It was a beautiful day in Chippenham today. A cloudless blue sky, sun, and the weather feeling a bit warmer than it has done lately made it seem like the perfect time to take a walk along the river. This was intended to be a short walk after yesterday, and in terms of distance it certainly was. However, in terms of rubbish it was almost identical: 9 glass bottles, 28 plastic bottles, and 32 cans brought the monthly tally up to the total seen on the right.
Why so much rubbish in such a small area? As discussed regarding Malmesbury Road, this area is also a cut through, a connecting place between point A and point B. One of those points is the Olympiad Leisure Centre, and it is somewhat suspicious that many of the beverage containers found are energy drinks, with Lucozade topping the list today.
However, unlike Malmesbury Road, litter bins are more plentiful in this area, yet they do nothing to dissuade people from littering. Indeed, one of the heaviest littered places is right next to the bridge … which happens to be 10 feet from a bin. What can be done to change this throwaway culture in Chippenham?
This loop would normally take no more than 5-10 minutes to walk. Today it was 1.5 hours due to the amount of litter.
Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, and Chippenham is doing its part to see that they stay on top of the list.
A keg should not be part of the riverside ecosystem.
Apparently it is much easier to just chuck rubbish from the bridge rather than put it in the nearby bin.
A close up of some of the riverside rubbish. Unfortunately it’s impossible for us to reach this mess.
Think how much nicer this scene would be if there wasn’t so much rubbish everywhere! Also, did you know that bread is bad for ducks? Please do not feed bread to wild waterfowl – read here for what you can do instead.