Whether you live in a town, city or village, it’s likely that you have streets and rivers filled with litter, unless you are very fortunate. Obviously the onus is on each individual not to drop litter (and shops to not sell plastic packaging), but there are many ways that individuals, groups and councils can help to create litter-free communities. That usually starts with a mass zero-tolerance policy.
By removing all existing litter (including litter that has been on the ground or in local streams for sometimes years), it creates a community placemaking pride, so it’s less likely that people will drop litter onto clean litter-free streets. Here is a simple list of things you can do, to create a litter-free community:
Never Drop Litter Yourself
If everyone did this, then there would be no litter. Either take litter home with you or find a local litter bin. Listen to what your parents told you!
Bin Dangerous Forms of Litter
Pick up plastic beer can holders that harm wildlife (rip the holes before binning) or plastic straws and sharp plastic cutlery (that cause harm to marine creatures, when they fall down drains). Pick up elastic bands, chop them up when home and bin them.
The late Simon Cowell (the wildlife rescuer, not the music mogul) said that if we all picked up an elastic band or glass bottle each day, collectively this would mean millions of items not harming native wildlife.
If You Smoke, Use a Personal Ashtray
TakeTray is a small device that immediately extinguishes cigarettes, so that you can keep the butts safely on your person, until you get home to bin them securely. This can also help to prevent fires (and wildfires).
Choose Biodegradable Poop Bags
If you walk dogs, keep them in your pocket or rucksack, or attach to the dog lead, so you don’t forget them. Then deposit them in dog poop bins or normal bins. If you walk places where there are not dog poop bins nearby, buy a DickyBag (a portable bag that keeps dog poop bins safely inside, until you get home.
Send Litter Complaints to Councils
Send complaints to Fix My Street, with photos if possible. These go direct to councils and as the complaints are made public online, they tend to get fixed pretty quickly. Councils have legal duty to clean litter on public land (no matter who dropped it) and they can serve litter abatement orders for people on private land that don’t clean it up
Never ‘Release Sky Litter’
Don’t ever release balloons or fire lanterns, both cause immense harm to wildlife and the latter even puts lifeboat crew at risk, as coastguards often mistake them for emergency flares.
