Some years back, I was enjoying lunch with some colleagues outside. We were sitting on the grass on what must have been the first warm, dry day in a while. The wind kicked up and my sandwich wrapper blew away. It tumbled over the grass.
I spent a little while chasing that wrapper. You know, cartoon-style, almost reaching it and then it blowing a little further on - and me chasing it again. Eventually it blew into the road - and while I hate litter, I do have a healthy fear of traffic. I gave up - vowing internally to pick up another piece of rubbish in recompense.
A casual passer-by had watched the whole episode and said to me "I don't know why you bothered, you'd just be doing a council worker out of a job."
Those of us who work in the public sector know it doesn't quite work like that. There are lots of other things that council workers could be doing with their time other than picking up after me or anyone else. But it is astounding how many people casually litter.
Perhaps when you were a kid your parents may have said "I'm not your servant," or "I'm going to stop picking up your mess and soon enough you'll see what a sty we'd be living in." Well, mine did anyway. Some councils are saying the same thing now. "We're going to stop picking up after you for a while - and let's see how the filth mounts up."
It's a publicity stunt, but a worthy one. It shows local residents how much the council does normally, but also shows how we all have a responsibility to help keep our environment clean and tidy. The Local Government Association is encouraging councils to consider stopping street cleansing for a day or so.
Commenting on the idea, Cllr Paul Bettison, Chairman of the LGA Environment Board, said:“Using ‘shock tactics’ like stopping street cleaning services for 24 hours is an effective way of making people face up to how much litter is dropped on our streets every day.“Any council choosing to introduce a suspension in street cleaning services would hope to make people think twice about dropping their litter in the future. “The action would also demonstrate to people that their rubbish doesn’t magically disappear but that a hard working council street cleaner removes and disposes of their litter. Councils strive to keep where you live clean and tidy but if every single person did their bit to keep the local area litter free then tax payers would get an even better deal.”
Of course, it's not as easy all that. You have to tell people what you're doing and why you're doing it. You need to back it up with an effective message encouraging people to look after their own environment by not littering. From my youth in America, I will never forget anti-littering messages that played on both pride in the American landscape:
and negative regional stereotypes:
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