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Britain's litter is everywhere. A tide of rubbish. There are bins and | :00:10. | :00:16. | |
I don't see why people use them. They dump it on the floor. Have we | :00:17. | :00:26. | |
got used to it? People dump stuff in defiance of the law but some | :00:27. | :00:33. | |
councils are getting tough. It is a ?75 fixed penalty notice. Litter | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
costs money weekly -- to clean up, which we could use more wisely. It | :00:39. | :00:46. | |
costs ?1 billion a year to clean up litter which could mean we could | :00:47. | :00:58. | |
have 30,000 nurses. I see people dropping litter but I never say | :00:59. | :01:06. | |
anything. It is a beautiful country and I don't understand why people | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
want to make it look like BLEEP. I remember when the campaign against | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
litter began with films like this. Keep Britain Tidy was the rallying | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
call of the 60s. Today the message is even more urgent. Since the 60s | :01:22. | :01:39. | |
the population of the UK has risen by a little over 20% but the amount | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
of litter dropped has risen by 500%. 30 million tonnes of litter is | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
collected from our streets every year. The worst ones are the | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
cigarette butts. As soon as they finished smoking, they put it on the | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
floor. I don't like to see dirty rubbish bags just dumped in the | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
middle of the street. What causes the litter? Who is doing it? Just | :02:06. | :02:13. | |
the general public. Do you find London tidy and clean? It is dirtier | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
than the other cities. We just came from Switzerland and Paris and they | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
are both clean-up. Switzerland, OK, but is Paris cleaner than London? | :02:25. | :02:35. | |
Cleaning England's streets costs nearly ?1 billion a year. That is a | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
staggering sum when you realise a great deal of it is totally | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
affordable if only we took home our litter or put it in the bin. This is | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
Camden in North London and it is here that we are staging an | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
experiment. The council, prompted by Keep Britain Tidy, has agreed to | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
keep one side of the street uncleaned for 24 hours while | :02:59. | :03:01. | |
cleaning the opposite side as usual. We will be back later to | :03:02. | :03:10. | |
check out results. Litter broods litter and I am very sure that as | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
the litter builds up, more people will feel it is acceptable to drop | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
it. I am confident that tomorrow morning at the end of the experiment | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
we will find one side of this street is absolutely crammed with litter. I | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
am old enough to remember a time when you would never dream of eating | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
or drinking in the street. Fast food and take away is simply did not | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
exist. We have far more smoking and chewing gum litter is a significant | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
issue. We have a throwaway society more generally, so we have single | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
use bags and so on. The packaging that is around the things we buy has | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
grown substantially. Ask anyone what they make of it and they admit that | :03:53. | :03:59. | |
they hate litter, so why don't we do something about it? We blame the | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
councils but some are making a real effort and making a real success. | :04:05. | :04:12. | |
Greetings from Ormskirk. Since the 90s, we have actually had some of | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
the toughest litter laws in Europe. Some councils issue hundreds of | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
fines while others scarcely bother. In West Lancashire the borough | :04:23. | :04:25. | |
council is making positive efforts to make litter unacceptable. It is | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
market day and I am out with the litter police, the environment | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
office is about to go into action. There will be a couple of us going | :04:36. | :04:41. | |
into the market. If we see anybody dropping litter, obviously we are | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
there to enforce and issue a fixed penalty but we do try and educate | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
people first. We do a lot of education. Sharron and her team | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
don't get heavy. They have a softly softly approach. They have | :04:56. | :05:05. | |
discovered a heap of broken chairs. Keep Britain Tidy believes that | :05:06. | :05:07. | |
litter attracts crime. If nobody is taking pride in the neighbourhood, | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
then why should anybody bother? Anti-social behaviour flourishes. | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
Today it is a word of warning rather than penalties. We have spoken to | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
the manager and they are more than happy to clear it up to date and the | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
chairs will be removed by the end of the week. We have asked not to put | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
anything else out in future. Anything broken. Because what will | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
happen is that somebody will come, it will end up in part Ormskirk work | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
that we don't want. Ormskirk people know they can report litter and they | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
