Schiehallion bottled up

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 doz 19 Oct 2020

Out with the wee dozs Sunday...

Took a bin bag an a half of plastic bottles off the hill/carpark verges

Come on people...sort it out

1
 jpicksley 19 Oct 2020
In reply to doz:

I suspect you're preaching to the converted on here...

Removed User 19 Oct 2020
In reply to doz:

> Out with the wee dozs Sunday...

> Took a bin bag an a half of plastic bottles off the hill/carpark verges

> Come on people...sort it out

A health hazard as well.

Hope you were careful in handling them.

 PPP 19 Oct 2020
In reply to doz:

Firstly, good job doing that. Many thanks! 
 

One thing I changed a year or so ago is that I don’t get upset when I pick up the rubbish. I just think of doing a favour to the nature, leaving it in a better state and making sure that people can enjoy a cleaner area. It makes me happier instead of upset. 

 felt 19 Oct 2020
In reply to PPP:

That's the spirit.

Like an archaeologist from the future, tally the score, Etruscan vs Phoenician, Starbucks vs Costa vs Red Bull. John Smith's was the soaraway No. 1 on the verge, banks and hedgerows of the Golden Pot to Upper Froyle stretch of road I used to feel was my black bag beat. I pictured one guy driving past every afternoon, week after week, year after year, lobbing yet another can out of the window of his beat-up silver Nova, and here was I, Dr Wilder Penrose from Ballard's Super-Cannes, the psychopomp who steered our darkest dreams towards the daylight.

 Dave Hewitt 19 Oct 2020
In reply to PPP:

> One thing I changed a year or so ago is that I don’t get upset when I pick up the rubbish. I just think of doing a favour to the nature, leaving it in a better state and making sure that people can enjoy a cleaner area. It makes me happier instead of upset. 

Similar here - I too tend to feel quite positive about it - picking up litter is rewarding in the same kind of tidying-up way that washing the dishes also is. I pick up litter pretty much every day, morning and evening, on a half-mile-each-way mainly rural walk along the road from the house - I have a grabber, which is a fine implement both in terms of cleanliness and preserving my dodgy hamstrings. On the hill I don't take the grabber (unsurprisingly) but I do bring down lots of plastic bottles and energy cans from my local patch on the Ochils - it's not all newbies dropping these but it has increased with the post-lockdown surge from July onwards.

The local roadside stuff back home always sees a lot of plastic bottles and gel packets when the annual 10K race goes past - curiously a significant proportion of runners (who surely should know better) lob their bottles into the farm fields and hedgerows, having carefully hung on to them while passing people's gardens in the village. Anyway, picking up all that and recycling/reusing the bottles is quite satisfying too.

 Rob Exile Ward 19 Oct 2020
In reply to Dave Hewitt:

On a brighter note - did the honeypot of all honeypot walks yesterday - NDG, Stickle Tarn, Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle then back to the NDG - and although it was heaving there was hardly any litter at all. 20 years ago there would have been a fraction of the crowds but litter every step of the way.

 Lankyman 19 Oct 2020
In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

I've been in the Lakes all last week (Esk, Duddon and Wasdale) and was pleasantly surprised at the lack of crap. My first trip in since before lockdown so I'd been expecting at least some debris from the summer mayhem. There was a mobile warning sign about poor parking in Wasdale and the carpark by the hotel was very chewed up by inconsiderate parkers.

 Dave Hewitt 19 Oct 2020
In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

> On a brighter note - did the honeypot of all honeypot walks yesterday - NDG, Stickle Tarn, Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle then back to the NDG - and although it was heaving there was hardly any litter at all. 20 years ago there would have been a fraction of the crowds but litter every step of the way.

That is encouraging. Certainly here on the Ochils there's currently a fair bit of litter (but not masses) on the main paths - and Dumyat has been in a woeful state ever since the big new path went in a couple of years ago - but thinking back to when I started to spend large amounts of time on the Ochils, in the late 1990s, I'm pretty sure that there was less markedly litter then. Plastic drinks bottles feel like a significant factor in this - they didn't used to feature as part of the hillgoing kit anywhere near as much as they do now, and clearly a fair few people regard them as chuck-away-able on the hill (not that I've ever seen anyone actually do this).

Incidentally, I'm not in the Lakes a huge amount - roughly a dozen or so days per year (and none thus far this year!), but generally I don't seem to have seen much litter there. Could it be that the high number of people - quite a few of them diligent picker-uppers - tends to keep litter levels down?

 girlymonkey 19 Oct 2020
In reply to doz:

One day we were doing some litter picking at a local reservoir (it has sadly been appalling this summer, but we are keeping on top of it) and my mum was wandering along with her grabber and bag, picking up litter. Someone watched her and asked what she was doing!! She looked in disbelief and answered "tidying up!". Not sure what else he thought she could be doing!

 Jamie Hageman 19 Oct 2020
In reply to PPP:

Same here - it is a rewarding (if sometimes gross) activity.  I picked up two huge bags of rotting food and all manor of rubbish dumped by the river Lochy recently.  Totally worth getting filthy for and leaving a pristine river bank again. 

 aln 19 Oct 2020
In reply to felt:

> That's the spirit.

> Like an archaeologist from the future, tally the score, Etruscan vs Phoenician, Starbucks vs Costa vs Red Bull. John Smith's was the soaraway No. 1 on the verge, banks and hedgerows of the Golden Pot to Upper Froyle stretch of road I used to feel was my black bag beat. I pictured one guy driving past every afternoon, week after week, year after year, lobbing yet another can out of the window of his beat-up silver Nova, and here was I, Dr Wilder Penrose from Ballard's Super-Cannes, the psychopomp who steered our darkest dreams towards the daylight.

Poetry. 

OP doz 20 Oct 2020
In reply to PPP:

This is a massively good point and I am learning to enjoy picking up other people's crap to the extent that I might give up climbing, buy a donkey and become a proper rag n bone person.

I still struggle however to manage the inner rage at inconsiderate driving, in particular hogging single-track/narrow roads whilst merrily passing signs imploring folk to allow overtaking... I know if I were a better person this wouldn't infuriate me and maybe swapping my van for a donkey is the solution....

 Rip van Winkle 21 Oct 2020
In reply to Lankyman:

Same here. I was in the Lakes last week (Eastern Fells, Glenridding, Patterdale) and saw very little rubbish on the hills - the odd can or chocolate bar wrapper, but mostly clear and clean.


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