Really Pants

What a load of rubbish!

“Whatever you do, don’t take any chewing gum and definitely do not drop any litter” was the first thing I heard from anyone, when I told them I was planning to visit Singapore. Having checked out travel information for the island, it soon became clear why it was definitely not in my best interests. Read more…

On the website entersingapore.info, it states

“Singapore has very strict laws against littering with heavy fines and corrective work for repeat offenders. Never dispose anything to any other place than a litter box - this includes cigarette butts!”

When you see that fines can be anything from S$1000 up to S$5000 depending on the nature of the litter and repeated offending, plus the possibility of community service, it makes taking your litter home or using a bin, the cheaper option…

But when I got to thinking about it, surely the advice of not dropping litter, shouldn’t need saying to anyone, why would anyone need to have it spelt out to them that they shouldn’t drop litter? And surely regard for the environment should be the main reason for using a bin, not the fear of getting a fine?

However, a quick Google search shows that countries and counties all over the world, seem to have projects and national strategies in place to try and encourage people to stop littering.

Keep Britain Tidy ( http://www.keepbritaintidy.org ) obviously focuses on all areas of environmental littering and trying to get the general public to change its attitude! They have launched two campaigns since last year, in a battle to try and keep the country in a far more clean and orderly condition- so the UK is somewhere we can live without having to wade through rubbish, or risk stepping in chewing gum – or worse!

The Big Tidy Up (http://www.thebigtidyup.org/) has been running since last year and has involved groups of people collecting thousands of tons of rubbish . This has been highly successful and made a big difference in a lot of areas of the UK.

One of their more recent campaigns is trying to change attitudes to car littering. In other words, people throwing items of litter – or even cigarette butts- out of car windows. The key focus of their campaign is “ report it” and I have to say, I have.

The litter itself is bad enough and of course dangerous when thrown from a moving vehicle – but the cigarette butt obviously also poses a fire risk, especially in summer months or if blown back into the car. KBT aim to improve the general environment, especially in rural areas, not least because of the risk to wildlife, but also for the general appearance of the countryside.

The website claim that over 700,000 bags of litter are removed from the road each year, which of course is at the cost of the tax payer – an estimated £667 million.

Following extensive research, they realised that the main reasons people wouldn’t throw litter from the car were “Points on their licence, Fining and Community Service”. And they want a “hard hitting approach, to change the attitudes of those that litter from cars”.

As part of the campaign they are also sending out free car stickers and badges – both of which I have in use. If it reminds even one car behind me, then it is worth it.

I quite fancy sticking one on the wall outside our house. Well I know it isn’t us using our front flower bed as a bin.

Quite simply, all you need to do is register your support on-line and in no time at all, the window sticker will pop through your door.

The campaigning through groups like Keep Britain Tidy, and what they achieve in terms of a sense of community, is fantastic – but should it even be necessary?

As a person who creates rubbish, like all of us, I simply can’t understand why people need to drop their litter on the floor. What is so difficult about putting it in a bin, taking it home – or if something is dropped, picking it up.

My own views on the rubbish I create – especially since having a child and adding to the bin collection- is what really inspired me to get going with bags for life, and then on to cloth nappies. It was only a few weeks after she was born that I realised we just couldn’t continue with overflowing bins, never mind what it was going to do to the environment. I do my best to put food in containers rather than cling film, reuse cartons and jars, and recycle when possible. And if we have rubbish, I find a bin or I take it home! Only little things – but it has reduced our waste to the point where we never fill the bins entirely. If everyone did that – it could make a massive difference.

I shall get off my soapbox now, and sign off, hoping that people will not only commit to the cause, but try and encourage friends, family and random strangers on the street. As the saying goes, children are the future – so it seems like a good place to start! At the moment, my daughter prefers to empty the contents of the bin onto the floor– but I am hoping at some point, we can reverse that trend!