are not afraid of doing so. Last night the team got the message that | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
there was some unsightly rubbish lying around. We can spot it | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
already. It is down there. It is hard to miss these rubbish bags | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
outside what turns out to be a student house. One of the students, | :05:55. | :06:17. | |
a newcomer to the area, gets a reprimand from Sharron. Did you know | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
that if you leave extra weight you can be fined? No. Somebody will have | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
to take this to the tip themselves. Your collection will not be for | :06:24. | :06:26. | |
another week and if you have an extra seven bags now, there will be | :06:27. | :06:28. | |
another seven in another week. Were you surprised by what he told you? A | :06:29. | :06:31. | |
little bit but I did not think we could put that many out. I did not | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
know if we were allowed. You have a huge amount. We missed the bin for | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
three weeks. Large bin bags left on the street are unsightly, fact. We | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
have loads of rubbish to get rid of, fact. The smoking ban means the | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
unintended consequences of cigarette litter outside buildings. So where | :06:51. | :06:58. | |
is it all going to go? After all, it does have to go somewhere. It is | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
easy enough to blame the councils, but that does not get you very far. | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
Increased council efforts would simply mean higher council tax, | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
which is something we could all avoid by cleaning up our own | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
individual litter. It costs about ?1 billion a year to pick up litter and | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
that equivalent cost might buy us more than 30,000 nurses, more than | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
30,000 care assistants, or over 4000 libraries. Isn't that much more | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
socially useful expenditure? I welcome all the delegates that are | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
here. Last week by chaired a conference for Keep Britain Tidy, | :07:40. | :07:43. | |
who are launching a whole new initiative. Their problem is paying | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
for it. I think going out and talking to the community is the | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
precise thing that is under threat. Who will pay for it? Keep Britain | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
Tidy use to receive ?5 billion a year from DEFRA, the department for | :07:58. | :08:05. | |
the environment, to help fund educational programmes and national | :08:06. | :08:08. | |
campaigns. That has been cut to half a million, intended to cover the | :08:09. | :08:10. | |
publication of its annual environmental survey. The old | :08:11. | :08:16. | |
advertising campaigns that I remember from the 70s have been | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
ditched. Any new approach will have to cost less. You have lost | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
Government support. That is really damaging. I think the present | :08:26. | :08:32. | |
Government of England has not done anything around litter. It has no | :08:33. | :08:33. | |
litter strategy. Rubbish is not just a problem for | :08:34. | :08:46. | |
cities. It is spoiling the countryside, too. It is fly-tipping. | :08:47. | :08:56. | |
People are just coming out here and leaving heaps of junk on other | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
people's land. This potato farm is suffering from blight. Not potatoes, | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
but the repeated dumping of other people's rubbish. This arrived | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
overnight? It gets tipped overnight and this is what we find when we go | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
round. We are lucky that we can get into the field. This is domestic | :09:18. | :09:25. | |
waste, yes. Where is it coming from? A bathtub, children's toys, we clear | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
it away and then it returns. You can go to another site. You can have two | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
or three places where it is dumped. If you leave one like this, you will | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
find another person coming along and adding to it. It is not just | :09:43. | :09:47. | |
unsightly, it can be toxic or dangerous, full of broken glass, | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
sharp needles. We went and moved it not knowing what it was once, and we | :09:53. | :10:00. | |
found out that it was a cheap way of people getting rid of asbestos. It | :10:01. | :10:06. | |
is criminal, really. Because it has been dumped on private not public | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
land, it is not the job of the council to remove it. Farmers like | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
Colin Bradley have to pay out of their own pocket. By the time I have | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
found the rubbish, done and evaluation, got it picked up with a | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
tractor and trailer, sent men out there, paid for the tipping, I think | :10:25. | :10:30. | |
each occasion will be close to ?500. Each time? Yes. Overall local | :10:31. | :10:38. | |
authorities are reporting a decline in fly-tipping but it is on the rise | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
in areas like footpaths and bridleways. Three years ago the | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
National Farmers' Union got involved. They needed hard | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
evidence. They asked all their members to keep a record of | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
fly-tipping on their private land. By 2012, they had come to an | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
important discovery. They discovered that the rate of fly-tipping had | :11:01. | :11:10. | |
