A small, dirty island?

by Tom Hughes in At home on 08.08.08

It often takes an outsider to highlight what is wrong.

American Bill Bryson, bestselling author, president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and adopted British national treasure, is telling us to get our collective acts together and stop dropping litter all over the shop.

We are only a small island, as he has noted, and we really ought to be thinking more carefully about what we do to our green and pleasant land.

And we need to do it sharpish.

Bill is set to put forward his argument in an upcoming BBC Panorama documentary, Notes From a Dirty Island, a crude but telling reworking of the title of his best known book.

He is good at these state-of-the-nation assessments. And he is right, of course.

You notice these things more and more, perhaps as a result of getting a little older. Perhaps because as our little island becomes increasingly populated, the natural tendency to NIMBYism and preserving your little corner of Shangri-La increases.

There is an area of grass next to my house which is a bizarrely fertile litter patch. Cans, plastic bags and uncategorisable polystyrene inserts seem to toil upstream to this breeding ground, despite there being no shops or businesses for almost half a mile in any direction.

But it seems you can always see more clearly the good and bad points of a society when you come to a country with fresh eyes.

When I first went to Japan - an island nation like our own - I was struck by the selfless attitudes and hands-on approach to litter and civic pride.

Aside from the recycling system, which was clean streets ahead of ours, what struck me was the responsibility that all seemed to feel towards keeping their shared environment clean and tidy.

This was most touchingly evident in the platoons of elderly retired people who tended to public gardens with bags for rubbish. People in their 70s and 80s - possibly older - organised themselves into hit squads to improve their environment for everybody.

How different to British attitudes.

It was explained to me that Japan is a capitalist country run along communist ideals. Or the other way round, I forget.

Regardless, the lesson remains to do something, perhaps quite small, for the greater good.

Whenever I see a discarded can or box, I see an oriental octogenarian bent double with a bin bag because they felt a simple responsibility. They did not see the work as being shameful or beneath them; there was no social stigma to doing a “menial” job. In fact, it was done with an immense pride.

As for me, I had better practice what I preach and get out there and pick up the rubbish next to my house.

No one else is going to do it - are they?

IMAGE by Flickr user jared