I would make litter picking part of community service for shoplifters.

Shoplifters are not the problem, people who litter are. You are just perpetuating the idea that people do not need to be responsible for their own waste, and that someone else less important/of lower status should do it. Litter picking should be the community service for people who litter.

I’d be the first to support a ban on disposable cups no matter how biodegradable they are. Same with all polystyrene fast food packaging etc. There was nothing wrong with wrapping chips in newspaper.
The inconvenience is nothing compared to the environmental issues and frankly I am fed up with the have it now society. Wait until you get home or brink a flaming flask!

Shoplifters are not the problem, people who litter are. You are just perpetuating the idea that people do not need to be responsible for their own waste, and that someone else less important/of lower status should do it. Litter picking should be the community service for people who litter.

Agreed. In our town we have a drive through McDs on the access roundabout to the A3 – a sort of mini non motorway services with a garage. Rubbish from McDs on the access slipway back to the A3 is so bad they have now installed CCTV and signs saying litter droppers will be fined. Litter droppers will be made to do 20 hrs community service picking up litter with a dayglow tabard identifying you as a litter dropping scumbag might have more effect.

I suppose the irony in this is we get our knickers in a twist about nonbiodegradable cups and litter but forget about the beans being transported across the world to make the coffee, the evironmental damage done by the farm factories generating the milk, the petrol chemicals being used by the car they are driving, the environemental damage done by the fast fashion clothing they are wearing. The coffee cup is the tiniest ice cube sized tip of a mahoosive iceberg.

Litter fines are pathetic in this country. Some US states fine people $1000 for littering, especially on highways. Plus you may get a cop pointing a gun at you.

On a general litter note I would make litter picking part of community service for shoplifters

Totally agree. We should have a lot more community payback labour rather than prison or motoring fines etc. Litter, graffiti, parks, schools, old folks home, get them in there and tidy/paint/drains dug etc.

We have a Waitrose in town hundreds of people walking around with there complementary coffee in disposable cups. Would be easy to make it free with own cup

Litter picking should be the community service for people who litter.

LIKE

Last time I went up Snowdon everyone up there was clutching disposable cups from the cafe. Plenty of them on the ground too. Great idea.

I try my best, but the fact people still throw their crap on the floor makes me think we’ll all be roaming the post-apocalyptic wasteland long before a meaningful number of people manage to change their habits.

Get up 10 minutes early and have a drink at home, have one in the office / work canteen or in a service station sat down, but do people really need to drink on the go? Course they don’t.

Depends, when your job involves spending the entire working day in a vehicle, with time constraints, then the only option is to grab a snack and drink when stopping for fuel. Or duck into a McD and grab something then back out again, which is what I do when in the team car, I don’t have time to stop otherwise.
As far as bottles of water are concerned, the sooner there’s a deposit system set up, the better! When I was a kid, bottles of drink from the corner shop always had a deposit, and we kids would hunt around for bottles to supplement our pocketmoney, if there was money to be had for plastic empties, I’m sure kids would happily start scavenging around the hedges to make money.

I Like the deposit idea too. The only potential down side I can think of is people emptying bin to get can / bottles out and throwing other litter on the ground next to the bin.

I may have missed something here but why is the onus always on the consumer and not the retailer. Surely charging us more to deal with their rubbish is well rubbish !!. Why are items that are plainly damaging to the environment outlawed, oh I know we can tax them and make some more money as was the case with carrier bags.

With regards to the deposit thing…

In Germany there is an 8c deposit on glass bottles and upto 25c on plastic ones. It works. It works to the extent that you see otherwise well dressed and presentable pensioners with their arms deep in bins rummaging for them Pfandflaschen. Maybe that is more a slight on the system that pensioners feel the need to dig through waste, but it does mean there are noticeably fewer bottles in the hedge rows.

Oh, and agree with the Alfa designer.

Currently in Italy and you don’t see a single coffee to-go on offer. In sure they would scorn at the idea of coffee-on-the-go.

I’ve been using one of these for the past year, may not work for everyone but so far no coffee shop has refused to fill it and its better than a disposable cup to carry around. (mines actually several yrs old and good deal more worn but still work well)

Some feeble excuses for laziness here. Don’t go into junk food place. Take a flask and a butty box. Cheaper, better for the world and far more proletariat

Travelled Dumfries to Gretna a couple of times over the weekend and the trail of plastic bottles(some full of lorry drivers pith I suspect), pizza boxes etc is disgusting. Lay-bys littered with debris of all kinds. The bins may be full but why cannot people just take their junk home???????
Last weeks River Nith flood line was also littered with plastic of all kinds…..