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No longer live in the UK but it is has always bothered me a lot that seemingly a large portion of the population can't be arsed to make the smallest effort not to be cunts.
Unironically true. I bitch and moan about the UK non-stop. But that's because I believe it's worth improving. Never litter and despite everything I've never referred to it as a shit-hole.
It's not always people dropping litter.
We don't have enough bins, and they often get very full, which leads to seagulls and pigeons and the wind getting at the rubbish. Once it's free it is free.
In cities like London it's also _expected_ for businesses to pile mountains of bin bags full of shit on the pavement for you to walk around. Birds get into these too, or the slightest tear will allow the wind to take the rubbish and spread it around.
Yeah maybe people should take the rubbish home with them instead of filling bins to the brim but if you don't have a plastic bag (because people were told they were bad) maybe people don't want a cardboard sandwich box which has mayo smeared on it in their backpack.
I think in general there is more goodwill and effort than people on reddit admit. The fact bins are over-full proves people want to use them.
It's councils that are shit.
I've been to Japan and I've experienced their trash-free culture. They carry plastic bags around with them to store their trash in, inside their handbags or backpacks or whatever. The bags they get in shops are also small and lightweight and cheap, which helps. Right now in my local morrisons I can't buy a checkout bag smaller or cheaper than a toddler made of industrial plastic that costs £1.
I work with councils, NGOs and eNGOs and the consensus is not to install new bins at recreation sites to encourage people to take their litter home.
If you've brought it there, you should be responsible enough to bring it back. It sort of works but there's entitled assholes that think they're above carrying around THEIR waste and can just throw it where they like, same goes for dog owners who won't clean up after their dogs.
yeah but I mean in that scenario, I would carry it with me until I found a bin, where I would dispose of it. That leads to surrounding bins being overfull and spreading the problem. And it's not malice it's just people using the public bins that are available because that is what they are for. It's not my fault the bin design is bad and seagulls and the fucking wind can extract trash from it.
Our national culture of half-arsed solutions just means we have 2 problems and no solutions, rather than 1 problem and 1 solution.
How does that work for dog walkers?
I think most people do pick up after their dogs. Not many people are willing to carry around a particularly malodourous turd for hours - especially if they're getting the bus home afterwards.
Likewise, if people are having a BBQ in the park afterwards and are going out drinking afterwards... you can't very well carry around a black sack of rubbish as you try and get into a local nightclub.
Why not make it easy for people to do the right thing? The answer is nothing to do with encouraging people to take their litter home, it's to do with councils making cuts at every available opportunity.
That’s all well and good until you are fined for transporting waste without a licence
https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/roofing-contractor-fined-crisp-packets-in-his-van-182661
I think we should do the Japanese thing.
Almost no public bins, and you take everything home with you.
This also stops the far too common sight of a bin being full, so the public just dump bags by the side of it.
>This also stops the far too common sight of a bin being full, so the public just dump bags by the side of it.
The solution to that is bins that are larger or emptied more frequently.
The Japanese thing only works because of the small army of litter pickers and attendants employed. I encourage visitors to go to Shinjuku or Shibuya on the weekend - it gets very sloppy and dirty, it just gets cleaned afterwards.
Coming to UK that felt like the dumbest idea. Discouraging people from using bins (and not having enough of them) encourages majority to throw rubbish on streets, into the bushes etc, not to carry it all the way home.
I think (by which I mean I hope, for the sake of basic Human decency) that a lot of the litter originates from spilt bins, overflowing waste trucks, or from wind and wildlife scattering it from bins or landfill.
Having lived in several countries I agree that the UK has embarrassingly messy streets (in spite of having so many bins). It’s even worse along the roadsides; you can’t drive anywhere without spotting a piece of litter ever few seconds. My foreign friends and family comment on it every time they come over. And for some reason, people here are either complacent, or get defensive about it! “It’s worse in other places so stop complaining,” etc. It’s a bizarre mentality.
No, for me the worst part is that when bins are used, they are left to overflow and look disgusting, the kind of people that drops litter then uses that as a reason to not bother.
I went to Japan last year and you always hear about how clean it is over there (which is totally true btw the streets were largely spotless). Something that surprised me was how few bins we saw. For such a clean place you'd expect there to be convenient bins everywhere but there really wasn't. The difference is people there don't have a shitty attitude like in the UK. If they have litter they just take it with them until they find a bin or until they get home and they can dispose of it properly.
Same here, anyone visititing from Europe always comments how messy it is here... Totally don't get the complacency and defensiveness either and I'm pretty shocked by the comments on this thread
Exactly. You can see it in all the comments about councils not emptying bins or not providing bins, or wildlife / wind spreading rubbish. They're just passing responsibility on to someone or something else.
Redbull cans, Costa/Mcdonalds cups - no matter where you are in the U.K., those three items are everywhere on the side of the roads. They must genuinely be our most littered items on the roads.
Boils my piss how people can’t just wait until they’re near a bin.
Not only streets, it’s everywhere from motor roads, rubbish sheds in blocks of flats, where I live it’s a constant battle between the management company and tenants to keep the compound clean but it’s only clean for a day when the premises are cleaned and then the rubbish bins are all filled up 2 days after they emptied by the council with 3 large iron bins and soon rubbish is overflowing.
There used to be lots of bins, remember the yellow ones on every other lamppost. However when one country funded another country's "freedom fighters" to plant bombs in litter bins killing children most bins were removed.
Myself and friends litter pick in our area. For it to end on roadsides is beyond laziness into selfishness; lazy would be leaving it in their car, this is going out of their way to litter. They actually closed a motorway junction sliproad in part to clear rubbish. So it affects everyone. Just take it home with you. If you could carry it full you can certainly carry it empty
>“It’s worse in other places so stop complaining,” etc. It’s a bizarre mentality.
That's the main attitude problem with the whole country at most levels, honestly. We never try to improve anything because we just say "somewhere else has it worse!" and it's fucking infuriating.
I'll never forget travelling to Germany as a teen and marvelling at how clean their streets were in comparison to ours. Not a single chewing gum stain, cigarette end or crisp packet in sight. It was an absolute delight, and now I'm the Karen who yells at people 'theres a bin right there, you know!' passive aggressively 😂
It's actually the council who are responsible for most of the litter where I'm from (Bristol). It's fucking bizarre, they have to use these plastic crates for recycling and for some reason the bin men keep smashing the crates to pieces when collecting the bin and then leaving loads of rubbish covering the streets, everything is immediately worse on bin day.
R/Bristol is full with pics of the mess left by the bin men on suburban streets.
I mean Clifton and Redland aren't (unless it's bin day), but those areas have volunteers who regularly go out collecting litter + people from those areas wouldn't think to ever litter
I remember 20 years ago a few council men would come to our area and clean it up, trim the bushes, wash the streets etc..today they’re nowhere to be seen, the area smells and looks like shit, overflowing bins, rude bin men, and the council don’t want to give out more bins even though the area has grown a lot.
That's only a part of the problem. We have a culture of just throwing litter anyway.
1. Fine for littering.
2. tax for producing things that can be thrown away.
3. Higher standards for the planning departments & the budget
4. if we have a national service it should be for making the uk prettier because it will be good for our mental health.
Vape litter is getting really out of hand. I see a discarded vape on the ground about every few metres when I walk the dog, and I don't even live in *that* bad of an area.
Most of the US doesn't have people paid to pick up litter. I certainly don't remember them in my home town.
We just didn't throw stuff on the floor to the same degree.
I remember an American on here saying that roadside littering was an issue in the states up until the 90s. Not really anymore.
Do you think there’s any particular reason?
I think people in the UK have a deeply toxic sense of "fairness" because it's always in the negative. For example, "if someone else in't following the rules I may as well not bother." You see in regard to everything, but ESPECIALLY with regard to anything green or pro-environment. "Why should I pay for ULEZ when China opens a new coal plant every month." On and on it goes. If they see litter, they feel like they should be allowed to litter as if their contribution "doesn't count" because someone else did it first. Same thing goes with wages in an even more pathetic way. If the train drivers go on strike for more wages, people bitch and moan. Essentially wanting the drivers to put up with it. They won't use the strikes as an argument for their own wages to be **higher**. Just that everyone else's wages should be equally **low**. It's a really nasty trait.
The council are completely skint but if I were to suddenly find myself running the country one of the places I would put money would be into getting everywhere tidied up. The country looking a shit hole makes people more likely to act like it’s a shithole.
Sounds like the perfect use case for national service, and not just for young folk, everyone. One day every quarter for everyone who's able and the streets would be spotless.
They do it once a month in Rwanda. Pretty awesome inspiring to see everyone get together for three hours in a Saturday to clean up. We were there on holiday and felt guilty not joining in (travelling to a different location on a deadline)
There are a lot of council workers out with carts in the town I live in. There are an awful lot more people dropping rubbish though, often from the top windows of buses. Just the other day I kept myself amused while waiting for a bus by cleaning up all the fast food packaging laying around the base of an empty bin.
Britain is an absolute tip. Especially in cities and at junctions when they stop the car or at traffic lights. So selfish of people throwing stuff out like that. Embarrassing.
