Litter

A couple of weeks ago we met Anne on her way to visit Margaret as we were taking the dogs out. She had picked up a couple of cans from the verge and asked if she could drop them in our bin on the way past. We thought at the time that we should take a bag out with us on our walks as we had noticed how much litter had accumulated on the verges and in the hedgerows around us. And every walk we forgot.

Then on the radio a few days ago there was a feature on littering. There was a phone-in survey on what was permissible littering. 93% of people thought it was okay to drop an apple core or the like in the countryside. I have no problem with that - it will bio-degrade. However, it gave us the reminder we needed to take a bag with us on the lunchtime walk.

We had filled the bag by the time we were only half way up the hill past Margaret's. At the top of the hill we built quite a large pile of bottles from a very small area, to be picked up the next time we went past. You'd think it would be more economic to drive to a bottle bank with them than to drive out to Todheugh. Or maybe there was a wild party up there that we were not privy to...

In the afternoon Paul took a couple of bags with him on the walk to Edrom, meaning to collect the bottles on the way back. However, he had already filled them both.

So far in two days we have filled about ten bags. We have also found two carrier bags ready-filled and dumped. The main culprits are plastic sports/water bottles (there are several cycle routes around here), drinks cans and crisp packets. The bottle collection is mainly made up of wine bottles. Unfortunately we haven't found anything of any value...