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ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » On the land I look after I have a zero tolerance to rubbish, so since we are not able to stop people chucking stuff out of their windows I'd better give some time to picking it up myself?
I rent my farm and we have a long drive of some three quarters of a mile, this is to maintain, keep pothole, ice and litter free.
So what is to be found in a kilometre of hedgerow in the backwoods of North Northumberland?
Along a road is material from cars/vans etc. and windblown rubbish light enough to blow away, there is also material dumped such as a coat...sometimes you wonder the circumstances surrounding discarded material. In the past I have found thrown away spoils of petty crime - such as an empty handbag as well as a pile of commercial paint tins. This commercial waste wound me enough to become Sherlock Holmes, the paint tins had a code on so could be pinned down by the manufacturer, they would not give the information so good old Yellow Pages allowed me to phone companies who were putting masonry paint on houses locally, one company even said they would be delighted to give me a quote for such work.......as they were working in the area!! I deduced they were guilty and they were good enough to collect their rubbish.
Last week I was dealing with small rubbish but it all adds up to citizens who don't know how to act as citizens. The young farmers have the motto good farmers, good countrymen, good citizens and we certainly did our share of litter picking, in a wasteful throw away society we need to continue to be tough on litter louts.
One thing I've noticed on my road is less cigarette butts, more chewing gum, pronounced chug, and since we have a commercial gym on the farm more rubbish seems to be of a health nature. Fat coke is being replaced by mineral water.....I guess it keeps me fit picking it all up?
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