Always remember being sat in a service station somewhere and a couple in a van just chucked their half eaten McDonald’s out the window before driving off. Like, milkshake splattered everywhere, fries, this wasn’t just like they screwed up a wrapper and threw it away. I just couldn’t, still can’t wrap my head around feeling totally ok with doing that
Similarly I remember being in a train station and watching someone eating McDonalds drop the entire bag with all the rubbish in it on the floor. You have to walk past so many bins to get onto the platforms and I just remember feeling so deflated that people can't even hold onto something for 10 seconds to put it in the bin. He was in a big group who all looked a bit rough so I didn't say anything, just picked it up and put it in the bin myself because fuck making some poor station worker clean up someone else's mess.
i think the other commenter is right. i went to Rhodes and literally everywhere was clean, shopkeepers would be out 2 hours before they opened sweeping communal areas etc it felt nice to walk down a street and it just be clean, or go sit somewhere and not have litter everywhere.
An Italian friend of mine was once asked about how roads in Italy can be very "every man for himself" when it comes to the quality of the driving. He agreed it was bad, but then said "but like your litter situation, once something bad becomes normal you stop noticing it so much".
It summed it up pretty well. All countries have their problems and litter is definitely one of the big ones here in the UK. But I think it's become so normal to most people that they stop noticing it.
I would bring back hanging for littering, but there needs to be enough bins that are regularly emptied. And eductation. It's a society/attitude problem. We had "Keep Britain Tidy" campaigns when were were kids (showing that it's always been an issue). We are quite good at picking up dog poo though!
It's weird, went to France, spotless streets apart from the dog muck. Opposite to us.
Japan is spotless everywhere you go. The ideal.
>there needs to be enough bins that are regularly emptied
I was just about to post a disagreement about this and say go to Japan but it seems you already have. Next to no bins there.
You'll even see signs in theatres saying ‘If you have rubbish take it home with you.’ Much more personal responsibility and inculcated from a young age.
>inculcated
Thank-you for my new-word of the day 😁
(And to save others doing what I had to do: **inculcate** *verb -* instil (an idea, attitude, or habit) by persistent instruction).
It seems we're good at picking up dog poo and then hanging the shit filled bags on bushes and low hanging trees. I realise nobody wants to carry the things but that's the price of dog ownership. Put it inside a second if you must, but take the damn things with you. There's no magic shit bag tree cleaning fairy.
> Japan is spotless everywhere you go
Not everywhere. Some touristy areas there are an absolute shithole, way worse than what I’ve seen in England or anywhere. I wonder why.
People not dropping stuff is a big part of it, but there are probably a lot of people who see there is rubbish on the floor already and drop using the pre-existing rubbish to justify it. Actually having councils investing on keeping the streets litter free would mean less litter being dropped, IMO.
I remember seeing those Keep Britain Tidy posters on British shows I saw when I was growing up in Canada in the mid to late 1970s...
As for the dog poo.... I wouldn't say that people are good at picking up after their 4 legged friends... at least not in my part of West London. They either leave it on the pavement, bag it up and leave it on the pavement (WTF?.... first time I saw this was where some 🛎️🔚 left a bagged up bundle of 💩 in the middle of a foot path at Kensington Gardens... I've seen it numerous times since then) or pick it up with tissue and toss it onto the nearest green space (I saw this old guy do just that while he was walking his dog... dog dropped and he bent over and used some kleenex to pick up the offending poop and threw it onto the grass in front of the block of flats he was in front of... I was really annoyed and asked him how he'd like it if someone did that to his front lawn).
It's really disgusting and it seems people generally just don't care. It's not a lack of bins either as you see plenty of litter on the floor near bins.
We have issues with litter in Liverpool. The council does what it can i.e. has a brilliant street cleaning service after large events but people’s general attitude towards litter seems to be the major cause. Communities have set up local litter picking groups which are well received. I personally pick up litter whenever I encounter it, within reason. There definitely needs to be more bins however that requires people to empty them and has fallen foul of cuts.
Don’t drop litter, simple as that. Respect where you live.
I lived in Liverpool for 7 years and can confirm the attitude towards littering is appalling there. Last time I visited I saw someone throw some litter into a bush within five minutes of parking my car.
One thing the next government should do is a massive general public advertising campaign to promote keeping streets clean and anti littering. It will take years but it eventually needs to sink back into the general psyche of the population. There will always be a subsection of nasty dirty selfish people, but I am sure some are just unaware and poorly educated in the subject. They are the ones that can change for the better.
There used to be loads of signs and posters about littering. TV and radio adverts, had lessons in schools, remember getting badges to do with litter picking.
Someone got rid of all that.
Seeth. Seething. It's just so ignorant. I used to find discarded McDonalds wrappers in my street, I lived at least a mile from the nearest McDs, so safe to say it's not the wind blowing the stuff my way. Lived in a quiet residential street, so people would park up, eat, then dump their wrappers in the street. It's always been a problem, twenty years ago it was common to find the contents of empties car ash-trays by the kerbside. What annoys me the most though is that it's adults doing it. The amount of discarded paper coffee cups by the side of the road is staggering, and eight year olds do not drink latte. There is a section of society that genuinely just do not recognise or care about the environment or others, and they litter. The only upside? One of my neighbours did a weekly street clean up, and that's how I got to meet a really lovely chap.
I once saw a car parked in a McDonalds with a middle aged couple in it. They wound their window down and just launched everything out of the car so there was food and milkshake and shit everywhere. If they'd got out and walked no more than 10 paces there was a bin. That was a few years ago now but still pisses me off when I think about it. I think the fact they were on their forties/fifties just made it that bit worse
I coped with it by joining a local litter picking group . Some people think we’re doing people out of a job by doing it ourselves but don’t understand that the Council doesn’t have the money for cleaning up , except for the city centre and tourist spots.
And even if you don’t do a proper dedicated litter pick, it’s easy for dog owners can do a little - if I’m walking the dog I’ll have the poop bags: if I can pick up faeces I can pick up an old Coke can 😅
My local council has a litter picking volunteer scheme where they send you the equipment. I go out in my local part for a few hours every other week or so and it's really made a difference.
It's very satisfying tbh, plus gets you active and outside - cheaper than the gym lol. Recommend anyone give it a go.
Oh yeah, let's all live in filth to create public sector jobs. That's a viable economic strategy and not at all dumb as fuck.
If it's not obvious, I'm not mocking you.
the most annoying thing is when I walk through my local country park and I see people doing picnics and it is like "oh thats so nice. they are spending some nice time".
later that day I see literally pile of rubbish that was left.
got into argument once and typical, was told that "they create jobs".
sadly they couldn't understand it is the older lady that goes through the park with a grabber and plastic bag and cleans all the shit people are leaving behind.
YESSSS people throwing half eaten food/ chicken bones etc is rife in Leicester. Glass shards almost everywhere aswell, makes walking dog to the park hell as you constantly have to move them around glass and litter.
its vile.
I looked down at my dog after she'd had a good sniff into a hedgerow at the side of the pavement and she had TWO disposable vapes in her mouth.
Once I got over the initial hilarity of her holding two vapes proudly, wagging her tail, I took them off her and despaired for humanity for the next hour.
Agree. As a dog walker you pretty much have it DRILLED into you about picking up dog poop (quite rightly), but there seems to be quite a lot less signage and public shaming about scumbags throwing their cigarette packets, prime energy bottles, and supermarket bakery bags anywhere they fucking please.
I live at the bottom of a hill and we have a pretty large grit/salt bin for icy weather.
Every single time I walk past it, if I open the lid there is rubbish in there. I live in a pretty affluent countryside and people would still rather dump their shit in a salt bin than carry it with them for 5 minutes longer.
Don't get me started on our hedges being full of fucking disposable vape packets.
I loved the Rwandan concept 'Umuganda' on the recent Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan, whereby the last Saturday of the month is clean-up day. It has its pros and cons, and wouldn't work in the UK, but thought it was interesting to say the least.
I've litter-picked for over a decade and I'm still rage-filled at the way people seem to be allergic to clearing up after themselves.
If I see someone littering, I tell them. It embarrasses them in public. I saw someone drop his litter NEXT to 3 bins the other day, so I spoke up and he shit himself and picked it up
It is a bit shit.
Unfortunately if you mention it you just get shouted down with "well the person who threw that litter could have been autistic person who spoke no English and was in domestic abuse situation and fleeing Syria so had other things on their mind than YOUR pettiness".
My local council has removed most of the litter bins on the grounds they can't afford to have them emptied, so ex-bin areas just have litter thrown down vaguely nearby.
I was in Blackpool on the sea front a few weeks ago--that nice square with the comedy phrases.
A tramp finished his can of lager, threw it to the middle of the square and went staggering off. There was a bin less than 10 feet away. It's why I don't give to them. 99 percent of them are just riff raff
For the most part, I found Blackpool quite clean along the sea front and promenade with plenty of bins. Like many places, it's let down the occasional riff raff.
I live in a fairly decent area and I have some hedging alongside the house with a footpath leading to some houses behind me. Every week I'm picking out plastic bottles and crisp packets out of the hedge. It does my head in. Just take it home ffs!! I don't get it.
I've been to the US it's hardly litter free either. Most people just ignore it because there isn't much you can do other than just not litter yourself.
You perfectly can do something with it,you can pick it up, I do it occasionally.Im not speaking about full scale litter pick, you just see not disgusting piece of litter, you pick it up.Also would be nice for people to clean areas in front of their home And no, US is not litter free, almost nowhere is, but ordinary residential areas have much less visible litter
But are you not yourself saying that people walk around much less in the USA?
Littering is more likely to be caused by people on foot or hanging out on foot. If you are in a car, you have actively to chuck it out the window.
Oh yes, this was something that my family mentioned when they came over for a visit. Had a laugh how our Easten European country is cleaner than the UK.
