I have decided to set myself the challenge of getting one more piece of litter each day this month. So there are three today, four tomorrow and so on … if I can manage it, that will be just shy of 500 pieces of rubbish collected from Chippenham!
The first two bits I snagged were plastic bottles along Malmesbury Road on my way to the railway station this morning. The grass was cut yesterday and while a lot of paper litter had been turned into confetti, these were untouched. This leads me to believe they were chucked out of a car or dropped some time over night.
Why is this type of litter a problem? Litter in general can lower property values by over 10%. Bottles (and cans) can be recycled … but only if disposed of properly (although the Lucozade bottle is a special case because the outer wrapper makes it difficult to recycle).
It’s also estimated that 80% of marine plastics have their origin on land. Whether entering from storm drains, blown into waterways after a riverside picnic, or deliberately tossed from a bridge, what happens in our communities has an impact in the wider world.