gone up by 45%. It is very rare that it will take once. It tends to take | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
place 15 or 20 times. When it gets to that stage, farmers tend not to | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
report it. There is a big silent majority out there. Fly-tipping is | :11:22. | :11:31. | |
furtive. They are canny enough to choose sides where they are not | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
likely to be caught. It is no surprise that half of the local | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
districts have prosecuted fly tippers. We may be unwittingly | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
encouraging fly-tipping. We all have bulky stuff to get worried and it is | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
often easy to pay someone, anyone, to take it off our hands. -- bulky | :11:52. | :11:57. | |
stuff to get rid of. But it might not go to the tip. If we find | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
paperwork with addresses on and get in contact with those people to | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
trace it to see if they have committed the crime, you will often | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
find that they are not aware of what has happened and they have used a | :12:10. | :12:17. | |
third party. It is easy enough to blame councils. Some make a big | :12:18. | :12:21. | |
effort, some don't do enough. But how can we measure the difference | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
they are already making? Back in North London, our experiment of | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
cleaning one side of the street and neglecting the other is well under | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
way and the neglected side is beginning to look disgusting. We are | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
ten hours into the litter experiment and this is the situation so far. | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
You can understand people putting litter on top of the bin because it | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
is full but there is an empty one just across the road. I am shocked | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
that people will not just walk across to another litter bin. If | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
each of us took the trouble, the place could look really good. But | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
what about those whose products create the rubbish in the first | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
place? The big brand food companies. The most illiterate | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
brands in the UK McDonald's, and Wrigley's. -- most littering brands. | :13:15. | :13:26. | |
I would like to see them taking responsibility and making it part of | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
their marketing mix. Not just pre-consumption, you buying the | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
brand, but some effort going into post-consumption. Clean Up Britain | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
is in on-going discussions with three multinationals. Their patron | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
is Jeremy Paxman. The terror of the politicos has some warnings for the | :13:45. | :13:53. | |
big brands. There's a reputation issue. Every time somebody walks | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
down the street and sees a McDonald's wrapper, a Coca-Cola | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
bottle, a chewing gum company wrapper, they think of that | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
company. That is not the way you want to be thought of. Big brands do | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
spend money on helping us tackle the litter problem. It costs them | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
something to put a label on their packaging, in space they might want | :14:16. | :14:18. | |
to use for marketing. But they do use it to put the little man logo | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
on, and hope that people will take personal responsible T4 disposing of | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
the packaging responsibly. -- responsibility. | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
I also had the chance to take my litter inquiry into a more | :14:32. | :14:39. | |
light-hearted TV show. Here I am, in the heart of entertainment | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
television, where they make a very great fuss of you. You don't get any | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
of this on Panorama! You can see which I prefer. I have seized the | :14:47. | :14:55. | |
opportunity to be doing Room 101. I have nominated chewing gum. Chewing | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
gum is a particular blight to our cities. It's one I really hate. It | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
is estimated costs councils more than ?50 million each year. So, what | :15:07. | :15:14. | |
does the host of Room 101 make of litter? Do you worry about litter? | :15:15. | :15:23. | |
Yes. The trouble with litter as it is a constant affront to my courage | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
and my power of vision. I see people dropping litter, but I almost never | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
say anything. Have you ever said anything? A couple of times and it | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
has never gone well. I feel if I was a stronger, more muscular man, I | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
would be beating people on a regular basis. | :15:43. | :15:49. | |
The audience is in. The event is on. The call has come, this is show | :15:50. | :15:59. | |
business! I get the chance to put my case to the Room 101 audience. | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
Chewing gum. How vile is it? Frank may be wary of telling people off, | :16:04. | :16:21. | |
here is a man that isn't. Do you ever come from people if you see | :16:22. | :16:24. | |
them throwing litter away? I have found when you confront people and | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
say, excuse me, you have just dropped this, nine times out of ten, | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