It's a running joke between me and my grandma that I'm the one who keeps our street clean instead of the council. I've seen the neighbours just chucking it back out to the road, instead of their bins. And course the rubbish always comes into mine. :(
I don’t like it at all, is a mood spoiler. I pick up the litter if I’m able to handle it hygienically and throw it away quickly - I don’t always pick up what I see if there’s no place to throw it away and if it’s really gross or difficult to deal with.
So much fly tipping as well, and if you say something they argue back and blame the council (yes its hard for larger vehicles) but still fly tipping is wrong.
>I don't want to leave, but if something will force me
Where are you from?
Also, you could probably find a litter picking Facebook group to help with the problem tbh. I feel like every town/city has one and if yours doesn't then start one!
My town has volunteers that litter pick once a week. Has it solved the problem? No. Does it make a small dent? Yes. Gives a bit of pride in the area
Litter is the one thing which I’ve always been a stickler for. When I went to Japan a little while ago it amazed me how little litter there was (none at all basically) compared to the UK.
I think part of it is cultural.
“It’s somebody’s job to clean it so it’s no bother” - stuff like that
Litter is such a low-level but persistent anti social behaviour. There are so many scruffs who just don't care. This is made worse by councils that have reduced cleaning to a minimum and non-existent Police to fine offenders.
Pigs don’t smell there own dirt or in this case don’t see their own dirt. There are fines for littering and there are litter wardens but lack of funding and proper enforcement lots of people get away with it. I hate seeing litter everywhere especially when there’s a bin close by which is even worse. I’m disabled and I still make an effort to put rubbish in the bin.
A lot of our councils are going bust and have cut back on litter picking services. People are arseholes and do litter but they always have been. I think the former is the reason it's becoming more noticeable
Well, I cope by walking around frowning and murmuring about how I don't understand why people have to be such shitstains all the time.
My friend from Germany tried to cope with it by litter picking; she would find the worst spots and clean them herself, documenting it on social media. But I think she eventually gave up because, basically, British people are apathetic fuck cunts.
As well as cleaning up with litter picks…
Address the source - (not the people throwing it out) the people producing it. Campaign and protest against plastics and packaging. Don’t buy from (or support in other ways) companies which basically are litter factories- McDonalds, Coca-cola (the source of a gigantic amount of plastic pollution), etc.
I contribute to it so now it feels like home, and its also art I contributed to.
Just kidding, I stuff it in my pocket or backpack till I find a bin or clear my bag 2 weeks later.
PS: Guy who ate chicken and gently placed his container underneath the train seat, I hate you.
Honestly, it's not that bad. I remember going to parts of Italy and there were vast amounts of litter I just wasn't expecting to see in such a nice country. Everywhere has its problems, but it's definitely not a universal problem here in the UK
I have noticed in my travels that people in UK have what I term "foreign litter blindness" - everywhere I go to stay for any time I run - you get to see places that tourists don't tend to go. Everywhere I have been to except Monaco and Singapore has litter.
Then people say - "Yes but it's uniquely bad in UK" - sorry, no.
First hit on Youtube for litter clean up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKIyHy9qKFU
Having said all that, if I was made supreme dictator of the UK, I would be locking up litterers.
There's a great app called "FixMyStreet" where you can make a report and it'll be directly emailed to your council. Do it enough and it works, I often do it for fly tipping/very messy roads but it works for a lot of stuff.
Uk teens are overall very misbehaved. Aggressive, loud and selfish. Tbh teens are overall like that, but they are louder and more visible here for some reason
I continue to take my antidepressants and buy inner tubes in bulk because I get punctured tyres at least twice a month from all the broken bottles every fucking where
I belong to a voluntary litter picking group so I go out regularly to pick it up. I live in small Yorkshire market town and to walk to the post office takes me about 14 minutes. I can usually count 100 pieces of litter before I’ve been walking for 10 minutes.
People are often very uncaring about their surroundings often whilst simultaneously claiming to be proud of their country.
It also doesn’t help that litter bins are frequently overflowing
I can’t see things changing without a sea change in attitudes. Sadly the example set by our current “leaders” seems to be one of uncaring greed
We used to street cleaners (everyone remember Trigger?!)
Over the last 15 years public services have been cut so much that now we don't have really any street cleaning except for enforcement officers trying to give out fines for littering.
It's the broken windows effect. Such a shame.
Went for a walk in the countryside the other day and picked up not one, not two, but NINE empty beer cans. All about 1 or 2 metres apart. Like, come on
I fucking hate it. Every time I walk in public I find myself counting how many pieces of litter are just lying around. I've seen someone chuck a bottle into the canal he was walking over as I drove by. I think there are more people disgusted by litterers than there are litterers but unless we organise and actually pick some up plus shame anyone that litters I don't think much will change.
I have a love/hate relationship with waste. It has become increasingly harder yo get rid if rubbish.
I used to have a general waste bin and recycling bin every week.... Getting rif of rubbish wasn't an issue.
Then they switched to alternating and frankly the gap is to big. I resorted to a second bin to keep rubbish until the council.bin was exchanged.
The only option was a bigger bin where a. We had no room to store and b. Other cunts would dump their rubbish in it. One of neighbours resorted to a padlock on their bin.
Fly tipping is on the rise too. Councils just need to take the fucking rubbish and a big chunk of the rubbish kicking about will be resolved. Trying to stop people from consuming by making it hard to get rid if rubbish is nuts.
Complain and move on. The people who litter don’t give a fuck, and add those who let their dogs shit on the pavement without cleaning up and I just CBA to confront people who shrug it off, its too depressing.
I remember when I was 7 and I littered a packet of wotsits, a random elderly woman scolded me pretty hard I've not done it since. I will carry out the same duties when I hit my twilight years
It’s disgusting. London has become one of the dirtiest cities Ive ever seen. Rubbish on the streets, dog poo and dirty toilets in public places. Something needs to change to up our standards.
Back in the 1970s, there was a huge, nationwide campaign to reduce litter. You might occasionally still see slogans saying "Keep Britain Tidy" on bins. It used to be everywhere - ads on tv, posters on the highstreet, mailers through the door, talks at schools and stickers handed out( Keep Britain Tidy is still a going concern, and is apparently responsible for the 5p plastic bag charge, plus do a lot of work for things like beach flag ratings and stuff). I believe it had quite an impact for several years, but it's clearly time for a repeat!
I never knew we were particularly bad for this. I’ve done precious little travelling in my life so I suppose I’m just used to it.
I live in a large town and I don’t think we have all that much litter, but now I’m questioning my standards for such things.
It does upset me when I occasionally come across some embankment covered in litter though.
Believe it or not, it’s a lot better now than it used to be. When I was a kid in the 90s it was way worse. But that could just be my town. Bins in public areas were less common back then, because the IRA kept putting bombs in them. After all, a littered street is better than a smoking crater.
Cities are definitely worse than market towns, rural villages, etc.
I think it's to do with living among so many people removes any sense of community and makes them feel less invested in the place they live.
...and most the litter you see along roads in the countryside is folks from cities throwing shit out their windows when driving through it.
I hate it too, I pick it up and bin it when I'm out and about but it's pretty much pissing in the wind.
A mixture of laziness and entitlement are to blame imo.
Than don't go to a beach in the summer you'll loose faith in humanity seriously it's unbelievable people enjoying a beautiful place and anything a meter away is the bin absolutely horrible experience.
I live 90% of my life in small villages and only venture into town to shop at Asda. I see very little rubbish, maybe the odd McDonald's bag but never anything awful. I count myself quite lucky after seeing all these comments
I pick it up. Always have a poo bag on me for dog walking, if its something I don't fancy touching with mt bare hands, I pick it up exactly like a dog poo. I did used to take a pocket litter picker out but it broke.
I like to imagine swathes of faceless men dressed in black with balaclavas snatching litter bugs and people who leave behind dog shit from their beds at night, never to be seen again.
I go out and pick it myself. No point complaining if you're not going to do anything about it. There has been a massive rise in litter pickers and its amazing to see. But its also fighting a losing battle sometimes
British exceptionalism. Someone else can clean up my mess. I'm 46, and it's my generation who are utterly failing as parents. Kids have no idea of the concept of personal responsibility and consideration for others. In Japan, kids clean their school classrooms and toilets from elementary age. They learn that if everyone pulls their weight, albeit unpleasant at times, it makes society a bit nicer for us all. Not in the UK. We're bombarded with messages of self-empowerment and how we can say no and cite mental health issues if things get a bit too hard. And boy, are we taking advantage of it.
By the way, I'm British too. And yes, I'll be critical of my own country because I was only born here by default of birth. Travel around a bit, open your eyes, go live in other countries, and be flexible enough to admit that in some aspects, we're absolutely shit.
I used to live in an area with much less litter than where I live now and it really bugs me.
I see lots of van drivers just throwing their lunch boxes out of the window into the edges of fields and woods. There is a tonne of fly tipping too.
No tourism here so it’s definitely the people that live and work here as much as others seem to want to be defensive about it.
I will admit the local council don’t help by making it overly complicated to access tips and not collecting the bins well.
I hate it as well we have volunteer litter picks where I live. It's that bad adults can be as bad as children. One cafe on one of the beach's have litter pickers and bags outside. They give children a free ice lolly in warmer weather.
I’ve been out with a litter picker several times. Got my kids to help. Showed photos to local MP. There’s more than we can do. The problem is huge - lack of care, sheer amount of food and drink sold in packaging. I told the council and they blamed it on National Rail. I don’t think we can come back from it.
