As well as being unsightly, litter chokes or harms wildlife, and tempts pets and wildlife (toxic chocolate wrappers and xylitol gum). When plastic sweet wrappers, cutlery and straws fall down drains, they break down into microplastics, and get ingested by marine wildlife. Although there are fines (and litter abatement orders for councils that don’t act on reports), often you find parks and rivers swimming in litter. In the US, annual clean-ups turn up everything from nappies filled with fresh fruit to prosthetic limbs (some volunteers even once found a whole litter of pupplies, all happily adopted to good homes).
Also read of solutions to prevent chewing gum litter and cigarette litter. And how to drastically reduce your rubbish!
Too Much Trash is a book on how litter is not just an eyesore, but a serious threat to animals and their habitats. We can all work together to keep the planet healthy and clean. Gum on the pavement (which contains pet-lethal xylitol) or banana peels thrown in a ditch – all produce a threat to pets, farm animals and wildlife. They can get injured or trapped in the litter, or eat garbage that makes them sick. In this book, we discover how garbage ends up on city streets, the wilderness and on farms and in oceans. But around the world, we can find ways to avoid trash everywhere.
The answer ultimately lies in simple living. Take your own cutlery when travelling, use biodegradable poop bags and avoid fast food joints that serve in disposable packaging. One farmer had a fab idea: put vehicle registration on receiptss. Then if the buyers dump fast food packaging out the window, they get hit with a fine in the post, just like with speeding.
CleanUp Britain is a wonderful organisation that has lots of campaigns. One asks councils to collect litter before mowing grass verges (which sends shards of plastic and glass everywhere). They have a team of litter pickers, but say this is like ‘mopping up while the taps are running’. Until councils supply proper litter prevention notices and organise better litter clean-ups.
