Litter - A Century Ago

[hc4361]

I've been looking at a lot of old photos of city scenes in the early 1900s and the streets do seem to be very clean and litter free.

Is this because people were better behaved or simply because there was a lot less stuff to litter with? Pop came in bottles and were returned for the penny. There were no cardboard coffee cups, pizza boxes, burger boxes - I don't think people ate and drank on the go as they do now. There would have been chips wrapped in newspaper but were these more likely to be eaten at home, the used paper thrown on the fire?

No plastic bags. There was certainly smoking paraphernalia but the cigarette packets didn't have that nasty plasticky coating nor the plastic film. No chewing gum before WWII.

There would have been lots of horse muck but neighbours with gardens would almost fight over it - so good for the roses. I do remember in the 60s and 70s seeing LOTS of dog mess - usually white. :)

There seemed to be a lot of braziers on the streets and pavements even when I was a child, so maybe people chucked their rubbish on to them.

Back to my question - were people better behaved then, or was there a lot less stuff to litter with?

[Rockrose]

I think things were generally reused - so paper etc was burned, no fast food and nothing was really disposable.

[hc4361]

I remember my grandmother reusing everything from bits of string to wrapping paper. I used to iron the old Christmas wrappings for her.

I wonder when litter bins first appeared on our streets.

[1ozzy]

The best way to combat litter is to put a refund on it.

People will collect it and return it to a recycle facility to get a few bob.

[hc4361]

But how much would that cost to administer? Shops would need storage for empties, the empties would need to be collected and transported.

[Old_Geezer]

I think folk had less to sling in the first place, and there were folk willing to collect stuff in the streets in case it was worth something. Whether they were naturally less inclined to just throw things down, is debatable. I suspect every generation gets it's share of antisocial citizens spoiling it for the rest of society.

[jno]

they did have people like Jo the crossing sweeper in Bleak House (though their main target was probably horse dung).

But nothing came wrapped in plastic in those days. However, there's been street food since the Middle Ages at least; so excavations routinely turn up things like nuts and oyster shells.

[bhg481]

Most litter seems to me to be food/drink in origin, apart from cigarettes. Back in the day people seemed to manage to survive by eating at meal times and not constantly grazing throughout the day, hence no litter created.

[Ken4155]

I think you've answered your own question, hc :-)

[bhg481]

The cost of clearing up litter falls on the local council; the cost of reusing packaging falls on the manufacturer/retailer. It's a no-brainer if there is no financial penalty for producing packaging willy-nilly.

[hc4361]

I find it a fascinating slice of social history. I can't find when the first litter bin appeared in the street.

[jno]

I suspect much of the problem arose once they started getting rid of litter bins, because of fears that the IRA would put a bomb in them. Once people got out of the habit of putting rubbish in them, they left it anywhere. They do pay their councils to clean the streets, after all.

[hc4361]

I never thought of that, jno.

Another cause of concern is the huge increase in fly tipping. My local council used to provide 3 bulk collections a year so people could dispose of their old suites, fridges, beds etc.

Now there is a charge and some people don't seem to want to pay it. There is a council tip within three miles, another about 12 miles away where people can dispose of most goods for nothing but fly tipping gets worse year on year. It's a shame especially as the landowner is left to foot the bill.

[hereIam]

Fly tipping is a scourge these days. I live in a terraced street and people think nothing of dumping all their rubbish in the backs. There are a few diehard ones amongst us who continually alert the Council and request a clean up which we get - eventually. I sometimes feel we are fighting a losing battle. I think streets were cleaner many, many years ago probably because of stuff you said in your second para. hc.

[gness]

There is of course much more throw away stuff today than a century ago but that's no reason for folk to throw it away to litter our streets and road verges.....I just don't understand the mentality of someone who will just drop rubbish anywhere.
It bugged the life out of me in the UK yet here in Ireland where we have to take much more responsibility for disposing of our rubbish and at a cost there is no litter in the streets and lanes. (City streets may be different but that's rarely down to locals)
Our school has no litter bins. The children have to take home their own lunch wrappings, chocolate bar wrappings and so on. They learn early to be responsible for disposing properly of rubbish and to take pride in where they live.
Dave and I took part in Ireland's national litter pick weekend. We took on about three miles of our lane which is part of the Kerry Way and only filled about a quarter of our small sack and that was with stuff dropped by walking tourists. I could have filled a whole sack from a few yards of the A14 verge back in the UK.
I know how Ireland cleaned up the litter strewn towns and villages of years ago but could it be done in the UK? I doubt it and that saddens me.....x

[237SJ]

When my cousin lived in California she said there was a $1000 fine for dropping litter. Shame we can't enforce such a fine here. To be fair though, it's not just the UK that has a litter problem.

[ummmm]

When we went out for junk food as kids it was to the Wimpey...no takeaways!

My attitude to littering really changed in my early teens when I went to Germany. It was so clean I realised how bad it was here. Before that I was ignorant to it.

[ummmm]

237...they do enforce it. My daughter was given an £80 fine for dropping a ciggie.

[Buenchico]

I think you're "a lot less stuff to create litter in those days" is probably the main explanation.

However littering seems to affect some places far more than others. When I lived in Sheffield the city centre was literally ankle-deep in litter in many places by teatime each day, with workers struggling to clear the mess away every night. In the small town I now live in you can walk the whole length of the High Street at almost any time without even seeing a single cigarette butt on the pavement.

[237SJ]

I was riding a horse down the side of a road in Andalucia some years ago. My horse, who was admittedly a bit of a dreamer, fell flat on his face when he tripped over the crap that had been thrown from cars in the area. And go to South America if you want to see litter.

[ummmm]

What I don't understand is the fag buts outside shops. It's like a car has pulled up and just emptied the ashtray in the gutter.