Spring clean

We've just finished our quarterly neighbourhood litter pick. Glorious early Spring day . . I managed to get sunburn despite it only being 8°C 🙄

124 sacks filled. It never gets any easier.

Joining us today was our daughter's special guest, the fastfood marketing director that she savaged last November when he came to talk to her class:

https://similarworlds.com/food-drink/5155539-Speaking-truth-to-power-My-daughter-has-recently-started-a

My girl is still far from convinced about this man's commitment to his company's environmental mission, so she had challenged him to join us today to see just how bad the littering problem is from one of his branches. The poor chap was doing his best to enter into the spirit of the day, but 14yo decided he was not putting in enough effort and yanked him into her work section where she could keep a close eye and offer some pearls of wisdom. These generally consisted of common phrases she has heard me use around the home - "polluter must pay", "don't burden future generations", "lousy capitalist b**tards", etc 😅

Our executive was looking more and more like he was seriously considering swapping his career for a life of quiet contemplation in a monastery, when his misery was made complete by the arrival of the local press. Turns out that there is not much wriggle room when your face, name and profession are about to be made public and you are asked by a reporter whether or not you will be joining the next big clean up 🤣

Anyhow, in addition to the work experience that most of her class will be undertaking next term, daughter has now secured herself an additional week in the summer shadowing the board at headquarters and learning more about food technology. I think this is what is known in the trade as "stuffing their mouths with gold"💰

If he thinks he is going to shut up my daughter as easily as that, he has quite a shock coming 🤣🤣🤣

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ninalanyon · 61-69, T

I think both he and your daughter deserve quite a pat on the back.

On the subject of litter a colleague of mine (a Welsh-Norwegian) moved to the UK a couple of decades ago and as a good Norwegian he picked up litter. He tried to organize an event like yours but on a smaller scale and was very disappointed when no one in his street would join in.

Such things are a regular feature here at the end of winter. The kommune (local council) pays for such litter picking. The idea is that local sports clubs, school brass bands, etc., press gang the parents and other relatives of the members into doing the work then the kommune pays the club.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ninalanyon I litter pick on my own and in groups. I know a lot of civic minded people who just like to do it quietly and avoid the communal aspect. Each to their own, but it's a whole lot easier and less discouraging when we work together. Our city council organises it well and there is friendly competition between neighbourhoods to collect the most bags.

meggie · F

@ninalanyon that's a very good scheme

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@SunshineGirl Not sure about the town streets so much but there are frequent litter-picks on our local beaches, where old fishing-gear forms a sizeable proportion of the rubbish collected; among any number of plastic bottles.

ninalanyon · 61-69, T

@SunshineGirl I'm one of the ones who do it quietly these days as my children have all grown up and out of the sports clubs. I usually make sure I have a disposable plastic carrier bag in my handbag wherever I go so that i can pick up litter. I'm glad to say that usually around here there isn't much that is convenient for casual picking, just a few beer cans, the occasional cigarette packet, soft drinks bottles washed up on the beach. When I did my 'volunteering' (I don't remember having much choice in the matter!) we found most of it in and around roadside ditches.

The UK is much worse for litter than most of Europe I feel. I went for a walk with my sister along the Thames near Cirencester a couple of years ago and filled my carrier bag in a couple of hundred metres without leaving the riverside path.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ninalanyon It is awful, I really don't know what the problem is, especially in a city where you are rarely more than a few metres from a bin. I feel like I'm fighting another losing battle, but it does at least seem to improve my mental health.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

@ArishMell When I started during the pandemic it was mainly disposable vape cartridges and coke cans. Today the most popular items are empty cans of energy drinks.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@SunshineGirl Strange how the litter-louts; habits change!

Years ago the biggest problem was discarded chewing-gum, because it was very common and very difficult to scrape up. I have noticed over that time far fewer cigarette-ends thrown on the ground, apart from around the doors of pubs (even despite the special dog-end bins on the wall).

A serious Summer problem especially in heathland, is those disposable barbeques left to start fires. (Among all the bottles and cans etc. the picnickers have also left.)