You may have heard it said that crime is prevalent in neighbourhoods which are badly littered. The Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) website, for instance, states : “There is a clear continuum from litter to more serious environmental crime. Left unchecked, dirty streets and neighbourhoods affect the perception of the local community which can lead to anti-social behaviour and eventually serious crime.”

To my mind this raises all sorts of questions, not least the issue of which happens first – the litter or the crime – and so what exactly the causal relationship is between the two.

Earlier this year I read a letter to The Times from Jonathan Shepherd, Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Cardiff University and Director of the Violence Research Group. His observations were fascinating.

First, a paper that he co-published in 2007, based on data from interviews with 40,000 households in England and Wales, reported that the presence of litter in a neighbourhood was strongly linked both to fear of personal harm and to fear of loss of personal property.

But he then developed the theme further – in Helsinki, where there is a money-back bottle deposit scheme, the city’s main accident and emergency department records much less frequent glass injury than does the one in Cardiff. So taking glass off the streets is likely to reduce violence in which glasses and bottles are used as weapons.

Then comes the crunch – Professor Shepherd observes that, had the streets of Peckham been free of glass, perhaps 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, killed in 2000 by youths with a broken supermarket lager bottle, would have arrived home safely.

This is a chilling thought and, I hope, will encourage us all to pick up litter, and glass bottles especially, that we see dropped in the streets.

I don’t think that I spoke too soon - I suggested in my last blog that we ought to be very careful before we act the good citizen and confront people who we see dropping litter.

On July 16th we heard about a particularly frightening case which involved 2 policemen being attacked by a youth mob. It is one thing hearing about ordinary civilians being subjected to violence on confronting litterers - but it’s a whole new issue when you hear about policemen being assaulted.

These two policemen were in a shopping precinct in Croydon when they asked a teenage girl to pick up a piece of litter that she had dropped. She did so, but threw it at the policemen as they walked away. When the policemen asked her to pick it up again, she became abusive and a teenage mob gathered round and attacked them. Apparently, a crowd of around 30 people, including some men in their 30s and 40s, and even some women, joined in the attack. Fortunately the policemen were not badly injured but one of them was treated in hospital for – would you believe it ? – bite wounds from a girl who had jumped on his back.

I’m afraid that this underlines more than ever the need for we ordinary citizens to be cautious. I won’t repeat all that I said before (see below for that) but I will say again : please think very, very carefully before you confront anyone you see dropping litter.

Have you ever wondered what you would do if you saw someone dropping a cigarette packet or a chocolate bar wrapper on the ground ? Have you ever been tempted to go up to someone who you saw dropping a drink can and saying “do you mind picking that up and putting it in the bin, please ?”. Have you ever been tempted, when you have seen someone chucking an ice-cream wrapper from a car, to pick it up and chuck it back into the car ?

Well, I’m sure that some of us have great intentions of taking on the “litter louts” when we see them spoiling our environment with their antisocial behaviour.

But, when it comes to it, some past and some very recent events indicate that you may be taking a huge risk by tackling these people. In fact you might be wise not only to stick to the old adage “if in doubt, then don’t” but also to add “and even if you’re not in doubt, then you should be”.

The sad fact is that there is an increasing catalogue of horror stories of terrible violence perpetrated against those people who are brave enough to challenge and confront antisocial behaviour.

On 5th August 2007, Evren Anil challenged a group of youths in Peckham, one of whom had thrown a half-eaten chocolate bar into his sister’s car. The tragic price for his heroism was his life.

Then, on 10th August 2007 there was the case of Garry Newlove who lived in a street in Warrington that was constantly plagued by unruly youngsters. He confronted them and he, too, paid with his life. His brave widow, Helen, has fought tirelessly for more community policing, support for families hit by antisocial behaviour and a clampdown on parents of problem youths.

And, only eight days ago on June 13th, we heard about Stephen White from Bexleyheath who approached a group of around 25 youngsters near his house after spotting them smashing bottles on the ground. The youths surrounded him before two of the gang members hit him on the head with bottles. He then fell to the floor before being repeatedly kicked in the head. He was lucky, ending up with only a broken nose, cuts to his face and head, two badly swollen eyes and a split lip ……..and a visit to the casualty department.

It is worth remembering that many (if not most) of the people who really don’t care about dropping litter are of a generally antisocial nature (see the blog for
31st May 2008) and will not think twice about resorting to violent behaviour. This is, of course, even more likely if the miscreant is high on drugs and doesn’t really know what he’s doing.

So my message now to anyone thinking of playing the hero is : “don’t”. Your life is worth infinitely more than a piece of litter. By all means pick the litter up after it’s been dropped and the dropper has gone, but please don’t allow yourself to give in to a flurry of impulsive bravado - you may be putting yourself in more serious danger than you ever imagined.