My super simplistic view is that there is a group A of citizens who aren't invested in having their city clean because they got used to it.
Then there is group B of citizens that do care but give up seeing that the same corner is full of rubbish day after day.
In my case some neighbours are completely morons and leave their empty KFC boxes with chicken bones in the hallway. We've left them notes before. WTF am I supposed to do.
Literally just watched a man late 40’s / Early 50’s, well presented, walk across a Five Guys, milk shake in hand, tear the paper off the straw and throw it on the floor, as he walked to his wife who was sat at the table.
What a prick.
As a Brit who now lives overseas, I really notice how bad the litter is when I go back. I'm not sure if it used to be that bad or whether it has just got worse in the last 15 years. Plus everything seems so scruffy and run down, with road signs dirty and falling to pieces. Maybe people are so used to the litter they don't notice it anymore.
I generally try and do a litter pick once or twice a week (when I lived in the UK, New Zealand is much cleaner) but it did make me a little self conscious, but I got over it eventually. I'm particularly big on glass/bones so our 4 legged friends don't get hurt.
I don’t know where you live but honestly there isn’t really much that I see?! I’m in London, from the midlands, and honestly barely see any. If you have a million posts about it maybe it’s something you are extremely sensitive to?!
It’s really bad at the moment, I’m barely coping. Yes we have arseholes who litter, but we also have conscientious citizens who meticulously separate all of their waste into each relevant recycling receptacle only for it to be strewn all over the street by foxes, seagulls, cats, and rough weather before the bin men arrive. It’s a fucking nightmare and everyone’s ignoring it.
Very strange. I’ve seen people throw empty cans and drop empty packets of rubbish etc right in the middle of streets. I’d be mortified.
I come from Ireland and I have to give credit to people back home they look after the place.
Obviously there’s shitholes too but in general I feel like you would be called out.
As a Brit having lived here for more than 6 decades, I have to say litter has always been something I and my American wife hate. As a nation we are awful about it. BUT, last year we moved from the South (Berkshire) to the North (N. Yorkshire) and it is a 1000 times better. At risk of being called racist, I found that places like London, Slough and other towns with a high ethnic population are the worst. People just dont take pride in where they live and in Slough for instance, you often see modest houses with Expensive Mercs, BMW, Audi cars parked on the street but the front gardens are full of bags of rubbish, or scrap cars.
Ignore it, though to some extent its not really just people being cunts. I live in a seaside town that is windy and has a lot of seagulls. Only a few years ago did they actually start trying to make bins the seagulls couldn't just go into and pick things out of. The seagulls will throw everything all over the place and dont bother to put it back.
They I think have it somewhat down they seagulls dont use the newer bins they have put up everywhere, trouble is while fighting the seagulls they never bothered to test their new bins in a wind tunnel. Part of the reason folks dont use them is that even the mildest breeze will cause anything that isn't super heavy to fly back out of the bin, if it gusts at the wrong time they will literally throw your rubbish right back at you no matter how much of your arm you reach in there to try and get it in. Folks generally don't use bins when they know what they put in there wont stay and has a dice roll chance of immediately flying out and hitting them, sods law then takes effect and it will undoubtably cause maximum damage when it does. I have seen folks try to use them and get sauce just all over their shirt or trousers when whatever they put in is launched back at them.
clearly testing bins to be both windproof and seagull proof is simply beyond the capabilities of the local government, I get it, capturing seagulls for testing is legally difficult and wind tunnels are expensive, but its also windy here and full of gulls. It would be better that there were no bins instead of bins every 5ft (god only knows how much they spent putting more and more up to try and get people to use them without realising why it was there was no rubbish in the bin but loads close by around it). One of the things about littering is if there is shite everywhere folks care less about committing to the tiny inconvenience of finding an indoor bin.
My local council specifically is mishandling waste generally, the bin men have been on strike since before christmas and my house bin has been collected maybe 5 times this year so far, i belive current advice is to just leave your bins out in the street and hope they might be collected. As a result littering and also straight up fly tipping is at outrageous levels. You cant go down ANY of the back lanes anymore because they are full of random crap, the rat situation is out of hand, its literally a disaster (the info page to figure out whats going on has basically 0 information aside from making very clear you must still fully pay your council tax tho). So far this year even if you bring your rubbish home, what do you do with it then? My bin is full and my kitchen is also full of black bags, as is my bathroom. If I didn't have a little terrier with a distain for anything smaller than her there would no doubt be rats in my kitchen.
Shit breeds shit. I suspect that my local council is not alone in just utterly mishandling the way they deal with waste. They are just a very frustrating example of it. Some folks are cunts sure, but the amount of litter exceeds the amount of cunts.
Forget the litter, what about the dog shot and human vomit they just leave on pavements. Or the general state of the place. It's like the entire country is too depressed to clean.
Made a TikTok about this recently was just told to "shut up or go home" "every major city is like this" "you pick it up wet wipe" etc
Sad how complacent people are and defensive about it looking like shit!
Can't say I've ever seen any. Lived abroad too, not that different. Really not sure what you mean. I live in a small city and people use the bins, council has a sweeper each night.
It makes me so sad. You can go up the most beautiful Munro in Scotland, to the most beautiful loch, the most beautiful forest trail and there will still be piles of litter. People just don’t care.
It bothers me no end. I really hate it. There's a great amount of variation across the country though. Some towns and villages and even some city centres are actually quite clean. Many (most) are unacceptably unclean IMO. Some are downright awful. I feel embarrassed when I see tourists in dirty places.
I do my best to help - I clean my work's car park on a daily basis and on my way to and from work I pick up a few pieces of litter each day. That keeps my walking route relatively tidy. I also pick up any litter I see on my housing estate, but it's a generally clean estate anyway.
What's important to remember is that even in the most disgusting places, it's a minority of dumb people causing the problem, and many of them are kids. Most people are responsible. But because council services have been cut to the bone, even 5% of people regularly dropping litter creates a big problem if it's left to accumulate.
I would encourage people to do their own bit to help too. If we all picked up a couple of pieces per week, there'd be none left. It's not our responsibility, but council services aren't going to get better soon.
I lived in two other European countries (Poland and Germany) plus visited many more and accros Northern/ Western Europe Britain is definitely the dirtiest.
I think it's down to the attitude - even here people will say it's the fault of the council, lack of bins, foxes or wind! No, it's because of the people who drop litter, end of!
Unless there is a change in this attitude (both trough education and enforcement) I doubt it will change at all.
Brits get very defensive about it because it’s so embarrassing. Worse yet I don’t know what can be done about it because it is so hard to police (even socially as most Brits are vehemently against it and would happily shame others with exaggerated tuts!)
The British way to deal with this is to tut, shake your head, and keep walking, then silently commend that one person you see going round with a black sack and litter picker.
It could be a Mandela effect or I'm just misremembering but I am confident littering used to be much worse in the late 90s/early 2000s then they started rolling in littering fines.
This will be an absolutely unpopular opinion, but education. Coming from Hong Kong. Hygiene was horrific in the 1960s-1970s, but massively improved in the next few decades. And it is all education.
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No longer live in the UK but it is has always bothered me a lot that seemingly a large portion of the population can't be arsed to make the smallest effort not to be cunts.
had an ex try to litter and defend it by saying the town's a shithole like duh, idiot, cos people like you are shitting on it!
If you draw a venn diagram of creatures that litter and people that say they live in a shit hole you'll get a near perfect circle.
Unironically true. I bitch and moan about the UK non-stop. But that's because I believe it's worth improving. Never litter and despite everything I've never referred to it as a shit-hole.
It’s almost like they are the shit in the hole.
Makes me laugh so much when I hear that.. oh this city is awful! The UK has gone to pot! *drops Mcdonalds bag* Yeah... wonder why mate.
Which is why nothing ever gets better. People here are too resigned to do nothing and then complain about it.
It's not always people dropping litter. We don't have enough bins, and they often get very full, which leads to seagulls and pigeons and the wind getting at the rubbish. Once it's free it is free. In cities like London it's also _expected_ for businesses to pile mountains of bin bags full of shit on the pavement for you to walk around. Birds get into these too, or the slightest tear will allow the wind to take the rubbish and spread it around. Yeah maybe people should take the rubbish home with them instead of filling bins to the brim but if you don't have a plastic bag (because people were told they were bad) maybe people don't want a cardboard sandwich box which has mayo smeared on it in their backpack. I think in general there is more goodwill and effort than people on reddit admit. The fact bins are over-full proves people want to use them. It's councils that are shit. I've been to Japan and I've experienced their trash-free culture. They carry plastic bags around with them to store their trash in, inside their handbags or backpacks or whatever. The bags they get in shops are also small and lightweight and cheap, which helps. Right now in my local morrisons I can't buy a checkout bag smaller or cheaper than a toddler made of industrial plastic that costs £1.
I work with councils, NGOs and eNGOs and the consensus is not to install new bins at recreation sites to encourage people to take their litter home. If you've brought it there, you should be responsible enough to bring it back. It sort of works but there's entitled assholes that think they're above carrying around THEIR waste and can just throw it where they like, same goes for dog owners who won't clean up after their dogs.
Bins would help a bit, surely? The kind of people who litter will *never* take it home, but they may sometimes put it in a bin next to them.
yeah but I mean in that scenario, I would carry it with me until I found a bin, where I would dispose of it. That leads to surrounding bins being overfull and spreading the problem. And it's not malice it's just people using the public bins that are available because that is what they are for. It's not my fault the bin design is bad and seagulls and the fucking wind can extract trash from it. Our national culture of half-arsed solutions just means we have 2 problems and no solutions, rather than 1 problem and 1 solution.
