Litter picking is the place to go to rub shoulders with Councillors it seems (past and present).. It's the latest fashion in communicating your credentials as a caring representative on our local authority. Who am I to argue? However given that there were about 10 of us, and I overheard the remark that it was "good to see at least three people below 80 years of age" suggests the message isn't being communicated to voters with a lot of mileage left in them.
Preaching to the choir comes to mind.
After all, everyone who turned out cared enough to want to clean up the evidence of human wastefulness from some part of the environment.
Now, if we could just convince you to direct some local authority resources at those bits of the town centre where the filth is persistent and most obvious....
The answer to that is "I've asked for more bins."
More bins is merely decorative if the louts don't use them. The bins we have don't get emptied nearly often enough and the waste that does get directed at them is often redistributed by weather and wildlife before the the Council's contractors secure it in a suitable waste processing facility (or tip site from which weather and wildlife redistributes it.... and we find ourselves cleaning it off beaches.)
Point of view (mine): When the community rallies itself to keep vast swathes cleaned up at no charge to the local authority, the Council might choose to direct resources somewhere else.
Pothole repair for example.
Don't hold your breath on pothole repair.
I am about halfway through reading a book called NUDGE. It was recommended to me by a friend who has a PhD in the psychology of conveying environmental and climate change messages. (Yes, that does seem very specific, but turns out to be remarkably interesting and more people communicating such messages would do well to have conversations with people with those credentials).
Working out how to nudge our local waste generators and litter-droppers towards less wasteful and anti-social behaviour might be more useful to a good Councillor than merely being there to pick up the mess every week.
I find that in my little development, occasionally someone will move in who thinks it's fine to throw huge objects, like mattresses, over the back fence where the trees are. I've had management arrange clean up and better attention by the grass cutting crew, and often that makes it clear it's a no go. When a place is clean, well tended and walked around it tends not to seem safe for tipping. I just had to start again this week, probably a new resident. Picture of a mountain of debris has gone to management, and I'll follow up after new year. It's never-ending.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed never ending but I truly cant belive people move into a nice neighbourhood like yours and believes that 'over the back fence' is the answer to anything. Where do such people get their attitudes? Who has cleaned up after them all their lives?
DeleteI think a clip around the ear used to work better than a nudge in my day.
ReplyDeleteNobody is permitted to clip ears these days. We all have to think more manipulatively.
DeleteDidn't the government in Westminster create a 'Nudge Unit' at some point in the relatively recent past?
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail (checking in on a wet day in the state of Washington).
The book even uses examples from said unit. I guess it is one of those departments that strudggles to prove results are related to funding....
DeleteWe have clean up Australia Day and it began way back in the early 80’s. I think?
ReplyDeleteAnyway a log time ago. And masses of people turn out to clean up around their neighbourhoods
Thankfully as they years have progressed the amount of litter they find is getting less so the message is getting through
Now as for the pot holes………..
Don’t even get me started
I recall our Tidy Kiwi campaign from when i was at primary school in the 70s, but seriously the amount of packaging off processed food was, in those days, a fraction of what it is now.
DeleteSome folk are so disgusting with how they dispose of their litter. I recently watched a documentary on Japan and their cleanliness ethic, and how most people (not all) are very self-responsible when it comes to litter disposal.
ReplyDeleteAnd don't get me started on pot-holes either!
There are definitely cultures that are more devoted to tidy than others, but even in those places there are the non-conformists, rebels, the wasteful uncaring ones. Singapore is a good example - sccrupulously clean in places and remarkably defiled in others.
DeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to the Keep Britain Tidy campaign of my youth? I got quite a shock on repatriation to discover the open dump that much of these fair isles apparently has become. Changing behaviour en masse is one of the great challenges... YAM xx
You have to admit there has been an explosion of processed food and disposable packaging in those intervening years when you add that to a percentage of the population who will resist any attempt at reeducation on the issues of waste then you have an intractable problem.
DeleteWe have regular litter picks and it does seem that young(er) people get involved. Maybe a 'fill your own pothole' enterprise might work . . .
ReplyDeleteNow there is an idea. Mr B tells me there are communities that have indeed embarked on their own pothole filling enterprise. We need to address some that could be repurposed as community swimming pools further along our lane.
DeleteGood on you helping with the beach cleanup. They have them regularly here, I know up north in Whangarei they do them and around the top east coast but luckily havent seen much evidence of rubbish on the west coast down here . Hope you had a lovely Christmas and a happy new year to you.
ReplyDelete