Plastic rubbish - how can we stop this

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

  1. Tell everyone you know what awful things plastic can do when discarded carelessly.
  2. Ask local councillors and candidates for the local elections how they plan to address this problem.
  3. Pick up every dangerous bit of litter you see - carry a recycled plastic bag with you when walking!
  4. When you put YOUR 4pack rings in the bin, take a minute to break the rings open so that even on landfill sites there is no danger of them harming animals. 

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!

  • Anonymous
    0 Anonymous 13/04/2011 21:58 in reply to madpenguin

    Hi madpenguin

    I know what you mean with the elastic bands - we keep them as they are useful.

    We see lot so red eslatic bands disgarded in our driveway each day so we need to remove them so no animals have problems with them!

    Yes, and as for any other plastic thingies they are not good either

    Regards

    Kathy and Dave

    madpenguin said:

    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.

    Rachel

     

     

     

  • We also had our latest newsletter from the BHPS and was shocked to see the poor hedgehog caught up in that rubber band although it was nice to see that it survived the trauma of being caught up in the band.We also had a postcard included that we could fill out to give to our Postman warning of the dangers to our hedgehogs.

    I often collect up the rubber bands as i find them useful for tying up dustbin bags that i put into the dustbin so it stops the flies going into the bags through the summer

    .A lot of the problems with litter is the fact that a lot of kids are not taught about not dropping litter when they are young so it carries on into adult life.The bus stops in our village where the school kids stand  have loads of rubbish strewn about either on the pavement or in the hedges and they are always having to have weekend days here where village people give up their time to go round to collect up the litter that has been discarded...

     Being Happy doesn't mean everythings perfect........

    It means you've decided to see beyond the imperfections.....

  • I hate plastic,rubber , cigarette filters and anything else that doesn't rot down and have done my fair share of complaining and litter picking.I  preferred the days when we used paper carrier bags and glass returnable bottles anyway .I will never understand why people visit beautiful areas just to picnic and leave their rubbish behind.

    We recently travelled to London and i was disgusted with the amount of litter strewn over trees and along the roadside.I really want to see people fined heavily and car owners who chuck their rubbish onto the carriage ways etc have an awful lot to answer for too and we have seen it far too often.

    It is so sad that some people do not respect our country or do Britain proud because in the main, we have beautiful green land that most decent people would die for.

     

     

    An optimist sees the beauty of the complete rose.A pessimist sees only the thorn .

  • Hi all,

    Yes the rubber bands are another nightmare. When I was a student in Edinburgh, the Post Office took on students to deliver the Christmas mail and the first thing I was taught was how to tie a bundle of letters with string using a slip knot that we could then keep tightening as we delivered letters. I never could understand why this method was abandonned. I kept my bits of string going for the whole of the five weeks or so we were employed and handed them back as I left! Who needs rubber bands? It would cost the Post Office SO much less to go back to string!

    Jenni

    God gave us two ears and one mouth for a very good reason!

  • Hi Jenni,

                     Welcome to the Dee estuary group. I have just been looking through a few of your posts and came across this one. I must confess that I have never thought of breaking the fourpack rings before throwing them in the bin! I see that it makes a great deal of sense :-)  When my wife, Margaret, and I first moved into a caravan at Talacre Flintshire I was amazed at all the rubbish that is left on the beaches and in the dunes. Broken glass, plastic bottles, plastic bags by the hundreds, and even the odd hypodermic syringe. The local camp sites, council, and others crow about the miles of golden sand but never mention the dog poo, litter, or quicksands. 

                   Dismayed by what I see, I decided to try and do a little about it and produced some flyers. The smugglers cafe on Station Road Talacre gave me permission to place the flyers on their counter and I have tried to organise a regular meeting there on the second Sunday of every  month. The flyers are being taken; and I hope read. But I must say no one seems interested in attending. It is still early in the season and it is hoped that we will make some progress over the next couple of months.

                                                                                   Chris

    Perhaps together we can make a difference :)

  • oh the dog poo really annoys me as far as im conserned if your not responsible enough to pick up the poo then your not responsible enough to own a dog

  • Hi everyone, I never understood the mentality behind dropping litter, to me if I so much as lose a wrapper due to a gust of wind, I can't bare to let it get carried off without feeling as if I've committed a major crime.
    Just the mere thought of leaving litter on the ground is making me feel guilty!! I just don't get why people do it..

    The other day I was furious when following behind my dad and he "accidentally" dropped a bit of paper or some kind of wrapper in the street, my fiancé must have felt the same way as he promptly picked it up and handed it back to my dad saying "You dropped this".

    Yes, I don't even understand my own dad, there are PLENTY of bins around and if there aren't... there's always pockets on clothes! Infact often my jacket pocket gets stuffed full of litter but I'd rather that than on the ground :)

    Unfortunately the type of people who make the most mess seem to be the ones who don't care about anything but themselves, you know the noisy, vulgar and aggressive type :|
    A campaign might help raise awareness in the open minded.

    I love Columbidae.

  • anouskamorgan said:

    oh the dog poo really annoys me as far as im conserned if your not responsible enough to pick up the poo then your not responsible enough to own a dog

    As a dog owner, I couldn't agree with you more:-( Yuk!

     

  • Hi Kezsmum,

                           as I understand it; the present government is about to pass a law that insists that all dogs must be micrichipped and some people are even insisting on the return of dog licenses. I think the real answer would be to establish a license to own a dog, and the owner must pass an examination or test before being allowed to own an animal  " No licese; no dog! " Also be more active with spot fines for allowing a dog to poop and not clearing up after it.   It's no good passing bylaws and then backing them up :-(

                          I have noticed that some people actually pooper scoop whilst being observed and then chuck the bag away when no one is watching. When we had our last dog; I told people that it kept ones hands warm in Winter :-)  One morning, after a long night shift, I returned from walking Sid our dog and promptly removed some maltbread from the fridge, squeezes it into a sausage shape, popped it into a clear bag and placed it on the breakfast table before retiring to bed. I will leave it to your imaginstion what the response was from the wife! :-)

    Perhaps together we can make a difference :)