Wednesday 23 July 2008

Driving down the lane I thought "not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these". Then I noticed the plastic bags!


They were in the hedges that ran along the beautiful country lane to where we live and as the lane is only just over a mile long, a turning off a major road, I thought that I should do a litter pick along its length; so donning my best red T shirt, (well, second best, my best has Buggs Bunny on the front) I started, and you can see the result in the photo, 21 lbs of rubbish!

Approx 5 miles away there are a KFC and McDonald's drive through, and the most popular type of litter was, in order from the main road, (but you are an intelligent person and you've guessed the answer already, I can see that from here) food wrappings and trays from those two, followed by drinks containers from the same places, followed by cigarette packets. So it would seem that those responsible for the majority of roadside litter in our area are fast food drive through clients that smoke!

There were other items though. One Wellington boot, a half of a wash hand basin, one shoe, and a few bottles filled with liquid, some soiled paper (no idea what the contents of the last two were, but I had a fairly good idea...) various items of clothing and the plastic bags that started the mission off. I did intend to sort the items for recycling but the stench was so disgusting that I regret to say it all went to landfill. I have told myself that it is better of there than where it was, but wouldn’t it be great if it wasn’t ‘where it was’ in the first place?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, well done you. The more people who do that then this world would be a far better place. Perhaps a note to the fast food outlets might highlight the problem to them - they may not be able to solve it but could perhaps help in some way?

Rev. Peter Doodes said...

Good point Russell, I will use the camera and send a letter with images to the companies and to the local paper as well.

Nothing ventured...

Kati said...

Peter, good on ya for picking up what others don't care to dispose of properly. It always discusts me the way folks go on and on about Alaska being the most beautiful state in the union (which, I think it is too!) then to glimpse along the road-ways all the trash and junk that folks either toss deliberately or lose out of the backs of their trucks but don't bother to pick up. (And, a fair amount of it DOES get honestly blown out of open truck-beds. Though I wouldn't doubt there are some folks who'd rather just dump even full bags of trash on the roadside in hopes others will pick it up for them.)

Anyway, I'm sure your lane looks much better now.

Mrs.Naz@BecomingMe said...

I have such great respect for you.