ashamed and alarmed by the amount of rubbish at a world renowned uk trail centre

i abandoned an innertube once.

the fourth puncture in as many miles, freezing cold and muddy, it had just started raining, my spare tube already done in (x2) and the most recent self adhesive patch sticking to nothing in particular.
i stopped, ripped the tyre off the rim and yanked the tube out and hurled it towards the nearest hedge, swearing lots.

fortunately by the time i had blagged a tube that holds air from my riding buddy and fitted and inflated it, i had calmed down a bit, so i retrieved the tube and stuffed it in my bag.

what you carry in you carry out.

might be time to adjust that slightly so everyone takes home one more piece of rubbish than they take out.

Somebody on here mentioned the marketing and branding that goes with our pastime these days, and I can’t but agree. I also have this feeling that the consumption of all these energy cans and so on is done by the younger generation (that seems to have no issues with littering in the first place. I did it once and only got a few paces before returning to pick it up, racked with guilt) I frequently see young kids on “DH Rigs” obviously returning from Wharncliffe, full facer hanging off the bars, walking! And on a relatively flat piece of road. In my grumpy old mans mind, DH is easier if you do some sort of uplift, drinking cans of energy is marketed as the easy way to be strong, and littering is easy if you are lazy of mind as well as body. Kids today!

It annoys me when people throw banana peel. Yes its biodegradable, but it takes 2 months for it to go and its still **** littering!

TRAMPS!

Where do you stand on tissue paper after a wild one? That takes a while to break down too, maybe even longer than banana skin. Are you suggesting I should crap my shammy instead?

sh1tforbrains –

Did you pick any up?

If you didn’t you’re as bad as the person who dropped it their!

sorry, you’ve lost me on that one. If i go round a trail and take everything i use back with me how does that create litter on the trail ?

tip – it doesn’t

Some people are just ….s (or should I say ‘humans are just…?)

I went canoeing at a marine reserve near Koh Samui years ago…nice trip around the islands and through caves and tropical untouched islands

<insert sound of vinyl scratching suddenly>

I collected more empty water bottles floating in the sea than I care to remember…bits of polystyrene….all sorts of crap.

I’m guessing it would have ended up in the Pacific rubbish vortex…

Rubbish Vortex Wiki

mancjon – Member
sh1tforbrains –

Did you pick any up?

If you didn’t you’re as bad as the person who dropped it their!

sorry, you’ve lost me on that one. If i go round a trail and take everything i use back with me how does that create litter on the trail ?

tip – it doesn’t

Because you are actively deciding to leave rubbish on the trail. You had an opportunity NOT to leave rubbish on the trail but YOU chose to leave it there.

Either pick it up or stop boo hoo’ing about it.

Because you are actively deciding to leave rubbish on the trail. You had an opportunity NOT to leave rubbish on the trail but YOU chose to leave it there.

Hmmm, weird logic IMO. If what you wrote applied to leaving rubbish yourself then i would totally agree. But applying it to someone else’s rubbish, i don’t see it.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t pick it up if you feel that strongly about it but if no one left rubbish in the first place then you wouldn’t have to. So to say those who don’t leave rubbish but don’t pick up others rubbish are just as bad as people who leave rubbish in the first place is just plain nonsense.

Basically it’s that line of argument that allows people to create rubbish in the first place ie. it’s okay someone else will tidy up after me.

Where do you stand on tissue paper after a wild one? That takes a while to break down too, maybe even longer than banana skin. Are you suggesting I should crap my shammy instead?

Take it with you?

Where do you stand on tissue paper after a wild one? That takes a while to break down too, maybe even longer than banana skin. Are you suggesting I should crap my shammy instead?

Surely put it in a bag then hang it from a tree 😉

Was there today and surpirse after this thread the lack of rubbish – maybe the trails maintenance crew took this thread to heart 😉

I did collected some that I saw & hope other will as well.
Don’t need/expect applause for doing this, just annoyed other people are such idiots & leave it there in the first place.

Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints, kill nothing but time.

Seems strange that people want to get out in the country to enjoy it, then do their little bit to ruin it. A great shame.

Chuck a banana skin into the sea, and it’ll take seven years to degrade. It’s quicker on land, but you’re still looking at a minimum of six months.

Toilet tisse? Set light to it. In the pit you dug for yer poop. Make sure it’s out.

I try to pack out more rubbish than I pack in in the form of packaging. Trail centres seem to have more rubbish on them than the stuff I regularly ride in the Surrey Hills – but I’m seeing plenty of gel sachets and the like here, too. Which makes me sad.

i must say, im amazed by how long a banana skin takes to break down.
thats if an animal doesnt eat it, of course.
however, lets put it into perspective, 2 weeks/6 months/ 7 years is still slightly quicker than 10,000 years for the energy gel wrapper/drink bottle.
still makes my piss boil though, i absolutely cant understand it.

flatfish – Member
I wasn’t trying to be harsh but if were going to talk about slagheaps, why aren’t they moved into opencast mines to fill in the holes, bloody big holes, left by man.
I wasn’t having a go at Wales(being an english man),

That’s all right because in general it was the English landowners who left the slag heaps there in the first place. And people wonder why the locals are grumpy at Afan! 😉

bent_udder – Member
Chuck a banana skin into the sea, and it’ll take seven years to degrade. It’s quicker on land, but you’re still looking at a minimum of six months.

Or 3-4 weeks depending on where you look for answers. They seem to decompose in my fruit bowl in about 10 minutes flat, though….

It seems quite remarkable that you’d take a banana skin home with you to put it in your compost bin, but this is somehow a problem when you put it out of sight somewhere in a wood.

Agree with take it home with you. I never litter and if i can i will pick up others litter. It seems strange how people can make the effort to take it with them but cant be bothered to take it home, its just plain lazy

Zippy, what is your (bike) helmet colour?

Was there today and someone was riding round with a backpack full of plastic bottles and rubbish. top job. I did manage to pick up one piece they’d left behind though.

We were at Glyncorrwg today, had a flipping fab ride. Didn’t find anything to bloody whinge about at all. :-). Edit.oh except those speed control gates, they are bloody annoying!

green, yep my m8 said I looked like a tramp by the end, lots of plastic bottles and inner tube, he refused to fill my pack up any more by the end (it was kinda stuffed).

Ah zippy, you might have been down the whites level descent at the same time as me and my dad? me – white marin, dad – brown on-one?
If it was you looking like the tramp with the plastic bottles you did a fantastic job, trail was looking really tidy today! I normally try and pick up some of the nasty stuff but you went above and beyond.

Yep I think I know who you were, your dad said he’s only been doing it 3 months, fair play to him for doing white’s.
Was he the guy that had a fall when he came across the guy how had the face plant (vid), my m8 said two ppl had crashed (I only saw one), we believe the 2nd after being told to take care round the next bend had put his foot out to come to a stop but not had any ground under his foot…
Oh and if it is, I hope he’s ok.

PS: Proof to one & all, I don’t just live behind a keyboard!

Seems strange that people want to get out in the country to enjoy it, then do their little bit to ruin it.

I think this could be the problem.
It’s not so much people who use their bike to get out in the country, it’s people who want to show of their rad gnarly skilz and find having to drive miles and miles out in to the country to do it a bit of an inconvenience.

Make the wrappers edible too, end of problem. Re innertubes in trees, can you keep doing that, saves me a fortune at the bike shop after collecting them

Throwing food litter in the wild encourages more vermin that then prey upon ground nesting birds and smaller rare/endangered mammals. Pack it all out and take an extra piece or two as well is my usual approach.