England’s green and pleasant land is now swimming in so much litter, that you can’t even enjoy a walk most times, without having to take a bag with you, to pick up litter as you go. It also is harmful to children, pets, birds and wildlife. When asked, litter louts usually say it’s due to ‘lack of or full bins, and ‘because everyone else drops litter’.
Report litter to Fix My Street. No matter who dropped it, councils have legal responsibility to clear it up on public land. For private land, they can serve Litter Abatement Orders (for non-compliance, they can issue fines or clean up themselves, and reclaim costs). You can also report fly-tipping (illegal dumping of waste (donate scrap cars to charity).
Report motorway litter to National Highways (campaigners want litter cleared before mowing, to avoid sending shards of glass everywhere).
The Main Littered Items in England
Plastic bags & packaging. Invest in a reusable grocery bag and reusable produce bags. Follow the example of the Devon town of Modbury and become a plastic-bag free town! They did this in 4 weeks, posting everyone a cloth bag, and placng an amnesty bin in town, for everyone to deposit plastic bags, sent off to make into garden benches.
Drinks cans and bottles.
These make up most of the world’s litter, which is why litter charities want a deposit return scheme, which has been happening in Finland since the 1960s. Finns earn an average £40 a year in returning used bottles and cans. This helps pay for all their coffee (they drink more than anyone else on earth – 4 cups a day!)
Disposable Coffee Cups
These have plastic linings, so can only be recycled in shops. Better yet, use a mug! If not, invest in a reusable coffee cups (most shops give discounts if you use one). Cupple is a reusable coffee cup and water bottle in one.
Beer can holders
These are now banned by many shops, as they are invisible in water, so harm wildfowl in particular. Boycott brands that wrap beers in them, there are many brands that wrap in cardboard instead. If you see any, rip the holes and safely bin.
Disposable Face Masks
Again, these harm wildlife. Choose reusable, if possible. If you see any (or use them), snip the strips before safely binning.
Soft Plastics
Supermarket bags bins now accept most soft plastics (including crisp packets and chocolate wrappers). But don’t accept clingfilm, so use clingfilm alternatives.
Broken glass
If you’re not near a bottle bank, wrap this (and old lightbulbs) in thick paper and bin. You can recycle LED and flourescent bulbs at council depots.
Plastic cutlery & Straws
These are now banned for sale. Either bin them or recycle with Terrabox (see below). Plastic confetti is also banned, choose biodegradable confetti (like recycled paper or rose petals (not delphiniums near pets). Rice is not recommended by vicars (slipping hazard and attracts pigeons!)
Food waste
Make your own food from wholesome ingredients, to save on waste. Many ready-made items (like greasy pizza boxes and microwave porridge sachets) can’t be recycled.
Some councils offer free/discounted compost bins (just bin scraps of rhubarb, citrus fruits, alliums (onions, leeks, scallions, leeks, chives) along with tea/coffee grounds, as the acid/caffeine could harm compost creatures).
Elastic Bands
These get littered in offices (you can band papers together with a staple-less stapler). Wildlife rescuers want Royal Mail to find an alternative to littered red elastic bands (ducks feed them to chicks, thinking they are worms).
There are alternatives around like paper belly bands, PaperStrap or latex tubing. It would also help if they did not deliver so much junk mail, then less bands would be needed.
Festive waste
Forget glittered cards, gift wrap, Christmas crackers and tinsel. There are many eco-Christmas alternatives these days, from recycled and reusable gift wrap to reusable crackers and paper-garland wall decorations. Use with paper packing tape.
Disposable barbecues
These are the ultimate waste of money. Read more on safe reusable barbecue (or make things on the grill, and take them outside).
Disposable nappies
These make up around quarter of landfill waste. Switch to reusable or biodegradable nappies.
Disposable Razors
Switch to a reusable razor and use a blade bank to safely deposit used blades. It will take a year to fill, then just throw it in with your metal recycling.
Disposable Plastic toothbrushes
Avoid nylon dental floss, and switch to a bamboo toothbrush (also in a child’s version with bunny logos, for siblings to colour in, to show whose brush is whose!)
Quick Individual Fixes to Reduce Litter
- Buy less! The Charity Shop Gift Card gives discounts (choose small charities that don’t test on animals). The compostable card is valid for 2 years, and you can choose to donate remaining balance to the charity.
- Choose reusable over disposable. Like baby wipes and feminine care (never flush either down loos).
- Biodegradable poop bags are good if your council offers industrial composting. If not, recycled plastic poop bags are okay, as long as you don’t drop them. If out in the hills, DickyBag keeps you hands-free (and poop bags enclosed) till you get home.
Councils can help by installing dog waste stations (with free biodegradable bags). This works out cheaper, than sending council workers to collect poop afterwards.
Organise a Community Litter Clean-Up
- Register at Cleanup UK to receive free loan of litter picking-kits for a community clean-up (we could do with a UK version of Bag Snagger, to grab plastic bags from trees and rivers). The site also has safety tips.
- Towpath Taskforce cleans litter from local canals (the otters and kingfishers will thank you!) Sturdy shoes are a must. Bring your own packed lunch, they supply tea!
- 2 Minute Litter-Picking Station for beaches includes tools, just take along and return rubbish before you go home. It can help set up fundraisers for councils, schools or offices to sponsor one. Use with beach litter clean-up kits and knives.
- Private anglers can use Monomaster, which lets you store fishing gear, until you deposit it in a fishing line recycling station (or send it off).
