In response to BBC News Dorset’s online article yesterday, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-22317499 I wish to pleasantly and constructively clarify a few points!

The title is misleading, inaccurate and sensationalised…in my opinion! Mr.Burdis, director of the DWP is quoted in saying, “It would be highly dangerous to try to pick litter on high-speed roads”. Agreed, of course it would. I’m not going to do it! Mr.Burdis did not say, “Dorset litter picker plan highly dangerous”.  So, with respect, why did the BBC write this?!  It’s not accurate!  If you read my funding proposal via http://www.pleasefund.us you will see written under the title,
‘Why are we doing this project?’ the words:

“Litter picking must be done with SAFETY uppermost in our minds. There must be NO INJURIES associated with picking litter off the ground”.

http://www.pleasefund.us/projects/please-the-documentary-part-1

For the time being litter picking on major and high speed roads ‘must’ be done by professionals who as Mr.Burdis says ‘must’ use special safety equipment and ‘must’ adhere to health and safety standards.

However, click on this link and wonder if we could adopt similar schemes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adopt_a_Highway

We have atrocious litter problems on our roads, practically every single one of them up and down the country. With ‘the will’, given time, safety measures, money and help, we could in turn close down every road in the country, or at least traffic calm every road in the country-to clean ‘em up. Yes, it would take time. Yes, it would take organising and yes, it would cost money, but if we wanted to do it, we could do it.

What would obviously be an enormous help in the meantime would be the ceasing of litter being thrown in the first place! Hence the title of my project, “PLEASE”, please people stop throwing trash out of your car windows!

I took a video with my camcorder on the A338 road which the DWP speak of in the article. I sent it to the Bournemouth Echo. I sent it to DWP and I was interviewed on a local radio station-just because of that video. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsFXB3whwZ0

That road was atrocious and yes, I spoke with DWP and said that if it wasn’t cleared within a relatively short period of time I would do it myself. I did change my mind on that one though because after having spent a bit of time in one of the lay-bys there I realized it was far too dangerous. DWP did an excellent job of cleaning it up by the way.

But while I was pondering in the lay-by I looked into the gulley beside it! Air conditioning units, car tyres, industrial electrical units, (about 35 of them!), household waste, car parts, suitcases, clothes/shoes/a commode/about 200 plastic flower pots. (Shown in photograph at top of page). The list went on, and underneath this hoard of trash-struggled a stream. (ps. Thank you for taking it all away DWP!)

I reported this fly tip monstrosity to the council twice. I don’t blame them for not doing it, or not getting around to it. Anyway, I did it myself in the end. It was absurd, totally absurd. “PLEASE” people, please stop chucking your trash in our lay-bys. We have perfectly good tips who’ll take it, well managed, friendly staff, easy to use.

Again, as mentioned in the article, I spent last week collecting discarded aluminium drinks cans from lay-bys and a couple of ‘safe’ road verges around the Dorset and New Forest area. In a total of 19 ‘picking’ hours I collected 1,930 of the things. That’s 100 drinks cans picked up every hour! In one lay-by on a small back road in the countryside I found nearly 200 cans, in another the same, but in that one they were so difficult to get at that I left the remaining 2 or 3 hundred in situ. I am not kidding. I’ll take you to the A35 and show you the spot!

So what am I saying? We have a litter problem in this country. Many of us want to solve it. If we want to solve it it would be a good idea to start now. We have great clean up charities. We have thousands of valiant volunteer litter pickers, and I for one would like to get paid for it!

Hence:

http://www.pleasefund.us/blog/article/a-pleasefundus-hero-aka-the-litter-picking-man
We can do it-together. We can clean up our World.