The keen Glasgow cyclist has to cope with many obstacles. Sometimes it's unexpectedly opening car doors, last week it was a paper missile. As I turned to trace the paper's trajectory, I spotted two men having their early lunch in a van. Well, their paper bag didn't cause any personal damage this time. Instead, it contributed to environmental damage.
What goes on in people's minds if they throw their rubbish onto streets, out of windows, dump it in the countryside, stick buckfast bottles onto trees as if the it was a buckfast tree? Do they not care? Are they inconsiderate by nature? Do they not care that someone else may not like a dirty, littered, rubbish-bin city and landscape? Do they like it dirty themselves?
The attitude behind this very strange and alien behaviour seems to be a lack of personal responsibility for one's environment. As soon as we step out of our own sweet home, the litter starts, right at our own doorstep. People see it as someone else's responsibility to clean up after them, be it.the Local Authority or the state. They forget that this implies paying higher taxes for such services, that this gives us a nanny state, while it makes their own environment ugly, unhygienic and dangerous in the process - until someone actually bothers to clean up. I often see children who give their empty crisps bags to their mum who then throws it on the street, giving them the example that ensures the next generation will continue to make Glasgow look like a huge rubbish tip, with rats, crows, magpies and seagulls feeding off the leftovers. Nobody seems to consider the option of keeping their rubbish until they come across the next bin, or even take it home. So I'll have to continue cycling slalom around broken glass on designated cycle paths, with crisps packages and papers flowing around my head like mutated autumn leaves.
The question, then, is how this culture can be changed. I know I'd make a right fool of myself stopping the perpetrators and picking their rubbish up to stick it into their backsides. Trying to talk sense to them will only get me a compassionate grin. Ranting on the BBC newsonline website might get a few reads, but won't cause a landslide change of attitudes either. Maybe if we all started caring and broke our polite silence it would be a start.
What goes on in people's minds if they throw their rubbish onto streets, out of windows, dump it in the countryside, stick buckfast bottles onto trees as if the it was a buckfast tree? Do they not care? Are they inconsiderate by nature? Do they not care that someone else may not like a dirty, littered, rubbish-bin city and landscape? Do they like it dirty themselves?
The attitude behind this very strange and alien behaviour seems to be a lack of personal responsibility for one's environment. As soon as we step out of our own sweet home, the litter starts, right at our own doorstep. People see it as someone else's responsibility to clean up after them, be it.the Local Authority or the state. They forget that this implies paying higher taxes for such services, that this gives us a nanny state, while it makes their own environment ugly, unhygienic and dangerous in the process - until someone actually bothers to clean up. I often see children who give their empty crisps bags to their mum who then throws it on the street, giving them the example that ensures the next generation will continue to make Glasgow look like a huge rubbish tip, with rats, crows, magpies and seagulls feeding off the leftovers. Nobody seems to consider the option of keeping their rubbish until they come across the next bin, or even take it home. So I'll have to continue cycling slalom around broken glass on designated cycle paths, with crisps packages and papers flowing around my head like mutated autumn leaves.
The question, then, is how this culture can be changed. I know I'd make a right fool of myself stopping the perpetrators and picking their rubbish up to stick it into their backsides. Trying to talk sense to them will only get me a compassionate grin. Ranting on the BBC newsonline website might get a few reads, but won't cause a landslide change of attitudes either. Maybe if we all started caring and broke our polite silence it would be a start.