Trash Talk
Why street cleanliness matters, and how we should achieve it
Something that has been noticeable over recent years is just how filthy Britain's streets have become. You often hear the observation. I recently talked to a visitor from a second-world country, and they told me they liked my local area - a leafy London suburb - but that it was very dirty. As a patriot that depressed me and I actually felt ashamed of it.
Cleanliness of public spaces might seem like a trivial matter, but it is not. The streets are the first thing you see when you leave your home in the morning. Them being soiled and littered does not give a good impression. The sight demoralises you. This has to have an effect on our collective productivity and sense of community. Mess also begets mess, and if people see a pile of trash, they are not going to care about dropping one little piece on top of it.
In my lifetime the Brits were always a bit lax with litter, not super clean like Germany or other German-speaking countries. Similarly we were less likely to respect street furniture or obey rules like not walking on the grass or not putting feet up on public transport. We weren't terrible, even if we lacked the discipline of some European neighbours. Now, however, these tendencies appear to have got out of control.
Litter and dirt is no longer the preserve of the well-trod areas of cities and larger towns, but it's in the suburbs and smaller settlements too. Fly tipping, also, is much more commonplace and brazen. Spitting on the floor is a regular occurrence. You see the phlegm freezing on the pavement in cold weather. Urination and even defecation seems to happen, wherever men (and it is mostly men) think they can get away with it. My girlfriend ran a shop for a while and customers from the takeaway next door would do toilet in the alley behind her shop. We would have to load the car enduring the foul stench. Another thing which winds me up is people dropping glass bottles on the street, or leaving them so they get knocked over. Tottering children and dogs risk getting serious injuries from the shards.
I vividly remember my teacher at infant school, a firm but fair lady you wouldn't mess with, bemoaning the scourge of litter-bugs to the class. It stuck with me and I've never been such a person as a result. Altruistic recycling pioneers The Wombles and do-gooder middle class programmes like Blue Peter also had an effect, but not as much as that teacher. I feel self-conscious and a pang of personal responsibility when I accidentally drop something - and even though I hate touching the floor (because it's so dirty), I can't leave it there. Even though nobody seems to care, that shame is present, like some sort of Catholic guilt. Shame is sometimes good - perhaps we need to regain it.
By and large a moral code, and the fear of penalty, now stops dog walkers from leaving their canines' business behind - even if it doesn't always prevent them hanging it on a tree or railing afterwards. In the past dog mess was more common, so that's one respect we've improved in. Can litter go that way, perhaps? Can spitting? The way standards are sliding, it seems unlikely, but you never know. I am something of a libertarian when it comes to much behaviour, but not with this. On this I want Warden Hodges to jump out of the bushes and issue FPNs.
There are economic and social reasons for the state of our streets. As a supposed response to the financial crisis of 2008, the central government cut grants to local authorities by 40% between 2009/10 and 2019/20. Total spending power of councils declined 17.5% in the same period. Labour started this and the Conservatives eagerly continued, with only a small uptick since the pandemic. Councils simply do not have the cash they used to, and cleaning is no longer a priority. The result of this is not only the abject grot around us, but also that councils are increasingly forced to rely on council tax for their revenue, thus taxes go up along with ugly (yet mostly unaffordable) blocks of flats and the consequent drag on services. Let's not only blame central government, because councils are still wasting money on things like LGBTQ pedestrian crossings and renaming streets so as not to upset Black Lives Matter. Cleaning should, however, be a priority for the very reasons I outlined above. It's a basic fundamental of a civilised and habitable society. Litter picking and hosing down of the streets - all streets - needs to happen daily. The abundant British rain just isn't enough.
Physically, the population is becoming massive, through record immigration of a million a year (600,000 net). With litter, the more people you get, the more litter there will be. When you combine this rising population with less money and fewer personnel, the result is of course disastrous. This goes for all our infrastructure and services, as well as demand on housing. Of course if you make this obvious point to most modern liberals, you are in for a hard time.
Another issue is that as businesses struggle and close, areas become less attractive anyway, which means people are less inclined to be tidy. An uninhabited place becomes an ideal place for people to chuck litter, and nobody is there to keep the frontages clean. The homeless shelter in the doorways of shut-down shops and offices - or even those which are closed for the night. They also congregate in town centres in a way that you didn't used to see, often leaving detritus around. Alcoholics and addicts, who may not be homeless, but have nowhere else to go, also do this. I don't wish to scapegoat these people, because society has failed them, and the same economic breakdown which has closed businesses is often responsible for their situations. Economic growth would help reduce litter, as much as it would help alleviate social problems.
Socially speaking, we live in a much more individualistic and atomised society than we used to. This is an effect of numerous things: deindustrialisation, neo-liberalism, migration, family breakdown, flexible employment habits and the Internet. We do not know our neighbours as much, talk to each other as much, or meet in common places like churches or pubs. Many of us have no investment in our communities, particularly newcomers (or not so newcomers) from other nations and cultures. Indeed, customs and values, even languages, can differ radically from house to house, whereas in the past there was a homogenous culture.
Let's not generalise about anyone, but where cleanliness is concerned, some cultures are even less tidy than Brits are. People who have migrated from these countries might be used to dirtying the streets, to authorities who never cared about quality of life or ideas such as recycling. This may be another unpopular theory, but it is a fair one.
The fact is if you're invested in your community, in your neighbours and your townsfolk, you are going to act more considerately to them, and expect this in return. Part of this is not dropping litter, rebuking people that do and picking litter up if nobody else will.
