Indexer
I do not think I have ever dropped a piece of litter in the street in my entire 67 years – if I have, it has been purely accidental and I did not know about it.
But for many people this is second nature. Finished with your fast food wrappings? Then just drop them or throw them out of your car window. Unwrapping a bar of chocolate? Don’t wait to find a bin for the wrapper, just drop it where you are.
I saw a brilliant example of this attitude yesterday when I was having a cup of coffee in Nero’s and watched as a young man took the cellophane off a new pack of cigarettes in the street outside and just dropped it. I also noted that nobody else standing nearby said anything to him. Before you ask, it would not have been possible for me to take any action, due to being wedged into a corner in Nero’s, although I wished at the time that I could have done.
What would you have done in these circumstances?
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Somebody drops a piece of litter in the street as they walk past you. Is your usual response to …
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Carry on walking?
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Pick up the litter yourself?
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Make a disapproving comment to the litterbug?
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Ask the litterbug to pick up what he/she has dropped?
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I did act on one such offence a long time ago. I watched a vehicle pass by and there on the road was a plastic bag that he had left behind. I asked our gardener to get that bag near our gate. I saw there was a cover with an address and phone number in there. I called him up and spoke with him politely. He took it nicely and regretted his action.
Well done! However, it has been known for people called out in this way to deliberately dump even more rubbish over the garden wall of the person doing the calling out.
That never happened. I actually I know that family.
I hate litterbugs and I act on it all the time.
This is most annoying. Instead of a confrontation, i just pick it up and keep going.