Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:58 am
#1838706
johnm wrote:Part of the issue is the growth in opportunity for litter and the persistence of the materials. Much of what we see lying around didn't even exist 60 years ago....
True: fast food and the like has a lot to answer for. Happily things like styrofoam, which doesn't decompose, is less prevalent and even illegal in many countries. And the rusty beer cans found all over the place in my youth have been replaced by aluminium cans with (and least where I live) deposits: they get picked up by somebody even if thrown away.
I read in the local newspaper a few years ago than the majority of trash picked up from the streets (as opposed to discarded in public bins) in my town was cigarette butts. I don't need to consult data from the 70s to be fairly certain that this particular type of trash has to have gone down significantly since then for the simple reason that so much fewer people smoke. When I was a kid in the early 70s we were also always warned not to step in dog ****. Despite not all dog owners being responsible, that's almost become a non-issue in our parks and on our pavements.
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Autocorrect is so frustrating. It's always making me say things I didn't Nintendo.