Before the grass has thickened on the roadside
verges and leaves have started growing on the
trees is a perfect time to look around and see just
how dirty Britain has become. The pavements are
stained with chewing gum that has been spat out
and the gutters are full of discarded fast food
cartons. Years ago I remember travelling abroad
and being saddened by the plastic bags,
discarded bottles and soiled nappies at the edge
of every road. Nowadays, Britain seems to look at
least as bad. What has
gone wrong?
The problem is that the rubbish created by our
increasingly mobile lives lasts a lot longer than
before. If it is not cleared up and properly thrown
away, it stays in the undergrowth for years; a
semi-permanent reminder of what a tatty little
country we have now.
Firstly, it is estimated that 10 billion plastic bags
have been given to shoppers. These will take
anything from 100 to 1,000 years to rot. However,
it is not as if there is no solution to this. A few
years ago, the Irish government introduced a tax
on non-recyclable carrier bags and in three
months reduced their use by 90%. When he was a
minister, Michael Meacher attempted to introduce
a similar arrangement in Britain. The plastics
industry protested, of course. However, they need
not have bothered; the idea was killed before it
could draw breath, leaving supermarkets free to
give away plastic bags.
What is clearly necessary right now is some sort
of combined initiative, both individual and
collective, before it is too late. The alternative is
to continue sliding downhill until we have a
country that looks like a vast municipal rubbish
tip. We may well be at the tipping point. Yet we
know that people respond to their environment. If
things around them are clean and tidy, people
behave cleanly and tidily. If they are surrounded
by squalor, they behave squalidly. Now, much of
Britain looks pretty squalid. What will it look like
in five years?
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