Throughout Borough’s in London, it is visibily noticeable that there is an increasing amount of litter and fly tipping appearing on our streets. Cans, boxes of rotting junk food strewn across alleyways for woodland animals to feast upon. When out and about, to and from school, my eyes wander to the ground. I step over empty packets of sweets school children have so casually disregarded of, I swerve avoiding the bug infested mattress dumped in front of a tree. I am hounded with absolute eyesores, bombarded with streets filled with utter clutter and mess. But most of all I am truly saddened by the pure waste that roams our roads. with Waste disposal in London estimated to grow by one million tonnes each year, it is truly imperative that we defy this statistic and lower this estimation. Action needs to be taken before our planet turns plastic.
What Can we do to Help?
Join a litter picking club: Many London Boroughs often have a litter picking club where there will be opportunities to meet up and help clean up your local area.
Reduce single use plastic: It may seem easy to pick up a plastic water bottle from the shops, but scientific studies prove that it takes roughly 450 years for a single plastic water bottle to decompose, even so these types of plastics are known to decompose into microplastics and have been found in the blood streams of of animals and humans.
Educate: It is crucial that we educate young people about littering so they know the consequences.
When walking through Through the London Borough of Sutton, it is evident that action needs to be taken. Bins are overflowing and there is an excessive amount of fly-tipping which goes under the radar. Just yesterday, furniture was chucked against a tree, no one around to claim it as it began to rot against the rain. I spoke to a bystander, a local member of the community who regularly takes action against littering who stated “The littering in Sutton is simply out of control. There seems to be a lack of repsect for shared for communal environments such as public parks where littering is rife.”
As a society, we must do better. We must understand the serious effects that littering has on our environment, and we must take action to stop our planet from turning plastic.
