Bell Green has a serious litter problem. It’s on the pavements, lying in gutters and hidden in the borders. The bins are overflowing, flytippers continually add more waste. Business premises are frequently littered with rubbish. We’ve been picking up litter regularly since February 2023 and we have filled hundreds and hundreds of bags. We’ve found plastic bottles, glass bottles, cans, endless tissues and mint wrappers and, the ‘on trend’ modern litter of disposable vapes. We find takeaway wrappers and large, heavy canisters that once contained nitrous oxide, better known has nitrous, or laughing gas.

Of course, Bell Green isn’t especially dirty for an area of dense population. Go to any city in the country, or just about any area in London and you will be confronted with the same situation. It’s a national epidemic. Perhaps COVID worsened the litter, as it built up during lockdowns, or perhaps we’ve just become more aware of an ongoing side-effect of the human species, but it’s becoming a real problem. In our area, the drains are clogged with it. Overgrown areas hide large deposits, until the winter months expose it for all to see. And an area with litter is, quite simply, more likely to attract more littering and crime.

Why people litter, is an age-old question. When people are kind enough to stop and talk to us, they often talk about people. Being lazy. Not caring. But the solutions don’t simply lie with the litterers. It a deeper, more complex problem, that requires some joined up thinking and resources. The way we tackle litter, handle litter and generate litter all must change.