There's a tent and a shopping trolley on the singletrack in some woods near me.

They'd obviously bought everything for an overnight party from the local Asda, wheeled it into the woods and then just left it all the following morning.

Fools.

It's just the same mentality as the riders who drop gel wrappers, drinks bottles etc etc. Or fag ends out the car window. Or dropping litter generally.

Humans are filthy creatures, some more so than others, but in some way or other we are all guilty of f***ing up beautiful places - mainly because we're lazy and love the convenience of modern living (throw away society). 🙁

Beach parties and barbecues are my pet hate.
Take your bloody bottles and foil barbies home.
You bloody carried them there.
I was walking on the beach at Dinas Dinlle this morning and there was soooo much bloody mess? What's difficult in carrying beer cans, wine bottles and food wrappers home. Pigs.

I agree with what you're saying iolo but once you drunk all the beer and wine you're more bothered about getting off with whatshername than clearing up!! 😉

I blame the parents*

[i]*and Thatcher[/i]

When I am King Of The World, I shall enact a decree that litterers shall be forced to eat whatever they drop. And I'll include non poop-scooping dog walkers in there too.

Littering really boils my p!$$, it's just entirely unnecessary.

Bone idle lazy scumbags. And you can write piss. ^ 🙂

I confess to having removed some of the tents/left beers/tshirts from previous festivals I've been to for my own revenue. Recycled pop up tents help pay for your ticket the next time you go!

I was in France last week.

Went to the coast one night, which had a large pebbly beach. Not a scrap of litter or human detritus anywhere to be seen. Amazing. Why can't we do that?

Because the attitude of people in this country is warped and we don't think like that. We're happy to consume and discard, to litter and destroy, because there is no comeback.

Dogs shitting on a footway can be a fineable offence, but it happens all the time and only very rarely gets prosecuted. Police go after easy wins or use automation to get fines/revenue, but find it hard to arrest burglars.

Gah! I get tired of this. It's just a moral thing and people just seem to have fewer and fewer morals.

Watching the tour yesterday I got the arse with the throwing of gel wrappers by the pros. Completely unnecessary and in my view disrespectful of the countryside you are riding through.

Same as the caravan loving folk who travel from town to town and cause no bother guv!!! Yup, that's why there was a rubbish mountain left on the side of the road after there last visit. It's clearly against the code to have taken it to the tip not 5 minutes away!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR and breathe.

With regards to the Tour, I'm sure there is a clean up operation at the end of the cavalcade at the back.

mattbee - Member
With regards to the Tour, I'm sure there is a clean up operation at the end of the cavalcade at the back.

I'm quite sure you're right but showing blatant littering from professionals on tv doesn't do much for the sport.
If it's ok for pro riders it's ok for me blah blah

That is a longstanding problem in Glen Etive. The countryside rangers are not liable to do anything about it because they dont want to move the problem to other parts of the property.

With regards to the Tour, I'm sure there is a clean up operation at the end of the cavalcade at the back.

Yep, but just how hard is it to put the wrapper up your jersey or back in the pocket, and what example does it set to others watching?

I went to a garden party/BBQ/Live Music in London, and the amount of paper plates, cups, food, bottles etc, that was left all over the garden.

All these people had an association with an organisation, and the guy had let them use his garden.

If this is how people behave to people they know, how much crap are they dropping on the streets?

The scumbag group who watched the tour outside Addingham and just walked away from a right mess of beer bottles / tins / food wrappers

Thousands of folks there but only one pod of selfish wtast

Mrs T went and started bagging it up and was joined by lots of others in seconds so it was nice and tidy when the cleanup van came along .

Same here in the USA. People just toss crap everywhere.

A couple weeks ago I was out on a remote, old mining trail about 25 miles from the nearest road (4X4 conditions the whole way) and found an old refrigerator, a couple of couches and chairs, a table and probably 30 large plastic bags of trash dumped off a low cliff. It would have take a large truck or trailer, 3+ hours each way and probably $40-$50 worth of gas (could have taken it to the city waste landfill for a $5 fee and 30 minutes of time).

My biggest gripe is people throwing lit cigarettes butts out of their cars. Hardly a week goes by there isn't a fire somewhere in New Mexico caused by that. Fortunately most are spotted quickly and controlled, but last summer one burned about 6000 acres of grassland.

