A Campaign for Cleanliness and Pride in the Nation

Bitter about litter!
Posted by Sion Barry on November 29, 2007 5:41 PM | Permalink


Rubbish, garbage, litter, call it what you like, but it bugs the hell out of me.
Walk down any street in Cardiff, and no doubt any city in the UK, and it wouldn't take long to come across it: discarded bottles, fish and chip papers, burger trays... you get the picture.
This green and pleasant land is fast becoming the cesspit of Europe. Steady on Sion, aren't you being a bit melodramatic here?
Well, perhaps a tad, but litter, or garbage! as Sir Terry Matthews likes to call it, is a growing problem in the UK.
I am fortune enough to be able to walk to work and the amount of rubbish I come across en route to the centre of Cardiff is incredible.
Why do people drop rubbish, surely it cannot be that difficult to hold onto until they come across a bin?
Civic pride, something which was often seen by other countries as a great British virtue, seems to be on the wane.
And it's no point just laying the blame at the door of local authorities, as it all comes down to responsible citizenship.
Sir Terry once described Wales as a "garbage dump" and he went on to tell me that companies would not invest in Wales if they came across garbage everywhere. The garbage is being dropped by locals, he added, so why would anyone want to invest here as they would be taking on "garbage employees?"
At a time when most regions in Europe are pretty much offering the same inducements to potential inward investors, it is the intangible factors which are becoming more important.
So let's not underestimate the damaging impact of litter on our streets. I for one would rather invest in a city where the streets were clean, as it says something positive about the mindset of its inhabitants.
So come on Wales let's reclaim the streets and kick litter into touch!

Do the people of Wales really care about their nation, and where is their civic pride? Do they deserve a free and independent litter-free Cymru?
Alan in Dyfed