Living in a Landfill

The Hazards of Litter to Wildlife

By Michael Boyes, 6 February 2021

is the public yet sufficiently shocked to act?

I wish to emphasise the hazards posed by all the bottles, cans and plastic waste along the roadside verges within the parishes of the Rissingtons (around 10 miles of roads and country lanes). The sheer scale of the problem is much greater than many may imagine. Since mid November 2020 my wife and I have collected well over 200 wine and spirits bottles and substantially more than 200 cans of beer and soft drinks.

To date we have filled 25 large black bin liners with litter collected along Newbridge Lane, Leasow Lane, the airfield road between Upper and Great Rissington, and just today, along the road above Wyck Rissington. And that excludes one large white sack full of recycled cans and bottles.

There is no doubt that the person or persons throwing wine bottles from their car(s) are continuing to do so, as evidenced by what we are all finding. Only today I collected more than a dozen wine bottles along a 200-metre stretch of road above Wyck Rissington, of which three of four had clearly been discarded very recently. This is an ongoing problem, and one which is causing potential hazards to wildlife and domestic animals, particularly dogs. On farmland, (for example at Greystones Nature Reserve where we have also found plenty of litter), such items also pose a threat to farm animals.

Glass bottles and cans thrown away by drivers or walkers along roadside grass verges, if not collected regularly, sometimes get broken into shards of sharp glass or metal when these verges are mown in the summer and autumn. I have included some photos of broken glass from today - I could have included more.

Bottles and cans pose another hazard to wildlife, especially voles and mice that get inside looking for something tasty and then are unable to get out again.

Plastic bags, crisp packets, coffee cup lids and plastic food wrappers all pose a hazard to wildlife. They remain in the environment for many decades but become brittle and break into ever smaller pieces. Many of these small pieces get washed into drains and roadside ditches, and eventually find their way into our rivers, seas and oceans. Some of the harder pieces of plastic are very sharp and can harm wildlife, pets and farm animals.

Littering is more than just an eyesore and a nuisance, it is an environmental hazard and one which we, who regularly pick it up, are only too well aware of. But how do we stop it? By example, by getting into schools and educating young kids about the problems of litter, by organising widespread publicity campaigns, and perhaps by greatly increasing the penalties for littering. Maybe we need to put pressure on our MPs once we are over the worst of the Covid crisis.

These photos, from just one morning, are shocking: we need to reach and shock more people into action!