Trout , I was surprised how well organised and clean Addingham was after the tour top marks to Addingham ,what a nice place

Sea fishing is my other interest. A lot of sea anglers are ignorant scruffy ****wits with brains the size of a spermatozoa. Many is the time I've been on a pier to find empty beer cans, discarded bait containers & worst of all for the birdlife, discarded line. I don't know why the ignorant tossers manage to carry a load of full beer cans in but find it a strain to squash them & carry them out.
Middleton Pier in Hartlepool, 'Shithole', Loch Etive, 'Shithole', Kinloch Hourn, 'Shithole', the list is endless.

Yep, but just how hard is it to put the wrapper up your jersey or back in the pocket, and what example does it set to others watching?

I'm pretty sure the riders are required to use designated litter areas. TBH you do see plenty tucking the used wrapper up their jersey. However, bottles in the last few km before a sprint....

I know the last Etape I did (2009) there were specified rubbish areas.

Never go to Glen etive. It is truly horrific.

When I go for a run or walk round my local park it astounds/horrifies me the amount of mess people leave there. Instant BBQs, KFC buckets, cans, coffee cups. You name it, its left there; all within a couple of paces of a waste bin. With the school holidays soon to start it will only get worse.

And avoid Loch Lomond, loch Tay, loch lubnaig, loch lubhair, loch ear, loch venachar, loch archray etc etc. any where that is nearer to a city here now = scum camping every weekend.

We have two tents and a BBQ free that were dumped. One group of 12 DofE kids cleaned up well over 1 ton of rubbish in three days by canoe on Loch Tay South shore alone...

Just be aware that according to the local police in Killin, there is a string link to all sorts of criminals and dodgy lifestyles with many of these characters. The local police would not deal with it - out of radio and phone range, 20+ miles away from an on duty colleague, 10 beered up NEDS with a habit for violence.... To deal with one camp ( and there are dozens) takes a dozen officers, a minibus, a van and most of a day.....

I was climbing on Arran last month (island near my home town).

An hour on the ferry, then a 3 hour walk in/scramble to get to the bottom of the route...and the first thing we found was an new, empty bottle of Bombay gin and a small bag of rubbish! I struggle to believe it was climbers, and getting to the foot of that route is no easy feat.

It's about as isolated a place as you can find (it's no Glen Etive!)...you'd have to be pretty outdoorsy to get close...so I'm struggling to picture the type of person that left it?

To give you an idea of how far a trek it is, I took this photo looking back the route we'd had to walk....starting at the sea! The glen alone is 2 hours+

[img] [/img]

It's the McDonald's generation. They leave food on the trays when I'm sure ten years ago people used to clean up after.

People leaving litter boils my piss. Why go to a nice place then leave litter? I just don't get it

Britain today. Depresses the %#^}* out of me! Walking along Rhossili and Three Cliffs Bay in the Gower last year (Britain's first designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) was ankle deep in plastic that had been washed inland in the flood tides. Behind the dunes, discarded tents, BBQs etc. Being a cyclist you notice the regularity of cans, packets, fast food etc being casually thrown out of car windows in transit. City centres are shit.

When recycling at our campsite there's often an insane level of waste; unopened fresh food, unused gas canisters, brand new cooler boxes, unused BBQs, clothing, toys, unopened canned food etc etc. It crosses social groups, poor, wealthy but can't help noticing the wealthiest most often seem not to join in with recycling so dump all of the unused or unwanted stuff in one heap in one bin rather than use the recycling point correctly and separate food waste, cans, glass, plastics etc. I imagine they rightly think that us goody goody wombles will sort it out for them. The kids of the wealthiest are the most epically wasteful of all. Looking fwd to generation whatever - hopefully they will rekindle some degree of shame at their parents, make some changes

I don't get why someone would make a trip to somewhere picturesque and then leave their litter behind, it's pretty selfish. Cycling through the forest a few weeks back, I came across 3 fly tipping sites, it annoys me no end but am always pretty impressed how quickly it's cleared away, even during the weekend. It shouldn't need to be done though

McCrapDonalds stuff boils my water. Came across some of their trash on the road between Low Row & Healaugh in Swaledale a couple of years ago. Now I don't know where the nearest McD's is to there but WTF is the matter with these divvies, do they save it up especially to dump somewhere nice or what?
McDonalds, you see their shite everywhere.

Must admit I had too look up 'NED' at Urban Dictionary 😯

Don't know if current description No.14 is accurate but it certainly made me snort and somehow get drink in the eye.

Depressing thread. 🙁

A personal story .

Vitiated the busier section of our local beach last week with our baby boy. We've preferred the quieter area just round the corner that requires a bit of a trek and so acts as a natural deterrent to the litter dropping types .

