Drowning in a sea of litter

Picnic detritus

I was walking to Furness Abbey yesterday-picture it-blue sky, green grass, blossom emerging and families taking advantage of the sun. I walked past a group of young people who were picnicking with their children. Laughter rang through the air, children played and ran freely and safely-a picturesque scene! As I neared the group of about a dozen people I shrank a little... foul language and expletives filled the air... unfortunate! However, I decided not to be judgmental and gritted my teeth hoping my 4 year old grandson didn't hear or repeat any of the words-after all it was lovely to see families enjoying the sun.

We continued on and enjoyed our trip to the abbey. On the way back-at about 4-30pm the amphitheatre had cleared and was quiet again. Imagine my horror when I approached the scene above. No family... but every item of picnic rubbish left exactly where they had dropped it. I was furious and at the same time incredulous! If you appreciate a place for its beauty and visit it, why would you leave such a horrible mess? Once again I despaired of my fellow townsfolk!

I posted on Facebook about this and the response was overwhelming. Everyone deplored it-everyone taught their children to pick up rubbish, a range of names was used to describe the culprits and generally suggestions for punishment ranged from the cane to tazering!

So what is happening to society? Surely everyone can appreciate a tidy clean environment? I cannot imagine how anyone can stand up and walk away from empty pop bottles, litter and other rubbish without shame, embarrassment or guilt! So where is it going wrong? What can we do to remediate this? Some suggest more education-schools are already overwhelmed. Others suggest penalties-fines and the like...but you have to catch people first. Then there is the litter pick idea-which we will have to resort to-but then that is devolving responsibility to others who are not to blame for the mess in the first place. Its quite sad that people cant see the value of caring for the countryside. SO next time you see someone littering-shout at them! I will!