Keep Britain Tidy

Had a nice hour or so at the beach, playing Frisbee. The sea didn't leave us much space to walk and a solitary fisherman stopped us from going as far west as we would have liked, as he'd plonked himself down right in the middle of the sand with all his fishing gear (to pass behind him seemed like more hassle than it was worth with three dogs clambering over grassy dunes, two of them tempted by rabbits), but it was still a pleasant and quiet morning.

Lots of plastic was washed up, though. Flower pots, pop bottles, straws... A small group of volunteers pick up rubbish as they walk along and pile it on the sand dunes out of the tide's reach for the council to collect, but they take so long to do so, only considering it worthwhile if there's lots to be collected and if they've been reminded several times. One man need drive a tractor from the stretch of beach he cleans daily and scoop the obvious rubbish into the trailer. How hard is that? It's even bagged up ready for him. It wouldn't take an hour.

It really annoys me how they don't care about this part of the beach, don't collect for months on end the horrible litter that people freely take the trouble to set to one side for removal; yet it's the same litter that ends up in the sea one day and will be washed up on the precious no-dogs-allowed-between-May-and-September stretch of coastline that they care about the next. They should, at the very least, make a monthly trip as far as their tractor will go, and take away what rubbish has been left, for their convenience, in their reach.

It's not sorted into glass, plastics, metals, etc. That irritates me; the obsessive-compulsive within wants everything neatly arranged, of course, and for much of it to be recycled. But I accept that keeping it out of the sea is the main thing, and putting everything that shouldn't be there into a black sack is better than simply stepping over it, which is what most people do.

I pick up other people's rubbish as I'm passing because it seems like a nice thing to do, it doesn't take long, it makes the beach cleaner and safer for the dogs to play and the waters less harmful to wildlife. I shouldn't be expected to drag those heavy bags all the way to the street as well. It's just not possible for anyone to do this. Sadly, there is far too much litter and each time the tide rolls in, suddenly there is more. It makes me feel depressed.