Keep America Beautiful organises annual clean-ups of around 10 million items of litter. Previous items found include a box saying ‘please recycle this box’, a disposable nappy filled with fruit, someone’s prosthetic leg and a basket of live puppies (all happily adopted to loving homes).
Quick Business Fixes to Reduce Litter
- Choose reusable bowls, containers and cups over disposable ones. Brummie Cup is used with a deposit return scheme. Register with Refill, as a place where people can fill their owl bottles with tap water.
- Like zero waste shops, offer a tare system (people bring clean containers to weigh food, rather than pay for the packaging).
- Set up a can recycling program. Aluminium recycles easily and is cheaper to buy, so raise money for local causes, by setting up a scheme. Rinse cans (remove lids fully, to avoid jagged edges).
- Use silicone sink stoppers, to avoid food waste and coffee grounds clogging drains.
Unless you only use tiny amounts of oil (wrap in kitchen paper and bin), invest in a cooking oil recycling bin (when full, take to the tip). Oil (and (and cream liqueurs) cause ‘fatbergs’, if poured down sinks and drains.
Quick Fixes for Councils to Reduce Litter
- Ban balloons & fire lanterns. The former causes belly ulcers in cattle, has choked at least one horse to death and when they land in the sea, kill sea turtles (who think they are jellyfish). Fire lanterns are mistaken for coastal flares (putting lifeboat crew at risk) and cause fires (animals in a German zoo recently died, when one dropped into an enclosure).
- The Gumdrop Bin offers communal and individual gum bins that once full, are sent off freepost to make into industrial items. The main bin takes 500 pieces of gum, to mount on poles. Removing gum litter keeps dogs safe (xylitol sweetener used in gum can be lethal.
- Install textile recycling banks. Synthetic fibres don’t biodegrade. Don’t send these items to Africa – people there are fed up of receiving paint-stained overalls and call these ‘dead white man’s clothing’.
- Install battery-recycling and cork-recycling banks in your town. There are millions of both (choking hazards) so make it easy.
Obviously, dead animals are not ‘litter’. But it’s important to report dead animals to councils for removal. This prevents disease and road scavenging. And gives some closure to people who have lost pets.
Be a Drop-Off Point for Terracycle.
A few are free (sponsored by industry) but most Terracycle boxes are £100 to £200, the cost pooled by local people, offices or councils. These create one-off amnesties to get rid of hard-to-recycle rubbish in your town (from homes, offices or community clean-ups).
There are boxes to recycle everything: pens, dental waste, contact lenses, cigarette waste, bread packets, hair salon waste, safety equipment, office supplies, art waste, baby items, sports equipment, media waste, PPE, glue sticks, hotel waste, gardening waste, holiday decoration, pet food packaging, medicines, shoes, mobile phone acessories and fitness equipment.
Gradually the amount of waste sent off should reduce, to perhaps having just one all-in-one zero waste box.
Better Bins (and emptied more often!)
Wheelie bins are bulky, difficult to move, fall over in windy weather and designed to use wiwth black bin bags (which can’t be recycled, as machines don’t recognise the colour).
Instead, consider Weir Gullproof Sacks (made from strong woven material that uses ties to secure). Refuse workers empty the sacks and return to you. Sold with Flexibox (hanging kerbside boxes). Better than boxes with netting (which can trap birds and wildlife).
Red Gorilla Bins are smaller, lighter and better quality (and easy to secure). Used by the building and equine industries, these are also in bright colours (red, purple, blue) so you could offer different bins for different materials.
Squosh is a service that can compact bin waste by 50%, to reduce emptying costs. Another option is solar bins, which use a panel to compact waste, with optional animal latches (to stop gulls and foxes pulling out the contents, which also helps prevent them getting trapped).
Use biodegradable white bin bags for household trash (empty frequently, due to liquids). Pop empty bottles/aerosols in recycling bins, but half-full ones (including perfume bottles) should go to hazardous waste. Never pour half-empty bottles down sinks or drains (including essential oils, could harm harm aquatic life. Bin nail polish (can’t be recycled).
Small electricals can be recycled locally or at the tip. UK laws says if you buy a new appliance, the seller has to take the old one for recycling. The same happens for sofas and mattresses (most councils will collect big items for a small fee).
How to Reduce Fast Food Litter
Unlike London’s Unity Diner (that uses compostable everything), most fast food chains still use plastic lids etc (you can return them). Or better yet, try these homemade vegan cheeseburgers (Thee Burger Dude).
Campaigners want the goverrnment to introduce Extended Producer Responsibility laws, so companies producing non-recyclable packaging have to cover the cost of disposal. At present, the big guns sell plastic-wrapped food (then you have to pay via council tax to dispose of it).
How to Reduce Cigarette Litter
Cigarette butts fall down storm drains sand leach arsenic into the sea, and birds feed them to chicks thinking they are food.
If you smoke, use a personal ashtray that immediately extinguishes cigarettes, to keep safe until you reach a bin. This also stops forest fires (dropping a butt on dry land, is like a match to paper). The main brands are TakeTray and Butt Boxes (Keep Britain Tidy, though they are not presently on sale – why not?)
Other solutions for public place are Ballot Bin (a fun box that encourages smokers to ‘vote’ answers to a fun question by putting their butts in the preferred slot. The bins are then emptied, and questions updated. A bit silly, but apparently reduces cigarette litter by 73%.
No Butts offers smoking shelters that are designed for butts not to fly away in the wind. Made in Dorset, they provide all-year weather protection, discouraging smoking at building entrances (which can minimise risk of fire, from discarded butts).
