Our Dirty Nation Panorama


Our Dirty Nation

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Britain's litter is everywhere. A tide of rubbish. There are bins and

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I don't see why people use them. They dump it on the floor. Have we

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got used to it? People dump stuff in defiance of the law but some

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councils are getting tough. It is a ?75 fixed penalty notice. Litter

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costs money weekly -- to clean up, which we could use more wisely. It

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costs ?1 billion a year to clean up litter which could mean we could

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have 30,000 nurses. I see people dropping litter but I never say

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anything. It is a beautiful country and I don't understand why people

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want to make it look like BLEEP. I remember when the campaign against

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litter began with films like this. Keep Britain Tidy was the rallying

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call of the 60s. Today the message is even more urgent. Since the 60s

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the population of the UK has risen by a little over 20% but the amount

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of litter dropped has risen by 500%. 30 million tonnes of litter is

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collected from our streets every year. The worst ones are the

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cigarette butts. As soon as they finished smoking, they put it on the

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floor. I don't like to see dirty rubbish bags just dumped in the

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middle of the street. What causes the litter? Who is doing it? Just

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the general public. Do you find London tidy and clean? It is dirtier

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than the other cities. We just came from Switzerland and Paris and they

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are both clean-up. Switzerland, OK, but is Paris cleaner than London?

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Cleaning England's streets costs nearly ?1 billion a year. That is a

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staggering sum when you realise a great deal of it is totally

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affordable if only we took home our litter or put it in the bin. This is

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Camden in North London and it is here that we are staging an

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experiment. The council, prompted by Keep Britain Tidy, has agreed to

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keep one side of the street uncleaned for 24 hours while

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cleaning the opposite side as usual. We will be back later to

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check out results. Litter broods litter and I am very sure that as

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the litter builds up, more people will feel it is acceptable to drop

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it. I am confident that tomorrow morning at the end of the experiment

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we will find one side of this street is absolutely crammed with litter. I

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am old enough to remember a time when you would never dream of eating

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or drinking in the street. Fast food and take away is simply did not

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exist. We have far more smoking and chewing gum litter is a significant

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issue. We have a throwaway society more generally, so we have single

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use bags and so on. The packaging that is around the things we buy has

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grown substantially. Ask anyone what they make of it and they admit that

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they hate litter, so why don't we do something about it? We blame the

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councils but some are making a real effort and making a real success.

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Greetings from Ormskirk. Since the 90s, we have actually had some of

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the toughest litter laws in Europe. Some councils issue hundreds of

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fines while others scarcely bother. In West Lancashire the borough

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council is making positive efforts to make litter unacceptable. It is

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market day and I am out with the litter police, the environment

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office is about to go into action. There will be a couple of us going

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into the market. If we see anybody dropping litter, obviously we are

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there to enforce and issue a fixed penalty but we do try and educate

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people first. We do a lot of education. Sharron and her team

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don't get heavy. They have a softly softly approach. They have

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discovered a heap of broken chairs. Keep Britain Tidy believes that

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litter attracts crime. If nobody is taking pride in the neighbourhood,

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then why should anybody bother? Anti-social behaviour flourishes.

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Today it is a word of warning rather than penalties. We have spoken to

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the manager and they are more than happy to clear it up to date and the

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chairs will be removed by the end of the week. We have asked not to put

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anything else out in future. Anything broken. Because what will

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happen is that somebody will come, it will end up in part Ormskirk work

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that we don't want. Ormskirk people know they can report litter and they

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are not afraid of doing so. Last night the team got the message that

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there was some unsightly rubbish lying around. We can spot it

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already. It is down there. It is hard to miss these rubbish bags

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outside what turns out to be a student house. One of the students,

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a newcomer to the area, gets a reprimand from Sharron. Did you know

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that if you leave extra weight you can be fined? No. Somebody will have

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to take this to the tip themselves. Your collection will not be for

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another week and if you have an extra seven bags now, there will be

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another seven in another week. Were you surprised by what he told you? A

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little bit but I did not think we could put that many out. I did not

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know if we were allowed. You have a huge amount. We missed the bin for

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three weeks. Large bin bags left on the street are unsightly, fact. We

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have loads of rubbish to get rid of, fact. The smoking ban means the

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unintended consequences of cigarette litter outside buildings. So where

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is it all going to go? After all, it does have to go somewhere. It is

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easy enough to blame the councils, but that does not get you very far.