If we can manage the first part, we do not manage the second two. We fear consequences of confrontation and we are inclined to have the attitude of 'why should I?'. This is understandable. No discarded kebab wrapper is worth becoming a human kebab, another statistic in the annals of violent crime. And indeed we do pay council tax so that somebody else will clean up. But let's face it, nobody is going to - we're not in 1971. If you're lucky, one bloke with a cart and a broom will come along next week some time. We don't even bother reporting issues, because we know the council are not going to bother responding properly, let alone rectify problems. After all in our current mess even the police don't show up to serious crimes. We can resent the situation all we like, but eventually some of us are going to have to take up the grabby claw thing and fill a black sack.
My policy suggestions on the matter are as follows. Firstly I would have a national litter task force, an official organisation that arranges safe, supervised litter picks at a local level. This could be a good social activity for people, especially the retired or young people collecting experience for their CV. There are organisations and initiatives already that litter-pick, and the task force would co-ordinate them. You could even develop some paid positions, to act as an employment opportunity, for the long-term unemployed, low-risk prisoners or the homeless. Private sector money could sponsor such a thing - because tidy streets equal better business.
I would also encourage the forming of voluntary street committees. Neighbours organically created virtual help groups during the pandemic, to check on the elderly and vulnerable and buy groceries. That was heartening - evidence that our atomised society is not beyond repair. Imagine if every street had an elected committee of residents, something to tackle problems rather than rely on the ineffectual state. In America some neighbourhoods have such committees ('block committees') dedicated to upholding standards of maintenance and behaviour. I wouldn't want some sort of local Stasi, but just bonding, joint responsibility and leadership for residents. Picking up litter and keeping streets clean would be one of their functions.
At the bigger level, I'm a real fan of independent residents associations challenging the political parties who mainly serve themselves. In councils and Parliamentary constituencies we need such representation. For too long we have all sought a quiet life and relied on a bloated (now threadbare) state that cannot adequately serve or protect us.
Broadly, council funding must be increased. The local authority is more important in many ways than national government, in terms of our day to day lives. It cannot be skimped on. Other areas of spending that are not essential should be cut instead of council funds. We have seen how wasteful and corrupt many central government schemes are. This cannot go on, while our streets fester and decline. Likewise councils have to prioritise the streets ahead of the silly things mentioned earlier, and any corruption involving public money must be rooted out.
Education about community values and socially acceptable behaviour also needs to be increased. It should not be chiding or patronising, but instead positive and treating teenagers as adults. Indeed perhaps adults need educating on these matters as well. Punishment for fly-tipping and repeated littering could involve attending a mandatory course, as is done with driving offences. It could also involve making the transgressors clear up litter.
Another factor affecting littering is packaging. If you cut down on this, removing arbitrary usage, there would be less for people to throw on the floor. We should cut down on a lot of plastics anyway, because of the pollution they are causing and the damage to wildlife.
To return to my comments on closed-down businesses, we have to get premises occupied and businesses growing again. Lowering business rates would be the best way to encourage this - and perhaps traders could get even bigger discounts if they were opening useful shops that residents needed. Encouraging people to use local businesses over chain stores and online outlets would put customers their way. Local authorities would initially take some hit on revenue, but of course the calculation is that the growth would yield higher tax revenue for central government, which could then be fed back to councils in grants. If businesses still aren't developed, then the buildings would need to be repurposed for residential use, which would also prevent them from being abandoned. On the point of the homeless and alcoholics/addicts, helping these people out of their dreadful situations is essential, and the reduction of litter would be a bonus outcome.
Something you often notice is a lack of litter bins. You can walk for a long while without finding one, let alone one for recyclables. The item is in your hand, and you're dying to do the right thing, but it becomes an imposition. Public spirited people like me put it in their bag or pocket until they see a bin or get home. Indifferent people might just drop it on the floor or leave it on a wall or bus stop. Of course in certain public spaces, traditional litter bins are a security risk (which is why you see those clear bags in hoops in railway stations), but in lower risk areas there is no excuse for a scarcity of them. I would certainly push for more. Emptying of bins also needs to happen more frequently - you routinely see them stuffed with rubbish and overflowing. Traders even illegally dump commercial waste in them, which should be prosecuted.
The presence of bins does not always prevent slobs from littering. You see people, especially drunks eating takeaways, just leave their mess on the floor or bench when they are right next to a bin. There's no legislating for such idiocy - someone official or non-official will have to pick that up.
Another factor that causes mess is when refuse sacks are split open by scavenging animals like rats or foxes. This was one of the reasons wheelie bins became popular from the 1990s. Wheelies mitigate the problem to some extent, even though these can be blown or kicked over. Where they are not used we should roll these out (literally) - and eventually perhaps we can find a material less polluting than plastic. Local councils should also warn and then fine people for not using wheelie bins when they are required to, or overfilling these bins so the lids don't shut. Traders and other handlers of commercial waste should not be allowed to put out unprotected sacks on the street. Also rubbish should be collected more regularly, to prevent build up and spillage.
As we have seen there are numerous things that could be done to keep our streets clean. Rather than being a superficial problem, the trash and grime on the floor is demonstrative of wider issues. It shows how we have lost our way, in funding priorities, in our economy, in law and order, in how we care for the unfortunate. It demonstrates the entitlement and selfishness of some, the fear and resignation of others. But we must not resign - we must not let this malaise beat us. As well as the crisp packets, cotton buds and gnawed chicken bones, we have to pick ourselves up.