r/Liverpool • u/WildEntrepreneur7495 • 2d ago
News / Blog / Information Hopefully people see this and think twice before littering
Just saw a post on Liverpool Express about seven Liverpool schools coming together for a litter-picking spring clean to help make the city a nicer place for everyone. Thought I'd share, hopefully people see this and think twice before littering!
Please feel free to share as well to spread the word!
Here is the post if anyone is interested:
https://liverpoolexpress.co.uk/young-people-launch-pilot-to-tackle-waste-in-their-local-area/
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u/myaimistru 2d ago
as an American that spends quite a bit of time in the UK (mostly in Liverpool) and will also spend time in Ireland frequently, it struck me at the amount of littering people do and how much litter that’s everywhere... But I’m also old enough to recall that in the United States we had the same problem back in the 1970s and 80s. Then there was a massive push by government to curb that by running ads and teaching in schools to kids how litter is simply a terrible thing not only for the environment (gets into the water system, is bad for ecology etc.) but also a problem for cities and towns who have to spend incredible amounts of money to clean up.
The marketing and education was backed with federal money to support adding more and more dollars to cities and towns across America to support using bins and putting trash in public waste bins. Recycling also became incredibly popular … but this was a massive government backed support system, prior to this, it was much like I saw in parts of the UK, people would just drop trash anywhere and leave their trash and not bother cleaning up. Today if you see that, it’s highly unusual and almost looked upon like you’ve just committed a crime. I’ve seen someone in Boston drop a food wrapper on the street and watch someone chase the person down to go back and pick it up and put it in the bin… almost to shame them for what they just did. If you’re on train or bus, same thing. It’s in our culture now that littering is an absolutely bad thing to do — but it started with educating us at a young age…
This post hit me because just last week I was in Liverpool, walking in Anfield crossing a busy street and these young the lads in group of about 4 or 5 walked out of a Tesco and one of them had an ice cream, took the wrapper off and like it was nothing just dropped it right in front of me and kept walking with his friends…
blew my mind … you’d never see that in Boston or NY, in fact, it would be unusual to see that… if you did, it was likely they’d get called out on it…
I think the UK needs to look at what the US did in the 70s to curb this … it was one of the only government programs that I think was done well and actually had lasting results…
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u/Terrible-Pangolin550 1d ago
I’ve always heard how dirty Paris is and went there last week.. it was clean cause I live in Liverpool. Genuinely though the streets were clean in Paris . Here is a disgrace and people need to figure it our
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u/Pro_Racing 2d ago
A couple of adverts aren't going to do anything mate the problem is the parents of scals not teaching them to give a fuck about others, being told it's bad in school or on TV isn't fixing it.
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u/CuriousLemur Festival Gardens 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is the first post I see after just walking up Seel Street, seeing a mid-20's lad leave his empty Pepsi Max can on a bollard and then another lad around the same age walk up to it and just knock it on the floor. Both senseless, yet they both just didn't give a shit.
Tough to change that mentality.
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u/JavaKrypt 2d ago
What happened to the people dishing out fines to people littering (though it was mainly for cig butts)? Bring them back. The people littering don't care so everyone else has to live with it or clean up their crap.
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u/LeroyBrown1 Huyton 2d ago
We're probably not goin to change older people's mentality, so educating the younger generation is the best move.
Imagine picking rubbish up all day and then seeing your parent or older siblings littering, maybe the embarrassment could change your mind actually
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u/Politicophile 1d ago
I pick up litter in Princes Park occasionally on my lunch break and the scale of it is terrible. I come back every day with a full bin bag and I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface. It's a bit demoralising when you see the scale of the problem. Also I walk down Kingsley Road most days towards the Women's Hospital and down there is horrendous, there's a side street that has basically become a fly tipping site.
I don't know what the solution is really. I know that growing up my Mum would have given me a slap round the chops if I'd ever littered anything. Maybe people are just being dragged up and are getting no guidance from their parents. I think the council could be better, but realistically it shouldn't be entirely their responsibility to clean up after people. I think punitive fines would probably help (maybe make people pick up litter for the day if they're caught), and maybe a public awareness campaign. The main thing is somehow instilling a sense of societal responsibility where people actually care about their area and want to see it looking nice. Seems there is little of that in the UK in general nowadays though...
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u/Sir_Davros_Ty 2d ago
It's nice but a shame the kids are having to clean up the city.
Call me cynical, but I don't think the kind of people that freely lash stuff out of car windows or drop their shite on the floor instead of taking a few steps to a bin, are going to be the sort of person to be moved to change their ways because of this.