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Increased council efforts would simply mean higher council tax,

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which is something we could all avoid by cleaning up our own

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individual litter. It costs about ?1 billion a year to pick up litter and

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that equivalent cost might buy us more than 30,000 nurses, more than

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30,000 care assistants, or over 4000 libraries. Isn't that much more

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socially useful expenditure? I welcome all the delegates that are

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here. Last week by chaired a conference for Keep Britain Tidy,

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who are launching a whole new initiative. Their problem is paying

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for it. I think going out and talking to the community is the

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precise thing that is under threat. Who will pay for it? Keep Britain

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Tidy use to receive ?5 billion a year from DEFRA, the department for

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the environment, to help fund educational programmes and national

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campaigns. That has been cut to half a million, intended to cover the

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publication of its annual environmental survey. The old

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advertising campaigns that I remember from the 70s have been

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ditched. Any new approach will have to cost less. You have lost

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Government support. That is really damaging. I think the present

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Government of England has not done anything around litter. It has no

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litter strategy. Rubbish is not just a problem for

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cities. It is spoiling the countryside, too. It is fly-tipping.

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People are just coming out here and leaving heaps of junk on other

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people's land. This potato farm is suffering from blight. Not potatoes,

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but the repeated dumping of other people's rubbish. This arrived

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overnight? It gets tipped overnight and this is what we find when we go

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round. We are lucky that we can get into the field. This is domestic

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waste, yes. Where is it coming from? A bathtub, children's toys, we clear

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it away and then it returns. You can go to another site. You can have two

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or three places where it is dumped. If you leave one like this, you will

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find another person coming along and adding to it. It is not just

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unsightly, it can be toxic or dangerous, full of broken glass,

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sharp needles. We went and moved it not knowing what it was once, and we

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found out that it was a cheap way of people getting rid of asbestos. It

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is criminal, really. Because it has been dumped on private not public

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land, it is not the job of the council to remove it. Farmers like

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Colin Bradley have to pay out of their own pocket. By the time I have

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found the rubbish, done and evaluation, got it picked up with a

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tractor and trailer, sent men out there, paid for the tipping, I think

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each occasion will be close to ?500. Each time? Yes. Overall local

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authorities are reporting a decline in fly-tipping but it is on the rise

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in areas like footpaths and bridleways. Three years ago the

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National Farmers' Union got involved. They needed hard

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evidence. They asked all their members to keep a record of

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fly-tipping on their private land. By 2012, they had come to an

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important discovery. They discovered that the rate of fly-tipping had

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gone up by 45%. It is very rare that it will take once. It tends to take

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place 15 or 20 times. When it gets to that stage, farmers tend not to

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report it. There is a big silent majority out there. Fly-tipping is

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furtive. They are canny enough to choose sides where they are not

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likely to be caught. It is no surprise that half of the local

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districts have prosecuted fly tippers. We may be unwittingly

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encouraging fly-tipping. We all have bulky stuff to get worried and it is

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often easy to pay someone, anyone, to take it off our hands. -- bulky

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stuff to get rid of. But it might not go to the tip. If we find

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paperwork with addresses on and get in contact with those people to

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trace it to see if they have committed the crime, you will often

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find that they are not aware of what has happened and they have used a

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third party. It is easy enough to blame councils. Some make a big

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effort, some don't do enough. But how can we measure the difference

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they are already making? Back in North London, our experiment of

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cleaning one side of the street and neglecting the other is well under

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way and the neglected side is beginning to look disgusting. We are

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ten hours into the litter experiment and this is the situation so far.

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You can understand people putting litter on top of the bin because it

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is full but there is an empty one just across the road. I am shocked

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that people will not just walk across to another litter bin. If

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each of us took the trouble, the place could look really good. But

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what about those whose products create the rubbish in the first

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place? The big brand food companies. The most illiterate

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brands in the UK McDonald's, and Wrigley's. -- most littering brands.

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I would like to see them taking responsibility and making it part of

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their marketing mix. Not just pre-consumption, you buying the

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brand, but some effort going into post-consumption. Clean Up Britain

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is in on-going discussions with three multinationals. Their patron

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is Jeremy Paxman. The terror of the politicos has some warnings for the

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big brands. There's a reputation issue. Every time somebody walks

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down the street and sees a McDonald's wrapper, a Coca-Cola

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bottle, a chewing gum company wrapper, they think of that

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company. That is not the way you want to be thought of. Big brands do

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spend money on helping us tackle the litter problem. It costs them

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something to put a label on their packaging, in space they might want

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to use for marketing. But they do use it to put the little man logo

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on, and hope that people will take personal responsible T4 disposing of

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the packaging responsibly. -- responsibility.