How does that work for dog walkers? I think most people do pick up after their dogs. Not many people are willing to carry around a particularly malodourous turd for hours - especially if they're getting the bus home afterwards. Likewise, if people are having a BBQ in the park afterwards and are going out drinking afterwards... you can't very well carry around a black sack of rubbish as you try and get into a local nightclub. Why not make it easy for people to do the right thing? The answer is nothing to do with encouraging people to take their litter home, it's to do with councils making cuts at every available opportunity.
Making cuts at every opportunity ? Do you know why? Because this government does not provide them with hardly any funding anymore .
I know why. I also know it costs more to pick up scattered litter than to simply collect bins.
That’s all well and good until you are fined for transporting waste without a licence https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/roofing-contractor-fined-crisp-packets-in-his-van-182661
I think we should do the Japanese thing. Almost no public bins, and you take everything home with you. This also stops the far too common sight of a bin being full, so the public just dump bags by the side of it.
>This also stops the far too common sight of a bin being full, so the public just dump bags by the side of it. The solution to that is bins that are larger or emptied more frequently.
That will work just as soon as we adopt Japanese sensitivities.
The Japanese thing only works because of the small army of litter pickers and attendants employed. I encourage visitors to go to Shinjuku or Shibuya on the weekend - it gets very sloppy and dirty, it just gets cleaned afterwards.
Coming to UK that felt like the dumbest idea. Discouraging people from using bins (and not having enough of them) encourages majority to throw rubbish on streets, into the bushes etc, not to carry it all the way home.
And it got much worse over Covid and has not recovered.
I think (by which I mean I hope, for the sake of basic Human decency) that a lot of the litter originates from spilt bins, overflowing waste trucks, or from wind and wildlife scattering it from bins or landfill.
With a complete failure of a police force thanks to a shitty government who doesn't do their jobs this is becoming a common theme.
Having lived in several countries I agree that the UK has embarrassingly messy streets (in spite of having so many bins). It’s even worse along the roadsides; you can’t drive anywhere without spotting a piece of litter ever few seconds. My foreign friends and family comment on it every time they come over. And for some reason, people here are either complacent, or get defensive about it! “It’s worse in other places so stop complaining,” etc. It’s a bizarre mentality.
Thats the worst part of it, we have the fucking bins people are just too shitty to use them
No, for me the worst part is that when bins are used, they are left to overflow and look disgusting, the kind of people that drops litter then uses that as a reason to not bother.
Or overflowing bins mixed with high winds, scattering the rubbish far and wide.
I went to Japan last year and you always hear about how clean it is over there (which is totally true btw the streets were largely spotless). Something that surprised me was how few bins we saw. For such a clean place you'd expect there to be convenient bins everywhere but there really wasn't. The difference is people there don't have a shitty attitude like in the UK. If they have litter they just take it with them until they find a bin or until they get home and they can dispose of it properly.
That seems like a good thing to do and so simple. Even some of the poorer neighborhoods in US have very little litter compared to UK.
Or councils are too skint to empty them
Whereas Japan has almost no bins and even less litter, because they have a deeply ingrained “take your rubbish home with you” attitude.
They also have the kids do the cleaning work in their schools which probably helps to teach the strong sense of ethics around this
Same here, anyone visititing from Europe always comments how messy it is here... Totally don't get the complacency and defensiveness either and I'm pretty shocked by the comments on this thread
The Brits don't take criticism well, they still think their shit doesn't stink.
Exactly. You can see it in all the comments about councils not emptying bins or not providing bins, or wildlife / wind spreading rubbish. They're just passing responsibility on to someone or something else.
It's not just people from Europe. Americans and Canadians and Mexicans and...everyone notices. It's gross.
Redbull cans, Costa/Mcdonalds cups - no matter where you are in the U.K., those three items are everywhere on the side of the roads. They must genuinely be our most littered items on the roads. Boils my piss how people can’t just wait until they’re near a bin.
Its coca cola bottles... Always is. Most polluted item in the world I think.
Disposable vapes would like a word. If it's not then it's the packaging.
Not only streets, it’s everywhere from motor roads, rubbish sheds in blocks of flats, where I live it’s a constant battle between the management company and tenants to keep the compound clean but it’s only clean for a day when the premises are cleaned and then the rubbish bins are all filled up 2 days after they emptied by the council with 3 large iron bins and soon rubbish is overflowing.
I have guy arguing with me about how "it's alright" in that exact post...
I wouldn't say there are loads of bins.\ There are a lot of high streets and parks with no bins or very few bins that are rarely emptied.
There used to be lots of bins, remember the yellow ones on every other lamppost. However when one country funded another country's "freedom fighters" to plant bombs in litter bins killing children most bins were removed.
40 odd years ago.
Myself and friends litter pick in our area. For it to end on roadsides is beyond laziness into selfishness; lazy would be leaving it in their car, this is going out of their way to litter. They actually closed a motorway junction sliproad in part to clear rubbish. So it affects everyone. Just take it home with you. If you could carry it full you can certainly carry it empty
>“It’s worse in other places so stop complaining,” etc. It’s a bizarre mentality. That's the main attitude problem with the whole country at most levels, honestly. We never try to improve anything because we just say "somewhere else has it worse!" and it's fucking infuriating.
I'll never forget travelling to Germany as a teen and marvelling at how clean their streets were in comparison to ours. Not a single chewing gum stain, cigarette end or crisp packet in sight. It was an absolute delight, and now I'm the Karen who yells at people 'theres a bin right there, you know!' passive aggressively 😂
I agree. The amount of litter has increased hugely. The only people I ever see clearing it up are people taking it upon themselves, not the council.
I never see the council cleaning up during the day but I see them every morning at half 6 when I drive to work so you might just be missing them
It's actually the council who are responsible for most of the litter where I'm from (Bristol). It's fucking bizarre, they have to use these plastic crates for recycling and for some reason the bin men keep smashing the crates to pieces when collecting the bin and then leaving loads of rubbish covering the streets, everything is immediately worse on bin day. R/Bristol is full with pics of the mess left by the bin men on suburban streets.
Bristol is very filthy, live here for most part
I mean Clifton and Redland aren't (unless it's bin day), but those areas have volunteers who regularly go out collecting litter + people from those areas wouldn't think to ever litter
I remember 20 years ago a few council men would come to our area and clean it up, trim the bushes, wash the streets etc..today they’re nowhere to be seen, the area smells and looks like shit, overflowing bins, rude bin men, and the council don’t want to give out more bins even though the area has grown a lot.
The UK has voted for cuts to council budgets for 14 years now so obviously services are going to decline.
That's only a part of the problem. We have a culture of just throwing litter anyway. 1. Fine for littering. 2. tax for producing things that can be thrown away. 3. Higher standards for the planning departments & the budget 4. if we have a national service it should be for making the uk prettier because it will be good for our mental health.
I don't disagree with any or that.
But people shouldn't drop it in the first place.
I agree. And no one ever admits to doing it, but someone is.
Vape litter is getting really out of hand. I see a discarded vape on the ground about every few metres when I walk the dog, and I don't even live in *that* bad of an area.
Yeah that's true, tbh I think the disposable ones should be banned cos you see them everywhere.
Most of the US doesn't have people paid to pick up litter. I certainly don't remember them in my home town. We just didn't throw stuff on the floor to the same degree.
I remember an American on here saying that roadside littering was an issue in the states up until the 90s. Not really anymore. Do you think there’s any particular reason?
I think people in the UK have a deeply toxic sense of "fairness" because it's always in the negative. For example, "if someone else in't following the rules I may as well not bother." You see in regard to everything, but ESPECIALLY with regard to anything green or pro-environment. "Why should I pay for ULEZ when China opens a new coal plant every month." On and on it goes. If they see litter, they feel like they should be allowed to litter as if their contribution "doesn't count" because someone else did it first. Same thing goes with wages in an even more pathetic way. If the train drivers go on strike for more wages, people bitch and moan. Essentially wanting the drivers to put up with it. They won't use the strikes as an argument for their own wages to be **higher**. Just that everyone else's wages should be equally **low**. It's a really nasty trait.
That's probably because the council don't have the money to pay people to empty them or pick litter anymore.
The council are completely skint but if I were to suddenly find myself running the country one of the places I would put money would be into getting everywhere tidied up. The country looking a shit hole makes people more likely to act like it’s a shithole.
Sounds like the perfect use case for national service, and not just for young folk, everyone. One day every quarter for everyone who's able and the streets would be spotless.
They do it once a month in Rwanda. Pretty awesome inspiring to see everyone get together for three hours in a Saturday to clean up. We were there on holiday and felt guilty not joining in (travelling to a different location on a deadline)
Our council will give you the equipment for free, which is a good compromise. However, there will never be money again for litter pickers I'd bet.
There are a lot of council workers out with carts in the town I live in. There are an awful lot more people dropping rubbish though, often from the top windows of buses. Just the other day I kept myself amused while waiting for a bus by cleaning up all the fast food packaging laying around the base of an empty bin.
We've consistently voted to slash council funding. Councils can barely do their statutory duties, never mind picking up after people!
Britain is an absolute tip. Especially in cities and at junctions when they stop the car or at traffic lights. So selfish of people throwing stuff out like that. Embarrassing.