you might be unlucky on the 10th, but nine times out of ten they will | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
say, sorry, and they will take it away. What gets up your nose about | :16:38. | :16:44. | |
letter? What really bothers me is that this is not really about living | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
in a filthy environment. It is about the way we think about ourselves and | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
about other members of society. If I throw away a bit of rubbish, I don't | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
want it around me any more. I fail to recognise it is then around | :16:59. | :16:59. | |
somebody else. There is one form of litter that | :17:00. | :17:14. | |
offends more than any other. In Manchester, a group of campaigners | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
has found their own original way of tackling a dirty problem, dog mess. | :17:20. | :17:26. | |
Careful, there is loads along here. This is typical of this alley. I | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
have lived here for several years and I had always been a bit annoyed | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
by the level of dog mess. Then I had a daughter. I was pushing her around | :17:36. | :17:46. | |
in her buggy and got really fed up of having to dodge dog mess. There | :17:47. | :17:54. | |
is some coming up just here. Meet the poo-busters of Stretford. The | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
idea is to do something positive while taking a walk in the park, | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
armed with biodegradable spray. They set out to shame irresponsible dog | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
owners. I don't want to challenge a dog walker in the park. I don't know | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
that person, I don't know how that aunt is going to react. It's peer | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
pressure. It is the community telling other members of the | :18:17. | :18:18. | |
community that it is not a perfect thing to do. | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
We have a huge pile, here. A bit more, there. It is just to show | :18:25. | :18:32. | |
people that we can see they are letting their dogs foul. It's a very | :18:33. | :18:41. | |
bright! You can't miss it. This country has 8 million dogs, who | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
deposit 1000 tonnes of mess every day. It costs us an estimated ?22 | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
million each year to clean up. People cannot wait for others to | :18:51. | :18:53. | |
solve the problem, they are getting on with it for themselves. There is | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
over here, this my big chance! It feels good, when you've done that. | :19:00. | :19:07. | |
Bins and bags are there. It is just they are not always used. | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
Undoubtedly, on the streets around where I live, I have seen a | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
difference. I think there are a few individual dog owners that have | :19:18. | :19:20. | |
changed their behaviour in response. I have a sense of people taking | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
action themselves, simply to improve their neighbourhood. | :19:25. | :19:34. | |
The same is true of pictures. The amount of rubbish on beaches has | :19:35. | :19:41. | |
reached its highest level in five years. Good morning, thanks for | :19:42. | :19:49. | |
coming to Sand Bay. I am out in Weston-super-Mare with volunteers | :19:50. | :19:55. | |
that have answered a call from the marine conservation Society, for the | :19:56. | :20:03. | |
national beach watch weekend. Every piece of litter is filed and | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
removed, then fed into a survey and compared to previous years. A third | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
of the items that we pick up our people's rubbish, the general public | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
dropping litter on the beaches, trying to stuff it into overfilled | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
bins and it gets onto the beach or the sea. At first glance, it doesn't | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
look too bad. But amongst the seaweed looks nasty surprises. We | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
have done a ten metre stretch, the plastic pieces are greater than 2.5 | :20:33. | :20:39. | |
centimetres, that has tidied up... Tallied up to 70 pieces already. | :20:40. | :20:48. | |
Last year, volunteers covered around 90 kilometres of coastline. It makes | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
for a jolly day out. The last beach survey showed a 16% increase in | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
rubbish on the previous year. It spoils things for tourists, but it | :20:58. | :21:01. | |
can be much more significant for wildlife. The RSPCA received 7000 | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
calls per year about litter related incidents. Small pieces, tiny | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
pieces, why do they matter? Plastic dust, micro plastics, which are | :21:14. | :21:19. | |
being ingested by things like mussels and other fish. We are | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
concerned it could end up in the human food chain as well. Ever since | :21:25. | :21:31. | |
the campaign began 20 years ago, the amount of rubbish on beaches has | :21:32. | :21:33. | |
gone up by 92%. The amount of plastic on beaches has | :21:34. | :21:40. | |
increased by 140%. Every tide brings in new litter. And | :21:41. | :21:58. | |
the councils are not at fault, it is not then that has dropped the | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
litter. It needs to be a united effort of everybody getting together | :22:03. | :22:03. | |
to turn the tide on litter. These days, almost everything we buy | :22:04. | :22:18. | |
to eat from shops and supermarkets comes wrapped, bagged, boxed and | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
covered in clingfilm or other packaging. In the UK, we get rid of | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
11 million tonnes of packaging every year. Although most of it is | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
recycled, just over a third of it ends up in landfill. In an ideal | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