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I also had the chance to take my litter inquiry into a more

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light-hearted TV show. Here I am, in the heart of entertainment

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television, where they make a very great fuss of you. You don't get any

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of this on Panorama! You can see which I prefer. I have seized the

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opportunity to be doing Room 101. I have nominated chewing gum. Chewing

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gum is a particular blight to our cities. It's one I really hate. It

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is estimated costs councils more than ?50 million each year. So, what

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does the host of Room 101 make of litter? Do you worry about litter?

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Yes. The trouble with litter as it is a constant affront to my courage

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and my power of vision. I see people dropping litter, but I almost never

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say anything. Have you ever said anything? A couple of times and it

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has never gone well. I feel if I was a stronger, more muscular man, I

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would be beating people on a regular basis.

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The audience is in. The event is on. The call has come, this is show

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business! I get the chance to put my case to the Room 101 audience.

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Chewing gum. How vile is it? Frank may be wary of telling people off,

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here is a man that isn't. Do you ever come from people if you see

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them throwing litter away? I have found when you confront people and

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say, excuse me, you have just dropped this, nine times out of ten,

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you might be unlucky on the 10th, but nine times out of ten they will

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say, sorry, and they will take it away. What gets up your nose about

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letter? What really bothers me is that this is not really about living

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in a filthy environment. It is about the way we think about ourselves and

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about other members of society. If I throw away a bit of rubbish, I don't

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want it around me any more. I fail to recognise it is then around

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somebody else. There is one form of litter that

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offends more than any other. In Manchester, a group of campaigners

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has found their own original way of tackling a dirty problem, dog mess.

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Careful, there is loads along here. This is typical of this alley. I

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have lived here for several years and I had always been a bit annoyed

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by the level of dog mess. Then I had a daughter. I was pushing her around

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in her buggy and got really fed up of having to dodge dog mess. There

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is some coming up just here. Meet the poo-busters of Stretford. The

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idea is to do something positive while taking a walk in the park,

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armed with biodegradable spray. They set out to shame irresponsible dog

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owners. I don't want to challenge a dog walker in the park. I don't know

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that person, I don't know how that aunt is going to react. It's peer

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pressure. It is the community telling other members of the

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community that it is not a perfect thing to do.

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We have a huge pile, here. A bit more, there. It is just to show

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people that we can see they are letting their dogs foul. It's a very

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bright! You can't miss it. This country has 8 million dogs, who

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deposit 1000 tonnes of mess every day. It costs us an estimated ?22

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million each year to clean up. People cannot wait for others to

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solve the problem, they are getting on with it for themselves. There is

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over here, this my big chance! It feels good, when you've done that.

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Bins and bags are there. It is just they are not always used.

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Undoubtedly, on the streets around where I live, I have seen a

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difference. I think there are a few individual dog owners that have

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changed their behaviour in response. I have a sense of people taking

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action themselves, simply to improve their neighbourhood.

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The same is true of pictures. The amount of rubbish on beaches has

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reached its highest level in five years. Good morning, thanks for

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coming to Sand Bay. I am out in Weston-super-Mare with volunteers

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that have answered a call from the marine conservation Society, for the

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national beach watch weekend. Every piece of litter is filed and

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removed, then fed into a survey and compared to previous years. A third

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of the items that we pick up our people's rubbish, the general public

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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

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look too bad. But amongst the seaweed looks nasty surprises. We

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have done a ten metre stretch, the plastic pieces are greater than 2.5

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centimetres, that has tidied up... Tallied up to 70 pieces already.

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Last year, volunteers covered around 90 kilometres of coastline. It makes

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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

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can be much more significant for wildlife. The RSPCA received 7000

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calls per year about litter related incidents. Small pieces, tiny

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pieces, why do they matter? Plastic dust, micro plastics, which are

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being ingested by things like mussels and other fish. We are

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concerned it could end up in the human food chain as well. Ever since

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the campaign began 20 years ago, the amount of rubbish on beaches has

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gone up by 92%. The amount of plastic on beaches has

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increased by 140%. Every tide brings in new litter. And

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the councils are not at fault, it is not then that has dropped the

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litter. It needs to be a united effort of everybody getting together

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to turn the tide on litter. These days, almost everything we buy

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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

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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

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the shelf, there is more packaging, often, than we really need. But it

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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

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happy to come up. They know it is never a problem because I just come

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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

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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

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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.

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