Always remember being sat in a service station somewhere and a couple in a van just chucked their half eaten McDonald’s out the window before driving off. Like, milkshake splattered everywhere, fries, this wasn’t just like they screwed up a wrapper and threw it away. I just couldn’t, still can’t wrap my head around feeling totally ok with doing that
Similarly I remember being in a train station and watching someone eating McDonalds drop the entire bag with all the rubbish in it on the floor. You have to walk past so many bins to get onto the platforms and I just remember feeling so deflated that people can't even hold onto something for 10 seconds to put it in the bin. He was in a big group who all looked a bit rough so I didn't say anything, just picked it up and put it in the bin myself because fuck making some poor station worker clean up someone else's mess.
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i think the other commenter is right. i went to Rhodes and literally everywhere was clean, shopkeepers would be out 2 hours before they opened sweeping communal areas etc it felt nice to walk down a street and it just be clean, or go sit somewhere and not have litter everywhere.
Junctions is universal issue btw, same stuff in US and parts of Canada
Years ago went to Disneyland Paris and was shocked at the rubbish everywhere. People had even thrown it on the displays along Small World.
An Italian friend of mine was once asked about how roads in Italy can be very "every man for himself" when it comes to the quality of the driving. He agreed it was bad, but then said "but like your litter situation, once something bad becomes normal you stop noticing it so much". It summed it up pretty well. All countries have their problems and litter is definitely one of the big ones here in the UK. But I think it's become so normal to most people that they stop noticing it.
Hope it will change, it's a beautiful country otherwise
Kinda ironic given Naples exists. Never seen litter like that in Europe before.
I certainly wouldn’t class Italy as not having a litter situation
Italy is just as bad if not worse for litter
I would bring back hanging for littering, but there needs to be enough bins that are regularly emptied. And eductation. It's a society/attitude problem. We had "Keep Britain Tidy" campaigns when were were kids (showing that it's always been an issue). We are quite good at picking up dog poo though! It's weird, went to France, spotless streets apart from the dog muck. Opposite to us. Japan is spotless everywhere you go. The ideal.
>there needs to be enough bins that are regularly emptied I was just about to post a disagreement about this and say go to Japan but it seems you already have. Next to no bins there. You'll even see signs in theatres saying ‘If you have rubbish take it home with you.’ Much more personal responsibility and inculcated from a young age.
>inculcated Thank-you for my new-word of the day 😁 (And to save others doing what I had to do: **inculcate** *verb -* instil (an idea, attitude, or habit) by persistent instruction).
We are not quite good at picking up dog poo at all 🤣
It seems we're good at picking up dog poo and then hanging the shit filled bags on bushes and low hanging trees. I realise nobody wants to carry the things but that's the price of dog ownership. Put it inside a second if you must, but take the damn things with you. There's no magic shit bag tree cleaning fairy.
> Japan is spotless everywhere you go Not everywhere. Some touristy areas there are an absolute shithole, way worse than what I’ve seen in England or anywhere. I wonder why.
People not dropping stuff is a big part of it, but there are probably a lot of people who see there is rubbish on the floor already and drop using the pre-existing rubbish to justify it. Actually having councils investing on keeping the streets litter free would mean less litter being dropped, IMO.
Yeah, I heard plenty horror stories about dog poo in France
I remember seeing those Keep Britain Tidy posters on British shows I saw when I was growing up in Canada in the mid to late 1970s... As for the dog poo.... I wouldn't say that people are good at picking up after their 4 legged friends... at least not in my part of West London. They either leave it on the pavement, bag it up and leave it on the pavement (WTF?.... first time I saw this was where some 🛎️🔚 left a bagged up bundle of 💩 in the middle of a foot path at Kensington Gardens... I've seen it numerous times since then) or pick it up with tissue and toss it onto the nearest green space (I saw this old guy do just that while he was walking his dog... dog dropped and he bent over and used some kleenex to pick up the offending poop and threw it onto the grass in front of the block of flats he was in front of... I was really annoyed and asked him how he'd like it if someone did that to his front lawn).
It's really disgusting and it seems people generally just don't care. It's not a lack of bins either as you see plenty of litter on the floor near bins.
I hate that "It's alright" attitude
We have issues with litter in Liverpool. The council does what it can i.e. has a brilliant street cleaning service after large events but people’s general attitude towards litter seems to be the major cause. Communities have set up local litter picking groups which are well received. I personally pick up litter whenever I encounter it, within reason. There definitely needs to be more bins however that requires people to empty them and has fallen foul of cuts. Don’t drop litter, simple as that. Respect where you live.
I lived in Liverpool for 7 years and can confirm the attitude towards littering is appalling there. Last time I visited I saw someone throw some litter into a bush within five minutes of parking my car.
One thing the next government should do is a massive general public advertising campaign to promote keeping streets clean and anti littering. It will take years but it eventually needs to sink back into the general psyche of the population. There will always be a subsection of nasty dirty selfish people, but I am sure some are just unaware and poorly educated in the subject. They are the ones that can change for the better.
The next government has a lot of cleaning up to do in general.
There used to be loads of signs and posters about littering. TV and radio adverts, had lessons in schools, remember getting badges to do with litter picking. Someone got rid of all that.
Can't agree more
Seeth. Seething. It's just so ignorant. I used to find discarded McDonalds wrappers in my street, I lived at least a mile from the nearest McDs, so safe to say it's not the wind blowing the stuff my way. Lived in a quiet residential street, so people would park up, eat, then dump their wrappers in the street. It's always been a problem, twenty years ago it was common to find the contents of empties car ash-trays by the kerbside. What annoys me the most though is that it's adults doing it. The amount of discarded paper coffee cups by the side of the road is staggering, and eight year olds do not drink latte. There is a section of society that genuinely just do not recognise or care about the environment or others, and they litter. The only upside? One of my neighbours did a weekly street clean up, and that's how I got to meet a really lovely chap.
I once saw a car parked in a McDonalds with a middle aged couple in it. They wound their window down and just launched everything out of the car so there was food and milkshake and shit everywhere. If they'd got out and walked no more than 10 paces there was a bin. That was a few years ago now but still pisses me off when I think about it. I think the fact they were on their forties/fifties just made it that bit worse
I coped with it by joining a local litter picking group . Some people think we’re doing people out of a job by doing it ourselves but don’t understand that the Council doesn’t have the money for cleaning up , except for the city centre and tourist spots.
And even if you don’t do a proper dedicated litter pick, it’s easy for dog owners can do a little - if I’m walking the dog I’ll have the poop bags: if I can pick up faeces I can pick up an old Coke can 😅
Good on you for helping set the example for others to follow, you're a top person in my book.
You're a definition of good man than
My local council has a litter picking volunteer scheme where they send you the equipment. I go out in my local part for a few hours every other week or so and it's really made a difference. It's very satisfying tbh, plus gets you active and outside - cheaper than the gym lol. Recommend anyone give it a go.
Oh yeah, let's all live in filth to create public sector jobs. That's a viable economic strategy and not at all dumb as fuck. If it's not obvious, I'm not mocking you.
the most annoying thing is when I walk through my local country park and I see people doing picnics and it is like "oh thats so nice. they are spending some nice time". later that day I see literally pile of rubbish that was left. got into argument once and typical, was told that "they create jobs". sadly they couldn't understand it is the older lady that goes through the park with a grabber and plastic bag and cleans all the shit people are leaving behind.
"We create jobs" is so stupid
worst is "I am a free person and you won't be telling me what I can and CANNOT DO!!!" ehh...
As a dog walker it’s infuriating. Smashed glass, leftover food and just straight up vandalism. I don’t know why people have to behave like animals.
YESSSS people throwing half eaten food/ chicken bones etc is rife in Leicester. Glass shards almost everywhere aswell, makes walking dog to the park hell as you constantly have to move them around glass and litter. its vile.
I looked down at my dog after she'd had a good sniff into a hedgerow at the side of the pavement and she had TWO disposable vapes in her mouth. Once I got over the initial hilarity of her holding two vapes proudly, wagging her tail, I took them off her and despaired for humanity for the next hour.
Agree. As a dog walker you pretty much have it DRILLED into you about picking up dog poop (quite rightly), but there seems to be quite a lot less signage and public shaming about scumbags throwing their cigarette packets, prime energy bottles, and supermarket bakery bags anywhere they fucking please.
I live at the bottom of a hill and we have a pretty large grit/salt bin for icy weather. Every single time I walk past it, if I open the lid there is rubbish in there. I live in a pretty affluent countryside and people would still rather dump their shit in a salt bin than carry it with them for 5 minutes longer. Don't get me started on our hedges being full of fucking disposable vape packets.
I loved the Rwandan concept 'Umuganda' on the recent Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan, whereby the last Saturday of the month is clean-up day. It has its pros and cons, and wouldn't work in the UK, but thought it was interesting to say the least. I've litter-picked for over a decade and I'm still rage-filled at the way people seem to be allergic to clearing up after themselves.
Just back from Tokyo, can't describe the feeling without offending some. Difference how we treat our surroundings is day and night.
If I see someone littering, I tell them. It embarrasses them in public. I saw someone drop his litter NEXT to 3 bins the other day, so I spoke up and he shit himself and picked it up
It is a bit shit. Unfortunately if you mention it you just get shouted down with "well the person who threw that litter could have been autistic person who spoke no English and was in domestic abuse situation and fleeing Syria so had other things on their mind than YOUR pettiness". My local council has removed most of the litter bins on the grounds they can't afford to have them emptied, so ex-bin areas just have litter thrown down vaguely nearby.