One of the big questions that bother those of us who are concerned about litter is why people drop it in the first place. ENCAMS (who run the Keep Britain Tidy Campaign) have, through their research, classified litter-droppers under 6 labels :

Beautifully Behaved – they tend to throw apple cores, fruit peelings and small pieces of paper onto the ground. Most of this group don’t see this action as being a problem.

Guilty - they know littering is wrong and feel guilty when doing it, but find carrying their rubbish around inconvenient so will be as discreet as possible when littering.

Blamer - they do not take responsibility for their littering; it is the council’s fault for inadequate bin provision and fast food joints and manufacturers for giving them too much packaging.

Justifier - their reason for littering is ‘everyone else is doing it’ and like the ‘Blamers’ the lack of bins are the causes for their moderate to heavy levels of littering.

Life’s Too Short – they are aware that dropping litter was ‘wrong’ but have more important things to worry about.

Am I Bothered ? – are completely oblivious of the consequences of dropping litter, and those few that are don’t care.

You would think that the majority of these types would be curable of their litter habit. Education, ensuring that litter bins are emptied regularly and that there are plenty of them around…..even fining should work.

I was talking recently to the clinical psychologist Oliver James. He pointed out to me that much littering is due to anger - anger that the bin hasn’t been emptied, anger that the council hasn’t cleared the litter away, anger that …………I could go on………

But Oliver also made the point that 3% of the population suffer from what he calls Antisocial Personality Disorder. Such people don’t care about the effect on others of what they do. If their behaviour leads to them being fined, they don’t pay the fine. These are probably exactly who the “Am I Bothered ?” group are.

The conclusion, then, is that however much we educate the young, enforce litter laws with fines or place extra litter bins around our community - there will always be the hard core (including the “Am I Bothered ?”) who will carry on littering regardless. That does not mean to say that it is a waste of time educating people as to the undesirability of litter - far from it. By doing that, we are at least having a go at minimising those who fall into the first five types.

But we should not be surprised if some people continue to litter. And we should ensure that we continue to keep up the pressure for financial incentives not to litter (e.g. bottle deposits) and for minimisation of packaging and the use of more environmentally-friendly (e.g. compostable) packaging materials. Such measures as these might either change these antisocial habits or, at least, ensure that litter leaves a less than lasting impression in our communities.

Many people think that “it’s the council’s job” to clear up litter. In some ways it is. Councils have legal responsibilities for keeping certain areas clean within their territory. Councils do not, however, have responsibility for cleaning up all areas e.g. private land.

But it is a consequence of economic reality that a council has to work to a financial budget and cannot possibly keep every corner of their patch spotless every day of the year. In fact I wonder what it would add to our council tax bills if councils were suddenly tasked with such a demanding objective. The answer, I am sure, is more than most of us would be happy to pay.

I am not saying that no council in the UK could do better. Different councils have different priorities, generally set by the elected councillors. Some spend more than expected on street cleaning, some spend less than perhaps they should.

But what I am saying is that the growing army of volunteers, who give up their spare time to collect litter, are doing a job that is vital to the appearance of our neighbourhoods. It is not only vital from a visual, aesthetic point of view - it also has other effects that are crucial to the vibrancy and health of our communities. Litter-picking is a healthy outdoor activity and a great opportunity for social interaction. Many volunteer groups that I know have great fun together, not only while they are picking up litter but also when they share a pint or a barbecue afterwards. Such groups are often central to the life of a community.

There are all kinds of other issues in play, here, of course. The prevention of people dropping litter in the first place, the need to educate young people not to litter, the link between litter and crime and the idea that we should all take responsibility in some way for the environment we live in. I’ll talk about those issues in due course.

But, as my friend Rob the Rubbish says : if litter is there on the ground spoiling the appearance of wherever you are, what’s the sense in leaving it there ? Isn’t it just better to pick it up ?

One thing is certain - without the contribution of so many volunteers, our “green and pleasant land” would be even more multi-coloured and grotty than it sometimes is.

So - three cheers for volunteers and here’s to many more !

George pledges to try to avoid verbal litter : “I won’t promise to write my blog on a regular basis – you’d probably get very bored if I felt I had to sit down every Wednesday evening (or even every evening) at 6.30pm precisely and write something, anything, about litter. I’m going to add to the blog only if I feel that I’ve got something interesting to say to you or to ask you. And if you feel that what I’ve said is interesting – and especially if you feel that what I’ve said is most definitely NOT interesting – please leave a comment or let me know via the feedback form on the “contact us” page. Thanks.”