Throughout this Bank Holiday weekend, Jon and I have been exploring some of our favourite local haunts. There was Lacock on Saturday, Castle Combe yesterday, and today we headed to Bradford on Avon for a canalside stroll.
Yet despite the change in location, there was one thing we could not escape: litter. I was able to easily collect seven pieces of rubbish from just a small section of the trail. It’s the usual mix of on-the-go packaging and slightly larger bits that I assume are coming from the canal boats (it’s a rather large brandy bottle to carry with you on a weekend walk!). The most concerning bits are the plastic rings for bottles or cans; I ended up finding two of them, and this is the type of rubbish an animal could easily get its head or leg caught in. The blacksmithing course was, I admit, a bit more unusual (do consider looking into it if you’re interested in making knives and/or axes!).
After our walk, we visited Hartley Farm for breakfast. If you haven’t been, I highly recommend it: it has great food, a lovely farmshop, and is set in a beautiful countryside location. But what really stood out was that they seemed to be doing their bit in the battle against plastic with paper straws and glass cups for water. They also have newspapers for patrons to read, and I caught sight of the Daily Mail’s “Plastic Shames Britain” cover.
The phrase “Take care of the little things and the big things take care of themselves” popped into my head–the opposite is also true. Ignore the little things at your own peril. Right now, the problem is a big one, and that is because litter has been ignored for far too long.
It’s great to see that the country is starting to wake up to the problem that
is litter and plastic waste–but we must take genuine action if we want to have any hope of stopping it.
