the people around us. Someone else can dispose of my newspaper because I can’t see a bin in my eye-line; a poorly paid council worker can handle your dog’s faeces to save you the trouble of having to carry it home.
It’s selfish, that’s what it is. So the next time you walk your dog, or leave a coffee cup on the train, remember this: a litter-free country is not just a prettier country. It’s a more thoughtful one, too.