G'Day

YUCK!

chocaholic

I can't stand it when I see people being so lazy and lax that they just chuck their litter on the ground. However, a year ago or so, I was at the Manly Food & Wine festival - and considering the amount of people I was amazed at how clean the place stayed.

Sometimes, on occasions like this, the bins are just filled to overflowing, so a bit of wind sends litter everywhere. Manly does a good clean up though IMO.

guyguy2003

I dont know if it was always so, it becomes worse and worse now, but I landed in Perth and saw how a place can be so clean and people so well behaved and protect their nature and clean city. I was also in the south west of australia, not a piece of litter on the highways. In perth I walked all the way from cottesloe to city beach and again, not ONE piece of litter. In melbourne, when I talk to my friends about it, they seem to feel indifferent about it. a few are very passionate about it like me.

When I came to Melbourne, the first thing I saw was graffiti, and litteraly houndreds of empty bottles and cans on the train tracks. It is now becoming much worse, lots of people toss their empty beer stubies and bottles everywhere, and the councils do a bad job of cleaning it, they only clean streets twice a month, main streets once a week. only the commercial streets are being cleaned once a day, and the city all the time.

It starts to remind me of London.

I thought it might be the horrible litterbugs from london and england, as well as other places where littering is an issue, coming to Australia, but the fact is that all of Victoria and New south wales have those problems, even small countrytowns where you wont suspect migrants will go to (I almost havnt seen litter in queensland and in WA), even tho NSW actually tries to create awareness. I dont know of the situation in SA, NT and Tas. I heard the worst litterbugs are in NT and Tas tho, they did a survey and the best improvement in littering behaviour is in brissie, perth is also very very clean, I think its the 10th cleanest city in the world).
Its funny because some people are very clean and aware here, only butt out on the special litter bins and clean after their dog's mess. still every day I see atleast 100 empty bottles on the way to work, st kilda road is just a disgrace. and when you tell that to the council they send you an email back saying they think its in a 'reasonable' state.

And the worst part -the bay, litter like I never seen in any other beaches in the world, including Israel (where some people are serious litterbugs). The stupid councils only now start to install litter traps in the rainwater drain system, but still after rain it looks horrid, FULL of litter on the shore. And many people leave their litter there as well. I havn't seen one beach in Port Philip Bay yet that was totally clean on litter, especially again beer cans and soft drink bottles, and all sort of plastics from the bay.

So, I guess Melbourne is going on the way to become London where littering is becoming a way of life.. if nothing is going to be done. And since the ozzies are so laid back, they won't start a confrontation usually when they see someone littering, just like the british as so reserved and will never approach a stranger with a bad remark.

Btw, you CAN report littering from cars, even if someone is flicking a ciggie butt out(I actually reported one of those), or if you saw someone do it and you can identify the offender's car. he offenders get 205$ fine. do it on the site of EPA (Enviromental protection agency I think, they are one of the big bodies that fight those things, along with BIEC and KAB). and while you need to attend court should the offender ask for it -I can tell you they wont, cause it can rise to a 4000$ fine in court if they are found guilty.

Quinkana

Waxes and wanes depending on the fire in the belly of council members.

Keep Australia Beautiful Council (Vic)

Keep Australia Beautiful Council (National)

MikeStanton

How quaint and typically Australian. Perth, the 'Stepford Wives' of cities.

As you live in the sterile, incredibly dull place that is Perth, admiring its clean streets, please spare a thought for the rest of the world. We have to put up with Oz spewing-out some of the world's highest CO2 emissions per capita.

Bordy

Surely they have dropped since you left

kirsty&al

It's only recently that the UK has dropped below Oz in the CO2 emissions stakes. Over the last 25, 50 or 100 years the UK emissions have been greater than Oz. The recent reduction has been due to the general trend from coal to gas for electricity production. The UK numbers are also helped by nuclear production of electricity (approx. 25%), which as we all know is clean and efficient (just don't eat any oysters from the Irish Sea).

Regards
Alistair

gedge

Don't feel the need to shut up Rog, you are right that this is wrong. If everyone kept quiet then we'd all start to believe it is ok to drop rubbish everywhere. There are no special cases IMO.

These people are capable of taking the stuff with them to the beach, but not able to take it away with them??? Utter crap! I walked along Manly sea front last night just before sunset and our friends from the UK commented on the litter. Quite frankly I was embarrased by it.

