John: A terrifying thought – litterbugs inherit the world

Feb 18 2010 By John Avison

IT'S not strictly true that my walking days are over. It is true, however, that you are unlikely to meet me on the top of Kinder Scout or Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon) any time soon.

I powered up a Welsh mountain a few years ago only to have my knees give way at the top. This, believe me, is not a minor inconvenience. It felt as if someone had driven rusty nine-inch nails into the tissue behind my kneecaps.

I shuffled 1,500ft down the mountain on my backside and have not risked mountain-hopping since.

Since then I potter, a couple of miles here and there and back again.

I sometimes – not often enough, I admit – walk to work. On my way I try not to look over the walls at this time of year because with the vegetation at its lowest. You can see all the tyres, bicycles, fridges, settees, mattresses, building materials and broken toys that people have dumped. It’s a depressing way to start your day.

The guilty parties are the last generation of pop-can chuckers and sweet wrapper droppers, grown up. They have their own sty full of terminally-ignorant offspring who watch mummy and daddy slinging bags of detritus over the nearest fence and think: "That’s OK then.’’

Pip and I have been out a couple of times on village or ward clean-ups. You can easily fill a skip with people’s cast-offs, but making an area look clean and tidy doesn’t inspire your ordinary Joes to say: "Wow! That’s nice! I think I’ll keep it that way.’’

It inspires them to fill your nice clean area with even more rubbish.

I’m still horrified by the way people, mostly youngsters, unwrap a sweet or drink a can of pop and then just drop it or hurl it over a wall.

I still occasionally run after them and say: "Excuse me, I think you dropped this’’, but it’s like talking to a half-brick.

We who care how our environment looks are in a crazy, elderly, boring minority and that’s about the only thought you will see passing across their gormless faces. Who is this nutter?

I cast about for a reason why people can’t see that this is their world. They own it. They are responsible for it.

There a many young people today of whom we can be very proud. They are articulate, sensitive, caring, environmentally-aware, witty, dexterous, fit and brave.

But their numbers are declining. They are a species facing extinction. The barbarian is at the gate.

Here’s an example. I met a man on my last walk in my favourite woods and we looked in disgust at what appeared to be a bomb-site in the middle of a stand of beeches.

The area was a scatter of cans, bottles, campfire ash, paper and plastic.