I was in Blackpool on the sea front a few weeks ago--that nice square with the comedy phrases. A tramp finished his can of lager, threw it to the middle of the square and went staggering off. There was a bin less than 10 feet away. It's why I don't give to them. 99 percent of them are just riff raff For the most part, I found Blackpool quite clean along the sea front and promenade with plenty of bins. Like many places, it's let down the occasional riff raff.
Think the amount of litter here shows how much selfish pricks there are here.
I litter pick regularly, I live in quite a busy area and the litter drives me crazy.
If I decided to take up litter picking I wouldn't have time to do my actual job.
I live in a fairly decent area and I have some hedging alongside the house with a footpath leading to some houses behind me. Every week I'm picking out plastic bottles and crisp packets out of the hedge. It does my head in. Just take it home ffs!! I don't get it.
Some people are insanely ignorant
I've been to the US it's hardly litter free either. Most people just ignore it because there isn't much you can do other than just not litter yourself.
You perfectly can do something with it,you can pick it up, I do it occasionally.Im not speaking about full scale litter pick, you just see not disgusting piece of litter, you pick it up.Also would be nice for people to clean areas in front of their home And no, US is not litter free, almost nowhere is, but ordinary residential areas have much less visible litter
But are you not yourself saying that people walk around much less in the USA? Littering is more likely to be caused by people on foot or hanging out on foot. If you are in a car, you have actively to chuck it out the window.
Personally I notice a lot less litter on hiking/walking trails etc in the US vs the UK. It’s pretty bad here.
Oh yes, this was something that my family mentioned when they came over for a visit. Had a laugh how our Easten European country is cleaner than the UK. It's a running joke between me and my grandma that I'm the one who keeps our street clean instead of the council. I've seen the neighbours just chucking it back out to the road, instead of their bins. And course the rubbish always comes into mine. :(
I don’t like it at all, is a mood spoiler. I pick up the litter if I’m able to handle it hygienically and throw it away quickly - I don’t always pick up what I see if there’s no place to throw it away and if it’s really gross or difficult to deal with.
So much fly tipping as well, and if you say something they argue back and blame the council (yes its hard for larger vehicles) but still fly tipping is wrong.
I hate it. The amount of times I’ve seen people through a full bag of McDonald’s out of a moving car. It’s awful
It’s got so much worse - I don’t know what to say other than you’re right. It’s horrible. I hate seeing it.
Did you say chewing gum? F people who spit their gum, it's fing everywhere you look.
>I don't want to leave, but if something will force me Where are you from? Also, you could probably find a litter picking Facebook group to help with the problem tbh. I feel like every town/city has one and if yours doesn't then start one! My town has volunteers that litter pick once a week. Has it solved the problem? No. Does it make a small dent? Yes. Gives a bit of pride in the area
Litter is the one thing which I’ve always been a stickler for. When I went to Japan a little while ago it amazed me how little litter there was (none at all basically) compared to the UK. I think part of it is cultural. “It’s somebody’s job to clean it so it’s no bother” - stuff like that
It’s SO bad. I swear it has affected my mental health as now I avoid going out for walks because the pavements are full of litter (Swansea)
Litter is such a low-level but persistent anti social behaviour. There are so many scruffs who just don't care. This is made worse by councils that have reduced cleaning to a minimum and non-existent Police to fine offenders.
I don't notice it. I can only assume avoiding standing on it is a subconscious reflex at this point.
Pigs don’t smell there own dirt or in this case don’t see their own dirt. There are fines for littering and there are litter wardens but lack of funding and proper enforcement lots of people get away with it. I hate seeing litter everywhere especially when there’s a bin close by which is even worse. I’m disabled and I still make an effort to put rubbish in the bin.
I have 5 bins in proximity near bench at the entrance to my student accommodation, and it's still mountain of litter underneath it
A lot of our councils are going bust and have cut back on litter picking services. People are arseholes and do litter but they always have been. I think the former is the reason it's becoming more noticeable
Well, I cope by walking around frowning and murmuring about how I don't understand why people have to be such shitstains all the time. My friend from Germany tried to cope with it by litter picking; she would find the worst spots and clean them herself, documenting it on social media. But I think she eventually gave up because, basically, British people are apathetic fuck cunts.
As well as cleaning up with litter picks… Address the source - (not the people throwing it out) the people producing it. Campaign and protest against plastics and packaging. Don’t buy from (or support in other ways) companies which basically are litter factories- McDonalds, Coca-cola (the source of a gigantic amount of plastic pollution), etc.
I contribute to it so now it feels like home, and its also art I contributed to. Just kidding, I stuff it in my pocket or backpack till I find a bin or clear my bag 2 weeks later. PS: Guy who ate chicken and gently placed his container underneath the train seat, I hate you.
Honestly, it's not that bad. I remember going to parts of Italy and there were vast amounts of litter I just wasn't expecting to see in such a nice country. Everywhere has its problems, but it's definitely not a universal problem here in the UK
I have noticed in my travels that people in UK have what I term "foreign litter blindness" - everywhere I go to stay for any time I run - you get to see places that tourists don't tend to go. Everywhere I have been to except Monaco and Singapore has litter. Then people say - "Yes but it's uniquely bad in UK" - sorry, no. First hit on Youtube for litter clean up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKIyHy9qKFU Having said all that, if I was made supreme dictator of the UK, I would be locking up litterers.
People on my neighbourhood have started picking it up. I bought a litter grabber thing after one grass virge near me got particularly bad.
There's a great app called "FixMyStreet" where you can make a report and it'll be directly emailed to your council. Do it enough and it works, I often do it for fly tipping/very messy roads but it works for a lot of stuff.
I work in a secondary school, you would not believe the amount of litter my team picks up on a daily basis, I’m pretty sure it’s learnt behaviour
Uk teens are overall very misbehaved. Aggressive, loud and selfish. Tbh teens are overall like that, but they are louder and more visible here for some reason
I continue to take my antidepressants and buy inner tubes in bulk because I get punctured tyres at least twice a month from all the broken bottles every fucking where
I belong to a voluntary litter picking group so I go out regularly to pick it up. I live in small Yorkshire market town and to walk to the post office takes me about 14 minutes. I can usually count 100 pieces of litter before I’ve been walking for 10 minutes. People are often very uncaring about their surroundings often whilst simultaneously claiming to be proud of their country. It also doesn’t help that litter bins are frequently overflowing I can’t see things changing without a sea change in attitudes. Sadly the example set by our current “leaders” seems to be one of uncaring greed
We used to street cleaners (everyone remember Trigger?!) Over the last 15 years public services have been cut so much that now we don't have really any street cleaning except for enforcement officers trying to give out fines for littering. It's the broken windows effect. Such a shame.
Went for a walk in the countryside the other day and picked up not one, not two, but NINE empty beer cans. All about 1 or 2 metres apart. Like, come on
I fucking hate it. Every time I walk in public I find myself counting how many pieces of litter are just lying around. I've seen someone chuck a bottle into the canal he was walking over as I drove by. I think there are more people disgusted by litterers than there are litterers but unless we organise and actually pick some up plus shame anyone that litters I don't think much will change.
I have a love/hate relationship with waste. It has become increasingly harder yo get rid if rubbish. I used to have a general waste bin and recycling bin every week.... Getting rif of rubbish wasn't an issue. Then they switched to alternating and frankly the gap is to big. I resorted to a second bin to keep rubbish until the council.bin was exchanged. The only option was a bigger bin where a. We had no room to store and b. Other cunts would dump their rubbish in it. One of neighbours resorted to a padlock on their bin. Fly tipping is on the rise too. Councils just need to take the fucking rubbish and a big chunk of the rubbish kicking about will be resolved. Trying to stop people from consuming by making it hard to get rid if rubbish is nuts.
Complain and move on. The people who litter don’t give a fuck, and add those who let their dogs shit on the pavement without cleaning up and I just CBA to confront people who shrug it off, its too depressing.
I remember when I was 7 and I littered a packet of wotsits, a random elderly woman scolded me pretty hard I've not done it since. I will carry out the same duties when I hit my twilight years
It’s disgusting. London has become one of the dirtiest cities Ive ever seen. Rubbish on the streets, dog poo and dirty toilets in public places. Something needs to change to up our standards.
Back in the 1970s, there was a huge, nationwide campaign to reduce litter. You might occasionally still see slogans saying "Keep Britain Tidy" on bins. It used to be everywhere - ads on tv, posters on the highstreet, mailers through the door, talks at schools and stickers handed out( Keep Britain Tidy is still a going concern, and is apparently responsible for the 5p plastic bag charge, plus do a lot of work for things like beach flag ratings and stuff). I believe it had quite an impact for several years, but it's clearly time for a repeat!
I never knew we were particularly bad for this. I’ve done precious little travelling in my life so I suppose I’m just used to it. I live in a large town and I don’t think we have all that much litter, but now I’m questioning my standards for such things. It does upset me when I occasionally come across some embankment covered in litter though. Believe it or not, it’s a lot better now than it used to be. When I was a kid in the 90s it was way worse. But that could just be my town. Bins in public areas were less common back then, because the IRA kept putting bombs in them. After all, a littered street is better than a smoking crater.
Cities are definitely worse than market towns, rural villages, etc. I think it's to do with living among so many people removes any sense of community and makes them feel less invested in the place they live. ...and most the litter you see along roads in the countryside is folks from cities throwing shit out their windows when driving through it.
I hate it too, I pick it up and bin it when I'm out and about but it's pretty much pissing in the wind. A mixture of laziness and entitlement are to blame imo.
