Other peoples rubbish?

Question

I get lots of rubbish blown into my garden from the shops and garage across the road. Cans, plastic & paper bags, paper towels etc. Now some of this rubbish is identifiable with individual shops. Don't they have any responsibility to at least request their customers to put their litter in bins, and even to provide bins for that purpose. There are a few small council bins but they are usually full to the brim.

Answer 1

Indeed they do and you can report them to your local environment department within your council and they shall be told to clean up their act or will face prosicution, also the council have a responcibility (same dept.) to empty their provided bins on a regular basis

Answer 2

You are right, the rubbish that is identifiable is most definatley the responsibility of the individual shops. They do have a rule that says they must provide bins for their rubbish. However, if they do provide bins, and peeps choose not to use them, its a tad more difficult to claim culpability. If the bins are often overfilled therefore unusable, you would have a case.

You could try writing a letter of complaint and keeping records of the rubbish you find, but the best you would get was them adding more bins/emptying more regularly.

If it is down to dosey people dumping their refuse, you do actually have the right to report them as it is illegal and carries a fine, however, you would have to have proof, ie pics of the person(s) dumping.

I would complain to the council, in some cases you would be able to have the council come once a month to clear it for you, you would have to put such a request in writing though.

Hope this helps,

Good Luck!

Answer 3

I live in a Hotel, and they have 2 dumpsters in the back.  People, homeless, and others, go thru the bins all the time, and look for reusable items, (dumpster diving) and don't care if they leave stuff on the ground that they removed, to get to anything good they found.  It is not possible for the management to lock up the dumpster area,as the maintenance and maids have to dump the hotel stuff in their all day long.  Some things we just don't have the control over, the way we would like to.  I just pick up the trash whenever I can, so it looks nicer.  Plus, when the bins are full, the wind blows the trash off the top of the bin.

Answer 4

well no not really, it is an offence to drop litter so its really down to the person that's dropping it, you can ask the shops to put up a notice reminding folk but i would not hold my breath that people will take any notice

Answer 5

If there is to be any recourse, the courts would have to provide the action, not the politicians.

Sue the shops providing the litter to force them to remove their litter... not one at a time, all at once in a common complaint. Make sure that the remedy sought is not merely a one time clean up, but a persistent clean up.

Now they may try to pass the cause of the problem off to the unwashed masses, since nobody saw the shopkeepers throwing the junk on the  ground.  But identifiable garbage is yours unless you can identify exactly who took your garbage and tossed it in the air.

There is a parallel in agriculture. If a farmer exposes soil to the rains such that the soil starts to flow and thus damages property downhill, the farmer has not caused damage, but his soil has, and he must go get it back. He can not leave it on his neighbor's land.

If you expose your garbage to a lot of dumpster divers it is not directly your damage, but it is your garbage so you have to go retrieve it, wherever it goes.

It may be inconvenient to control your garbage, so if you prefer retrieving it from far and wide, you do that.

Answer 6

Yes i would think so. I also get tired of the endless rubbish which lands in my front garden....& i'm not that near to the shops. I usually just collect it & clean up & recycle where possible.

With so many take-away options they should find a way of recycling their packaging as surely they are a huge contributor towards waste in landfill.

Answer 7

If the stores were prosecuted for anything with their name attached I am sure all those who are still giving away carrier bags would soon stop or at least revert to a plain white bag.

And realistically they should I feel be providing bins not only outside their store but within walking distance in all directions.

After all who drinks a softdrink immediately after purchase outside the store but actually walks a distance with it?