On Wed, 22 Jan 2020 02:38:44 -0800 (PST), polygonum_on_google
wrote:

snip

Also, paint flakes may contain lead and may then poison small
creatures?



Paint flakes are quite able to poison big creatures as well!

Well, quite. ;-(

I was talking to a fellow dog walker yesterday who had a visitor stay
from the USA and their visitor stated how dirty they considered the UK
to be, specifically as compared to wherever they lived (and I'm
guessing some states / cities / towns were god / bad over there too).

Mum and Dad went to Singapore a few years back and they said that
place was immaculate and I believe there are very strong fines for
littering or dropping gum. [1]

And that's the point here. Few councils seem to go out of their way to
provide street bins, other than maybe in the town centres / shopping
areas / parks, possibly because of the cost of collection ... versus
sending out the road sweeper (that rarely covers all the corners /
under / in hedges etc) or, better still, educating the minority (I
believe it to be) to be more responsible for their own waste.

Like, they take a bag of picnic crap into the park to consume, then
think it then becomes the parks responsibility to deal with it. If
they don't they put plastic bottles or other general waste into the
dog poo bin (even though it states clearly on the front it's *only*
for dog waste) of if they can't get it in anywhere, just leave it on
the ground, near the bin or anywhere (for the foxes to spread about
overnight).

Should the councils provide a bigger bins? If they did, where would it
end ... before people turn up at the park and bring even more rubbish
with them, like furniture and mattresses?

The bottom line is it's down to education (and some only learn by
being caught out and / or fined), empathy / selfishness.

We were following some 'yout' down the road the other day and he just
dropped his drink can on the pavement. I would have loved to have
given it back to him ... taped to a baseball bat ... ;-(

Do these people mind if their front gardens are fill of rubbish ... or
would they only notice when they were wading though it?

A neighbour (who often picks up street litter, as a few of us do) has
caught a few other (often 'new' / younger) neighbours leaving crap
out on the pavement (old domestic appliances) and just littering in
general (putting their coffee ups on the pavement before walking the
10 yards 'home' or clearing the car door pocket of tickets and tissues
and just dropping them on the road) and has pulled them up on it. In
all cases so far they have ... first denied it, then agreed they had,
then apologised and when pressed, sheepishly promised they wouldn't do
it again.

What is it in their heads that allows them to do it in the first
place?

Rant over. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] Anyone comment on other 1st world countries that are notably clean
/ dirty, compared with here?

p.s. The above was fuelled from the point is that it's often simply
this personal waste / litter that gets into our waterways and hence
out to sea. Round here, as all the floodwater runoff subsides you can
see a 'tide line' of plastic bottle, bags and cans that have been left
behind on the banks. ;-(

p.p.s. I have encounter quite a few people who litter because (they
say / think) it 'keeps someone in a job'. The problem with that is
those people could be doing something 'better' than picking up other
peoples fly tipping and therefore not such a burden on the local
ratepayers.