Sunday 27 November 2011

Leavings and leaving one's mark

What's with these people who will insist on stuffing their used fast food cartons into my front garden hedge? I had to extract one only this morning and drop it into the wheelie bin. It's not as though Wiltshire Council aren't generous with litter bins on the road.

There seems to be a type of person who, as if on a point of principle, are distainful of the 'Keep Britain Tidy' motto. Actually I've not heard that one for a while. Perhaps it's gone defunct. Maybe they think litter bins are for mugs or finnicky folk. Or maybe they are anxious to keep in employment the chaps in council uniform who patrol the streets and parks with a pair of long handled tongs and a black bin bag.

But what I really think is that the littering classes are behaving in much the same way as some street mutt might: metaphorically lifting their legs and pissing against a lamp post in order to leave their mark. There may be no eliminating such behaviour. In that case I might put it to the council that between them the half dozen or so fast food outlets within a quarter of a mile of where I live should be required to employ at their own expense a litter warden to walk the streets day and night to clear up after their poor patrons who don't know any better.

3 comments:

  1. I thought Macdonalds were supposed to do this, although I haven't really noticed them doing so locally.

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  2. I think it goes lot deeper than this. As a nation, we don't care about litter. Many years ago, when there were actual visible police around, my mother pointed out to one of them that someone was dropping litter. His reponse? "Madam, do you really think I've got nothing better do to with my time....?"

    So what's the deterrent? There isn't one. In Thailand (for example), you'd probably have your hands chopped off (not that I'm advocating that, you understand).

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  3. Some people just don't seem to care - about anything.

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