By: Blonde Two
If, like me, you enjoy visiting the Dartmoor National Park Authority website from time to time, you will know that it is packed with useful and interesting information. Indeed, you can find out almost anything that you need to know about our beautiful moors. On most pages, you can also see some lovely Dartmoor images.
Sadly, this is not true of one particular page http://www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk/visiting/vi-caringfordartmoor/litter The “Litter” page of this fabulous website has some rather upsetting images of rubbish and mess left behind on some our recent hot weather days.
If you take the time to read the information on the “Litter” page, you will find out that the current cost to the National Park of disposing of litter is £20,000 per year – that is without counting the cost of staff and volunteer time. That is a lot of money and the sad thing is that it wouldn’t need to be spent if people had just a little bit more understanding.
I am sure that nobody reading a blog about walking on Dartmoor would dream of dropping rubbish. It is more likely that most of us have spent time picking it up. I had to do a stealth manoeuvre to retrieve a banana skin that a very nice looking lady had dropped the other day. I didn’t give her my much practised “Litter Talk” because I didn’t want to spoil her day and, to be honest, was a bit cross with her. Silly really because she probably left a trail of banana skins for the rest of the day.
I have been thinking long and hard about the problem of litter and trying to find reasons why people don’t take their rubbish home with them. Dartmoor National Park Authority work hard to solve the problem and have an excellent campaign slogan, “Love where you visit.” In order to preserve my faith in human kind, I try to avoid thinking that people just don’t care. If they didn’t care about open, outdoor spaces then they would not have driven all the way to Dartmoor in the first place, would they?
I prefer to think that lack of education is the issue. People are maybe not taught that their behaviour has an impact on their environment. This may sound obvious to us but we were all probably set a good childhood example by the adults around us. Again, the NPA does an excellent job and offer a wide range of educational services.
I don’t pretend to have any really useful answers. I think, maybe to start with young people would be a good idea. Us older ones don’t like being told what to do and can get a bit grumpy. The Two Blondes experience suggests that youngsters are open to suggestion, willing to innovate and exert a certain measure of influence over their parents.
This is a horrid and upsetting problem and thanks must go to all those who spend time clearing up. Please don’t despair for the world yet though. There is hope – witness one of our teenagers who arrived for her Duke of Edinburgh Expedition with her sweets all pre-unwrapped so that she wouldn’t risk any wrappers blowing across the moor.
Congratulations on managing to remain so calm and balanced on the issue of litter in the outdoors! I cannot, for the life of me, understand why people drop their trash in our wonderful countryside. You mention “lack of education”. I would call it “sheer, selfish stupidity”.
Thank you. Most people are quite nice when you get to know them – it is just a question of getting them on side in the right way. At least, that is what I am hoping …
I think that it is partly to do with the ignorant, self obsessed society that Britain seems to be (sadly) turning into, where people just can’t be “arsed” and the expectation is that someone will come along and clear up after them – look at the school kids attitude, of “well isn’t that what the cleaners are for?”
I think also it is an education thing and again the growing problem of some parents not instilling some basic values into their children, such as “don’t drop litter”. I hate litter and have drilled it into my kids, so they don’t think twice about putting something in the bin, or in their/my bag/pocket if there is no bin around. They have been seen on more than one occasion chasing a stray sweet wrapper or bag across Dartmoor!
When my kids were a bit younger and we lived elsewhere, our front garden seemed to be the local hangout for the neighbourhood youngsters and I was shocked how they would come in with their lollies and sweets and just leave all the wrappers on the floor. The look of horror when I asked them to put them in the bin!!! Obviously they were allowed to leave rubbish lying all over their house!
I still think litter duty in schools is a great way of getting kids to appreciate the value of putting rubbish in the bin!
If anyone finds a dog-boot near Arms Tor, it’s Broughy’s – we lost it, searched for it, but didn’t find it. Counts as litter, I’m afraid. But for the most part, littering is deliberate; people carry it in and are not willing to carry it out with them. The last time I set a bunch of very willing ten-year-olds to litter picking at playtime, (years ago,) duly armed with gloves and bags, I got into terrible trouble with the parents who did not think littering was beneath their children, but obviously thought clearing it up was someone else’s job.
Found various bits of rubbish down at Hexworthy yesterday – burnt paper plates, disposable barbeque, etc (which we took away on behalf of the lazy people)
Such a shame that people do this, after driving out to such ‘beautiful and unspoilt’ places. Similarly on a surf kayaking trip with some mates to Watergate Bay, we saw a group of older teenagers leave an awful mess after their barbeque/ picnic and challenged them about “why they had chosen to come to this beach” – to which they said something along the lines of “because it’s clean” and “dramatic”, etc… when we asked if they would come to said beach “if it was full of rubbish” the penny dropped and they cleaned up their mess without any whinging 🙂