Britons have become “litter blind” with constant waste blighting our cities, towns and green spaces, a litter picker has declared.
Every year in the UK, 30 million tonnes of litter is dropped onto our streets, parks, fields, lakes and rivers, with 85 per cent of Britons agreeing that the issue is harming their area.
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Some two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK every day at a cost to the taxpayer of £500million per annum.
Scott Gibbins, a self-described “very keen litter picker” and part of Leicestershire Litter Wombles, said that people need to start taking more “pride” in where they live.
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He told The People’s Channel: “The thing I keep banging on about pride. There's no pride any more. You look around shops, in the car parks and businesses. It's absolutely horrendous.
“I think most people have become litter blind because we're just so used to seeing it.
“It just becomes part and parcel as if you’re walking through a wood and you spot a tree - after a while, you stop noticing the trees because they’re everywhere and you’re just so used to seeing them.”
Gibbins estimates that since 2020, the Leicestershire Litter Wombles have filled over 3,000 bags with rubbish. The group has also reported around 1,000 incidents of fly-tipping, Gibbins estimated.
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The group regularly targets lay-bys, which are often filled with “hundreds of bottles of urine and bags of human waste” which have been chucked out of moving vehicles.
But Gibbins said people are also littering in less obvious ways too. He said many individuals are putting too much waste into public bins, causing them to overflow.
He told GB News: “I’m a great believer in people using litter bins as a last resort.
“If you can take it home, then take it home and dispose of it there,” he said.
He advised Britons to make sure they flatten their waste as best as possible when disposing of it, as it will mean the bins get full less quickly and therefore they won’t need to be emptied as regularly.
Gibbins said his own council has said they will axe lots of public bins in a bid to save money.
It is a sentiment that is being repeated by many councils up and down the UK. Just this week, the Vale of Glamorgan Council said it will reduce litter bins by 25 per cent.
It said it is needed given “significant financial challenges” to deliver departmental savings for 2025/26.
The litter-picker told GB News: “We just become very, very lazy. And as I say, it's just the mindset of people now. But now we need to reverse that mindset.”
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