Neil McNicholas: Will the litter louts be dumped in the dustbin of history?

When visitors arrive, they rightly expect the town to be clean and tidy and it usually is, but they never leave it that way. As the cars and tourist buses leave, the town is usually swimming in a tide of litter and detritus.

Why do people do this? Why don’t they care about their surroundings? Why do they assume someone else will clear up behind them and therefore it doesn’t matter?

There have been a number of articles and Letters to the Editor in the Yorkshire Post recently on the subject of litter – both its profusion as well as commenting about those who are responsible (or perhaps we should say irresponsible) for littering and fly-tipping.

Most people would struggle to comprehend how this anti-social minority scatters litter at will and without any concern for the environmental consequences but, as with most of today’s lawlessness and anti-social behaviour, it all comes down to learning or, rather, the lack of it.

I think we perhaps take for granted certain norms and behaviours that we tend to assume develop naturally and become part of our make-up with little or no conscious effort on our part.

While it is true that some basic behaviours are instinctive, many others have to be learned and it is a process that we are not necessarily aware is happening. How do you know not to put your hand into a fire? How do you know how to walk? How do you know not to step off a roof thinking you can fly? How do you know how to fasten your shoes? How do you know how to ride a bicycle? How do you know how to swim?

I suspect that you won’t have any answers to the first three questions because they involve knowledge or ability that probably came fairly naturally. On the other hand, the last three are learned behaviours that we could conceivably go through life without ever knowing.

If no one ever taught you how to fasten your laces, or how to ride a bike, or how to swim, you might never know how unless you figured them out for yourself. In the same way, there are those who seem not to know that you aren’t supposed to scatter litter, otherwise how do you explain their behaviour? The lesson was never taught or learned – and the same is true of so many of the ills that beset our society.

You hear people who have visited Disney World in Florida say: “It was so clean. There wasn’t any litter anywhere.” Well, no, there wouldn’t be if people don’t drop it in the first place.

With 25 million visitors a year there will inevitably be some litter dropped (probably by Brits to give the place a more homely feel), but street cleaners quickly whisk away anything that would spoil the Disney’s vision.

Why does it amaze Brits abroad that other places are so clean? Why, when they come home again, don’t they learn from the experience? And why are they content to give visitors to Britain the impression that we are happy living in a tip? There are no answers to these questions.

Those who were taught not to drop litter, those who will look for and use a litter bin or will take their litter home with them if there isn’t one, will be unable to comprehend how others scatter litter like confetti wherever they go. They don’t give it a second thought – in fact they don’t even give it a first thought. They simply cast off their rubbish as they go along because that’s all they have ever done and no one ever taught them not to.

Why does it never occur to them to wonder why everywhere is nice and tidy until they pass by and why it is the worse for their passing? Why do they roll down their car windows and throw into the pristine countryside the rubbish they no longer want?

Why do they sit next to a litter bin and yet throw their litter on the ground? Is it actual ignorance or is it simply bloody-mindedness? Sadly there are no answers to these questions either.

If the existing laws on littering were enforced – and that would also include cigarette ends and chewing gum – not only would those responsible for enforcement soon recoup their wages, but it might finally teach a long-overdue lesson as well as benefiting our countryside and our town and city centres. Or do we need to follow the example of Singapore where littering carries a £500 fine for a first offence and up to £1,000, plus a Corrective Work Order the next time, and where the sale and possession of chewing gum is banned by law?

Maybe, but let’s hope things change for the better before we need to go down that litter-strewn road.

Father Neil McNicholas is a parish priest in Whitby.