I stopped at a picnic area at a beauty spot close to our house on Sunday evening. It had been a goreously warm sunny day so the "trippers" had been out in force. The ground was covered in rubbish some of it the kind of thing that is so dangerous to wildlife - cans and bottles, bags and worst of all, the plasic rings that hold 4-packs of cans together. These can become tangled round legs and neck and lead to death or amputation of limbs. There was a campaign to raise awareness of the danges these things pose some years ago and I think it is time to start another one. Can we all do what we can
Small things but even if you save one life it is worth it! Let's do it!
Jenni
God gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason!
When we did Open Access volunteers patrols we often had this problem even having bags left in the car park.One volunteer got fed up of this one day and hung the bags of pooh on wing mirrors of the culprits car,not what we had learned in training but I am sure one or two would have got the message
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Hi Jenni and welcome to the RSPB forum. Enjoy yourself here
I hate anything to do with plastic myself, and I hope that it will be invented to degrade in the future - after so many years - though it is as it is now but needs to be proved.
The thing that upsets me most is the beer can holders - where the circular plastic can cause Wildflowl to be strangled on the plastic holders holes. By the way I always cut them if we buy a 4 x beer {rare in our case as we hate beer}
We have bought bags for life/bottle bags from our supermarket {Tesco} and reuse them all over again and we believe this must be a help to the environment.
It is a big issue and I am glad you have brought it to our attention once more. I really believe that the major supermarkets are trying to stop it and well done to them
Still it needs more attention, and we will get there eventually due to the reaction of people like you Jenni, and people on this Forum in general
Regards
Kathy and Dave
LOL Seaman - big clap to you and your colleagues! Serves them jolly well right.
We have 2 big dogs, and therefore rather a lot of poo - neither of us would dream of leaving it on the ground, in or out of a bag. Every bit is picked up and kept with us until we see a dog poo bin. If we don't see one, it comes home with us, no matter how smelly.
As for general rubbish - this is one of my particular hates as I'm sure it is with all of us nice folk on this forum. It riles me so much, and most of it is so unnecessary - dumped within a few yards of a bin as often as not. It's just mindless. Much of it is the residue of eating and drinking, and I don't understand why people find it acceptable these days to eat and drink in the streets. It was a cardinal sin and the height of bad manners when I was young - we were even thrown in detention at school if we were caught eating in the street in school uniform.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Susan H said:we were even thrown in detention at school if we were caught eating in the street in school uniform.
Same here Sparrow - we were not allowed to even eat a sweet. How things have changed. The only time my parents allowed us to eat in the street was when we had chips out of paper at the sea side. Throwing rubbish on the ground would never have entered our heads.
CJ
cjbeady said: Same here Sparrow - we were not allowed to even eat a sweet. How things have changed. The only time my parents allowed us to eat in the street was when we had chips out of paper at the sea side. Throwing rubbish on the ground would never have entered our heads.
Ditto Seaman ...... I once got a detention for eating a sweet on my way home from school! Chips out of newspaper were also the only exception for me!
I always taught my kids not to leave any litter from a very early age so that now (in their 20's) they would never even think about leaving rubbish behind and would always use a bin or put it in their pocket till they got home.
.......even now I have to empty their pockets of all the rubbish they have collected,LOL!!!
Teach children young and they will hopefully get the message.
Rachel
It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
Nicki C said:I hate anything to do with plastic myself, and I hope that it will be invented to degrade in the future
Blackbird I thought quite a few years go one of the big shop chains has carrier bags that were degradable but they seemed to have disappeared maybe an experiment that did not work.Like you I hate to see plastic rubbish anywhere,when I was a kid all our shopping bags were biodegradable 'cos they were paper,bit of a beggar on a wet day though.
Hi Kathy and Dave, Thanks for your response! The beer can holders are really what gets me most upset. My daughter and I have for years made a point of picking them up, cutting open the rings and taking them home for disposal. I don't care if people think I am a weird old "bag-lady", if it stops even one animal suffering a ghastly death then a weird old bag-lady i am!
Hi all
Still on the rubbish theme- I received today the latest edition of The British Hedgehog Preservation Society newsletter with an horrific picture of a hedgehog with a red rubber band caught around its neck. Apparently the Royal Mail discard TWO MILLION of these bands EACH day!! The BHPS has started a campaign to make our posties more aware of the potential danger. (I'm always picking up these bands- I've got a drawerful at home).
www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk
I also collect these rubber bands,so useful!
If the Royal Mail could 'teach' the postmen to put all the rubber bands in a bag or something instead of discarding them the RM could surely save a bit of money and reuse them when taken back to the depot?
73 million rubber bands a year must cost something!
Would help RM and wildlife.