Whatever happened to the witches’ knickers?
Do you remember witches’ knickers? They were hanging from the roadside vegetation everywhere. No more. Did all the witches suddenly decide to go commando? I’ll tell you what happened. In 2015 the government decided to do something about the blight of single-use plastic bags. A 5p charge (later raised to 10p) was introduced and it triggered a change.
Their usage dropped by more than 90%. So, if it can be done for plastic bags, why not other nuisance litter? I ask this because I was recently in Singapore and could not help noticing that all public spaces there are litter-free. I don’t know about you, but I have noticed that this is not true for our public spaces and wider environment. Perhaps it’s time to bring back the Wombles.
Am I alone in finding it ironic that ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ (originally a WI campaign) has its origins in the 1950’s – the era of ‘make do and mend’? The mass production of disposable goods and growing mountain of plastic waste didn’t really get going until the 1960s. KFC opened its first UK outlet in 1965. In the 1970s the Wombles joined the fight, but still the mountain of waste grew and in 1974 McDonalds opened its first UK outlet. Of course, I am not blaming these two fast-food chains for all of the litter everywhere I go, but fast food packaging is a major part of the problem. UK households throw away 90 billion pieces of plastic annually, with snack and fruit/veg packaging being the most common items (https://thebigplasticcount.com/).
And we’re not talking only about carelessly discarded packaging and disposable cups thrown out of a passing car window. In 2023-24, local authorities dealt with a reported 1.15 million fly-tipping incidents, 60 percent of which were household waste. Once an area becomes untidy, people do not feel as proud of the place they live in which can lead to further littering and a rise in anti-social behaviour. By the way – that’s official; I got it from the government’s ‘Pride in Place’ strategy document. Perhaps Blyth will show us the way, because I note that it is the only community in Northumberland that is on the list to receive funding from this initiative.
But you don’t have to wait for something to turn up. You could become a ‘Litter Hero’ and join the army of volunteers already tackling pollution (https://www.keepbritaintidy.org/our-work/eliminating-litter/litterheroes). If Singapore can do it then …..
John Gowing