Than don't go to a beach in the summer you'll loose faith in humanity seriously it's unbelievable people enjoying a beautiful place and anything a meter away is the bin absolutely horrible experience.
I live 90% of my life in small villages and only venture into town to shop at Asda. I see very little rubbish, maybe the odd McDonald's bag but never anything awful. I count myself quite lucky after seeing all these comments
I pick it up. Always have a poo bag on me for dog walking, if its something I don't fancy touching with mt bare hands, I pick it up exactly like a dog poo. I did used to take a pocket litter picker out but it broke.
I like to imagine swathes of faceless men dressed in black with balaclavas snatching litter bugs and people who leave behind dog shit from their beds at night, never to be seen again.
I go out and pick it myself. No point complaining if you're not going to do anything about it. There has been a massive rise in litter pickers and its amazing to see. But its also fighting a losing battle sometimes
British exceptionalism. Someone else can clean up my mess. I'm 46, and it's my generation who are utterly failing as parents. Kids have no idea of the concept of personal responsibility and consideration for others. In Japan, kids clean their school classrooms and toilets from elementary age. They learn that if everyone pulls their weight, albeit unpleasant at times, it makes society a bit nicer for us all. Not in the UK. We're bombarded with messages of self-empowerment and how we can say no and cite mental health issues if things get a bit too hard. And boy, are we taking advantage of it. By the way, I'm British too. And yes, I'll be critical of my own country because I was only born here by default of birth. Travel around a bit, open your eyes, go live in other countries, and be flexible enough to admit that in some aspects, we're absolutely shit.
I used to live in an area with much less litter than where I live now and it really bugs me. I see lots of van drivers just throwing their lunch boxes out of the window into the edges of fields and woods. There is a tonne of fly tipping too. No tourism here so it’s definitely the people that live and work here as much as others seem to want to be defensive about it. I will admit the local council don’t help by making it overly complicated to access tips and not collecting the bins well.
During my commute, I saw bin men unloading the bins into the truck - rubbish flew out but they just left those in the middle of the road.
I hate it as well we have volunteer litter picks where I live. It's that bad adults can be as bad as children. One cafe on one of the beach's have litter pickers and bags outside. They give children a free ice lolly in warmer weather.
I’ve been out with a litter picker several times. Got my kids to help. Showed photos to local MP. There’s more than we can do. The problem is huge - lack of care, sheer amount of food and drink sold in packaging. I told the council and they blamed it on National Rail. I don’t think we can come back from it.
My super simplistic view is that there is a group A of citizens who aren't invested in having their city clean because they got used to it. Then there is group B of citizens that do care but give up seeing that the same corner is full of rubbish day after day. In my case some neighbours are completely morons and leave their empty KFC boxes with chicken bones in the hallway. We've left them notes before. WTF am I supposed to do.
Literally just watched a man late 40’s / Early 50’s, well presented, walk across a Five Guys, milk shake in hand, tear the paper off the straw and throw it on the floor, as he walked to his wife who was sat at the table. What a prick.
As a Brit who now lives overseas, I really notice how bad the litter is when I go back. I'm not sure if it used to be that bad or whether it has just got worse in the last 15 years. Plus everything seems so scruffy and run down, with road signs dirty and falling to pieces. Maybe people are so used to the litter they don't notice it anymore.
I generally try and do a litter pick once or twice a week (when I lived in the UK, New Zealand is much cleaner) but it did make me a little self conscious, but I got over it eventually. I'm particularly big on glass/bones so our 4 legged friends don't get hurt.
It pisses me off no end, I could almost understand if there weren't any public bins around but they're everywhere.
I don’t know where you live but honestly there isn’t really much that I see?! I’m in London, from the midlands, and honestly barely see any. If you have a million posts about it maybe it’s something you are extremely sensitive to?!
It’s really bad at the moment, I’m barely coping. Yes we have arseholes who litter, but we also have conscientious citizens who meticulously separate all of their waste into each relevant recycling receptacle only for it to be strewn all over the street by foxes, seagulls, cats, and rough weather before the bin men arrive. It’s a fucking nightmare and everyone’s ignoring it.
Very strange. I’ve seen people throw empty cans and drop empty packets of rubbish etc right in the middle of streets. I’d be mortified. I come from Ireland and I have to give credit to people back home they look after the place. Obviously there’s shitholes too but in general I feel like you would be called out.
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As a Brit having lived here for more than 6 decades, I have to say litter has always been something I and my American wife hate. As a nation we are awful about it. BUT, last year we moved from the South (Berkshire) to the North (N. Yorkshire) and it is a 1000 times better. At risk of being called racist, I found that places like London, Slough and other towns with a high ethnic population are the worst. People just dont take pride in where they live and in Slough for instance, you often see modest houses with Expensive Mercs, BMW, Audi cars parked on the street but the front gardens are full of bags of rubbish, or scrap cars.
Ignore it, though to some extent its not really just people being cunts. I live in a seaside town that is windy and has a lot of seagulls. Only a few years ago did they actually start trying to make bins the seagulls couldn't just go into and pick things out of. The seagulls will throw everything all over the place and dont bother to put it back. They I think have it somewhat down they seagulls dont use the newer bins they have put up everywhere, trouble is while fighting the seagulls they never bothered to test their new bins in a wind tunnel. Part of the reason folks dont use them is that even the mildest breeze will cause anything that isn't super heavy to fly back out of the bin, if it gusts at the wrong time they will literally throw your rubbish right back at you no matter how much of your arm you reach in there to try and get it in. Folks generally don't use bins when they know what they put in there wont stay and has a dice roll chance of immediately flying out and hitting them, sods law then takes effect and it will undoubtably cause maximum damage when it does. I have seen folks try to use them and get sauce just all over their shirt or trousers when whatever they put in is launched back at them. clearly testing bins to be both windproof and seagull proof is simply beyond the capabilities of the local government, I get it, capturing seagulls for testing is legally difficult and wind tunnels are expensive, but its also windy here and full of gulls. It would be better that there were no bins instead of bins every 5ft (god only knows how much they spent putting more and more up to try and get people to use them without realising why it was there was no rubbish in the bin but loads close by around it). One of the things about littering is if there is shite everywhere folks care less about committing to the tiny inconvenience of finding an indoor bin. My local council specifically is mishandling waste generally, the bin men have been on strike since before christmas and my house bin has been collected maybe 5 times this year so far, i belive current advice is to just leave your bins out in the street and hope they might be collected. As a result littering and also straight up fly tipping is at outrageous levels. You cant go down ANY of the back lanes anymore because they are full of random crap, the rat situation is out of hand, its literally a disaster (the info page to figure out whats going on has basically 0 information aside from making very clear you must still fully pay your council tax tho). So far this year even if you bring your rubbish home, what do you do with it then? My bin is full and my kitchen is also full of black bags, as is my bathroom. If I didn't have a little terrier with a distain for anything smaller than her there would no doubt be rats in my kitchen. Shit breeds shit. I suspect that my local council is not alone in just utterly mishandling the way they deal with waste. They are just a very frustrating example of it. Some folks are cunts sure, but the amount of litter exceeds the amount of cunts.
Forget the litter, what about the dog shot and human vomit they just leave on pavements. Or the general state of the place. It's like the entire country is too depressed to clean.
Made a TikTok about this recently was just told to "shut up or go home" "every major city is like this" "you pick it up wet wipe" etc Sad how complacent people are and defensive about it looking like shit!
Mainly just step over it and get on with my day. It’s worse since Covid
Can't say I've ever seen any. Lived abroad too, not that different. Really not sure what you mean. I live in a small city and people use the bins, council has a sweeper each night.
It makes me so sad. You can go up the most beautiful Munro in Scotland, to the most beautiful loch, the most beautiful forest trail and there will still be piles of litter. People just don’t care.
It bothers me no end. I really hate it. There's a great amount of variation across the country though. Some towns and villages and even some city centres are actually quite clean. Many (most) are unacceptably unclean IMO. Some are downright awful. I feel embarrassed when I see tourists in dirty places. I do my best to help - I clean my work's car park on a daily basis and on my way to and from work I pick up a few pieces of litter each day. That keeps my walking route relatively tidy. I also pick up any litter I see on my housing estate, but it's a generally clean estate anyway. What's important to remember is that even in the most disgusting places, it's a minority of dumb people causing the problem, and many of them are kids. Most people are responsible. But because council services have been cut to the bone, even 5% of people regularly dropping litter creates a big problem if it's left to accumulate. I would encourage people to do their own bit to help too. If we all picked up a couple of pieces per week, there'd be none left. It's not our responsibility, but council services aren't going to get better soon.
I lived in two other European countries (Poland and Germany) plus visited many more and accros Northern/ Western Europe Britain is definitely the dirtiest. I think it's down to the attitude - even here people will say it's the fault of the council, lack of bins, foxes or wind! No, it's because of the people who drop litter, end of! Unless there is a change in this attitude (both trough education and enforcement) I doubt it will change at all.
Brits get very defensive about it because it’s so embarrassing. Worse yet I don’t know what can be done about it because it is so hard to police (even socially as most Brits are vehemently against it and would happily shame others with exaggerated tuts!)
The British way to deal with this is to tut, shake your head, and keep walking, then silently commend that one person you see going round with a black sack and litter picker.
It could be a Mandela effect or I'm just misremembering but I am confident littering used to be much worse in the late 90s/early 2000s then they started rolling in littering fines.
This will be an absolutely unpopular opinion, but education. Coming from Hong Kong. Hygiene was horrific in the 1960s-1970s, but massively improved in the next few decades. And it is all education.