Oh yeah now I should take a chill out pill or have a drink. Should I then drop my beer bottle on the beach? Should I then not care if the glass breaks? Should I then not care if you or your child steps on the glass????
This is not about Australia V UK, this is about respect for the environment and other people. Simple.

guyguy2003

I found English people to be very 'quiet' ie reserved and not say to people what they think. I also found that littering behaviour becomes 'addictive' if no one says anything or do anything about it. the resolt - London as it is today - the second dirtiest city in Europe. I was deeply shocked in my year and a half there with the way people litter with no shame, leaving litter in trains, the underground, with the excuse that there are no bins (and what a lame excuse it is - is it so hard to do like me and put it in your bag? thats where it was anyway before you ate/drank it!).
Then the last time I was there I saw that ofcourse if you are 'allowed' to litter in one place (because it becomes so common no one even think about it anymore) it won't stop there - people started littering everywhere, including the city itself where bins are everywhere. but it seems no one cares, including the many foreigners I met there, because it is so common and people can't fight 8 milion people, An ozzy housem8 of mine once left litter infront of me on Docklands light railway and he was actually annoyed when I told him that he is doing a bad thing, as if I AM the crazy one. he told me there are people 'to clean after him and if I will take it they will loose their job' and this is an australian we are talking about, no doubt its living in London that got into him, I took his litter and
'showed' him how easy it was to put it in a bin (as if he is 4 y-o). I am afraid to think that many young australians on WHV in London might be like him coming back with 'new education'.

When I came to Melbourne 10 months ago it was better, now it is worse, and I have noticed that in country towns where usually tourists or immigrants don't go it can be even worse, so I have to suspect its not just people coming here its mostly problems in the education system, lazy councils etc. I know that kids today in australia learn a lot about the environment and teachers are concentrating in early years about litter and pollution. I think parents should teach their children manners but I guess thats how it goes today.
Btw, atleast NSW and other states have some campaigns from time to time like 'don't be a tosser' in NSW and so on, but in Victoria there is nil and when there is something is for a month or two (like the 'no butts about it - this is litter' campaign).
We need a national long term campaign like the 'Do the right thing' that apparantly reduced litter by 70% when it was on.

jodesmc

How many parties have you been to where there is no clean up necessary the next day???
unfortunately this happens, and someone has to clean it up, judging by the amount of people in Manly on new years eve( i was staying there) it's no wonder this happened, but i was at the beach on new year's day, and you would never have known the beach was like this 4 hours beforehand. yes it's disgusting, and yes it's irresponsible, but with alcohol and huge numbers of people and no bin every five metres, it happens, and it got cleaned up and it's not the end of the world,

Wol

Pointless talking to the unconverted, J & C!

The cutting edge argument of the socially, if not intellectually, challenged today appears to be "Get a life" or - even more wittily - "Chill out".

Frankly, I don't give a damn if anyone wants to turn his or her own place into a sty. It's when their "lifestyle" pulls down everyone else that I object.

If the concept of taking your rubbish ten yards to a bin, or taking it home, is too much of a mental challenge, perhaps a little light training might be in order? I would imagine that a couple of hours showing someone how to place a bottle in a bin without breaking it would be all the instruction 75% of people would need.

Grayling

I fear this is a lost cause Rog.

Many moths ago I put a post on here where I commented on the amount of litter and filth in virtually every layby/parking place or even on the main highway when I drove the Bruce highway from Brisbane to Cairns.

I was roundly shouted down and told that:

a) I was being negative and
b) it did not exist or I imagined it or
c) it would only be worse in the UK

I haven't bothered since.

Australian litter is obviously better than UK litter.

G

Quinkana

Well, you spured me to do some ground truthing. Site selection was randomized by the road-side tree irrigation-fertilization method.

Findings:

~Rankins Springs, Mid Western Highway NSW - polycarbonate bottles in various stages of sunlight induced disintegration every ~20 meters. Only a few glass bottles.

Hillston Road - polycarbonate bottle every ~200 meters.

Mid Western Highway is a secondary thoroughfare from Sydney to Adelaide - no bins. Hillston Road has prominent bins every 5 km. Traffic on both similar.

SherKhan66

Yeah and no doubt you used foul and aggressive language against the poster...Grow up mate - others have opinions too.

Moderators - time to lock this thread.

Quinkana

Time to shut your face until you can substantiate your suppositions. Grayling certainly is unmitigatingly negative but not particularly aggressive and never foul except in jest. How's that?