world, I would like to see less packaging. I would like to see more | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
reusable packaging, so we move away from this constant single use item | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
being produced. When we go shopping, we are seeing packaging at the end, | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
almost, of its useful life. It has actually enabled the product to be | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
stacked in a warehouse, ten metres high, fitted into the back of a | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
lorry. And ago it streams of temperature. So when we take it off | :23:05. | :23:06. | |
the shelf, there is more packaging, often, than we really need. But it | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
would not have got there without that packaging. | :23:11. | :23:25. | |
I've seen what gentle persuasion does in Ormskirk and individual | :23:26. | :23:34. | |
initiative in Stretford. Now I am in Essex, to see what happens when | :23:35. | :23:38. | |
council and citizens work together. The green heart of Essex campaign | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
was born three years ago. Roger is one of its biggest employees. People | :23:44. | :23:54. | |
come up to me and say, in this lane, there is a load of glass on the | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
corner. Within quarter of an hour, it is swept up. They see me doing | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
this, they come out and say, it is down that road there. They can feel | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
happy to come up. They know it is never a problem because I just come | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
and do it. This is the zero tolerance approach. Councillor Wendy | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
Schmitt, who leads and inspires her team, will go to any lengths to | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
promote the campaign, even launching it by sitting in a glass case of | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
rubbish. It made the headlines. We did an awful lot of surveys with the | :24:25. | :24:28. | |
public, asking what was really important to them, that was | :24:29. | :24:35. | |
sacrosanct, that we would not touch. In virtually every survey that came | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
back, in the top three was the cleanliness of the streets and the | :24:39. | :24:40. | |
state of our green, open spaces. In Braintree, the in your face | :24:41. | :24:51. | |
approach is supported by local magistrates. | :24:52. | :24:59. | |
We are very fortunate that the courts back us here. They understand | :25:00. | :25:05. | |
what we are trying to do. The highest fine, and we do like to let | :25:06. | :25:12. | |
people know this, was ?717.50 for one cigarette butt. That is what | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
happens if you do not pay the fine. There are resolute and persistent | :25:16. | :25:23. | |
campaign has borne fruit. Fast-food litter has dropped by 65%. Cigarette | :25:24. | :25:30. | |
related litter has dropped by 48%. The use of fixed penalty notices has | :25:31. | :25:32. | |
increased by more than 250%. It is Saturday night in Braintree, | :25:33. | :25:49. | |
and that you are out in force at the McDonald's drive-through. -- the | :25:50. | :25:50. | |
young. Manager Cherry is an enthusiastic | :25:51. | :26:01. | |
supporter of that understands and employs four full-time litter | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
pickers. When customers place an order, staff writer number plates on | :26:08. | :26:16. | |
the receipt. If that rubbish is found, or the remains of the rubbish | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
is found, where the registration number is on it, we are able to | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
identify who dropped the litter through that registration. | :26:26. | :26:32. | |
And it doesn't stop there. Tonight is one Braintree Council's regular | :26:33. | :26:39. | |
enforcement nights. The team, along with the police, are lying in wait | :26:40. | :26:43. | |
for offenders. It's not long before one of the litter spotters spot is a | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
crime. It is a fixed penalty notice. I am going to caution you. This man | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
has been caught dropping a cigarette butt. ?75 fixed penalty notice. | :26:55. | :27:02. | |
You have 14 days to pay that. If it is not paid within 14 days, you may | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
be summoned to court. It carries a maximum fine of ?2500. He was not | :27:09. | :27:15. | |
happy, they never are when they get a fine. But if they commit the | :27:16. | :27:18. | |
offence, that is what they get. For this man, it was a very expensive | :27:19. | :27:20. | |
night out. Back in Camden, it is the morning | :27:21. | :27:32. | |
after the night before. On the side of the street that has been cleaned | :27:33. | :27:39. | |
as normal, it is pretty tidy. On the other side, where cleaning was | :27:40. | :27:43. | |
withdrawn for 24 hours, it is a totally different picture. Remember, | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
people could not be bothered to cross the road to use an empty bin. | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
Without the regular clean-ups going ahead, this side is filthy with | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
overflowing bins, half eaten food, coffee cups, beer cans, sandwich | :28:00. | :28:06. | |
wrappers, even vomit. It is time for cleaners to get back on the job. Our | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
experiment has been a success. But that success is no kind of triumph, | :28:12. | :28:14. | |
because what it demonstrated how much letter piles up overnight in | :28:15. | :28:23. | |
city centres. Our hectic disposable culture is probably here to stay. | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
But I sense a push to make the neighbourhoods look nice, to take | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
pride in where we live. I even feel a glimmer of hope. We are turning | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
the tide on smoking. We have grown to accept seat belts. Can we now | :28:36. | :28:44. | |
address the matter of litter and do it soon? | :28:45. | :28:47. |