But baby means more loads to carry so nearest section of beach is chosen. Within minutes it becomes apparent that a group of approx 10 adults / children are loud and intent on causing problems. A group of girls nearby are the first to be challenged ... As the 'pikey' kids decide to dig sand right next to the girls purposefully showerring the girls in sand .. Tge girls stay quiet despite this provocation. The children then start flooding kart wheels to flick more sand then throwing sand in the air..into the girls .

The girls start to politely request that they stop .

As if programmed to retaliate the kids ( ages between 5-14 ) swear, curse and continue to provocate.

The kids then run back to their parents ( unusual accents and Irish tones ensue)

And an aggressive fight almost ensues. !!???

The group leave the beach ... Except for pretty much all of their towels, wrappings , beer cans, newspapers etc etc

Disgusting !!

Supermarket deals mean stuff is too cheap and to shoddy to be worth keeping. The throw-away culture is encouraged by takaways and airlines who hand out drinks in paper cups with plastic spoons then throw the lot in a big bin liner. The crap on the verges of motorways especially at junctions is appalling. I don't know how you can deal with this idiocy.

Humans are filthy creatures

The last time I went past Glen Etive was in the summer of '95, a really hot summer Sunday. The Glen was heaving with basically Glasgow neds on a day out with a picnic consisting of tennents, spliffs and onion rings.

These people haven't a clue about the outdoors and consequently expect there will be some bloke with a barrow along to pick it up the next morning.

[s]These [/s]people haven't a clue [s]about the outdoors[/s] and consequently expect [s]there will be some bloke with a barrow along to pick it up the next morning.[/s] their arse to be wiped for them

FTFY

I think you'll find it's

[i]These people haven't a clue about the outdoors and don't give a shit[/i]

Over my local woods there's a big blue tarpaulin that some scumbag used as a tent stuck high in the bushes. Like a permanent decoration. Off loads of the paths there are the remains of fires surrounded by plastic bottles, cans and all sorts of wrappers. They really just don't give a toss about leaving their mess behind and don't care if its stays there. Scum.

Should have an advertising campaign along the lines of 'don't be a dick'. Wouldn't stop it all but some would wake up to it.

I'm amazed. I guess Glen Etive's problem is that it must be within a couple of hours drive of Glasgae and has some fantastic swimming pools in the Etive river as well as plenty of flat camping spots. To my surprise I find that the glen is also reviewed on Tripadvisor! Scottish landowners are going to have to adopt the subtle management methods of the Lakes and Dales national parks who site tempting amenities around the peripheries of the parks so as to filter out the 70% of visitors who never venture more than 100 yards from their cars.

I've been up at Loch Lomond quite a bit over the last month, particularly the west shore. The ned camping thing seems to have got worse in recent years. I think it's probably to do with the availability of cheap camping kit and possibly more people looking for cheap get aways. The waste generated is absolutely staggering. I just can't comprehend the logic - presumably they've chosen to go there because it's a nice place and then choose to wreck it?

Anyway, I can't really see an obvious solution. A good chunk of the population are neds. They don't care and probably never will, and if they do care they assume someone will come and clear up after them.

I have seen the police going after neds camping on the east side of loch lomond. As someone has said above, it's no mean feat taking on 10 drunken neds and they need a mini riot squad to do it. There's also the thing that it just pushes the problem somewhere else where the neds feel they'll be left alone, e.g. Glen Etive.

One thing that possible could improve the situation is establishing more camping areas or campsites. Most commerical campsites won't accept groups at all and can be a total rip off cost wise. This might be a way to go combined with better eductation and enforcement against the worst offenders.

Cheap kit indeed. Here's our camp for the TDF: the brown Maréchal tent on the right dates from 1975 and has had regular use on dozens of camping trips all over Europe and in British mountain conditions and it's still going strong. The pale tent on the left cost £25 from ASDA and it's a piece of garbage; on the first trip last weekend one seam started to unravel and the carry case zip self-destructed. It also leaked when wind driven rain found its way under that silly top cover. It's no wonder people don't bother taking them home; it's the camping equivalent of a paper cup.

[img] [/img]

Although I did buy a massive tent on special offer from Go Outdoors four years ago for £50. I didn't have high expectations, but it's been brilliant! It's been all over the place, including two two-week alps trip and it's still going. Waterproof and well made. So not all cheap kit is junk, it's just so cheap that folk feel they don't have to look after it. I bet many of the same £50 tents died a firey death on Loch lomond's shores after one night. Sigh.

[i]One thing that possible could improve the situation is [s]establishing more camping areas or campsites [/s][/i] a flamethrower

Yes that would help although I fear there is inexhaustible supply of neds.