Forum Topic

Chiswick is rubbish

I'm really getting upset over the different kinds of litter strewn around Chiswick. Our neighbourhood is rubbish, and it has been for many years now! I've finally said it "out loud", and it pains me to do so.The recent hot weather always encourages the picnic crowds that leave rubbish in the parks . When I was a child we had to make posters about "keep Britain tidy", and it was drilled into us to pick it up. This seems lost, as everyone is in it for themselves and just expect the council to pick it up (I guess). I have a young daughter, and I teach her this, but I don't think the school curriculum does. I'm sad to say that I wish the council had litter attendants to fine offenders. Forget parking , they would make a killing on litter.But this is overly simple, as another issue is that bins aren't emptied, and overflow constantly. The council rarely has a handle on predicted litter patterns or preventative rubbish handling and it just shows how inept and unimaginative they are . Would it hurt to tie an extra bag to park bins when is going to be hot? Ideally with a sign saying none food items only to guard against foxes? Of course if we were in Japan there would be no bins and people take their rubbish home themselves. So we are back to education , and how we can encourage our fellow neighbours to care about the neighbourhood?. Perhaps if we had litter wardens, they might educate and give the chance for an offender to repent a fine by picking up (the inevitable finger or eff-off causing an immediate fine).But the final straw for me are the local businesses in Chiswick. I'm sorry to say this, as I like to support local, but why do they all think it's ok to heap their rubbish in the street every morning (particularly Sat or Sunday)? A nice walk onto the high street (with an idea to frequent their establishments) now always incurs the shame of walking past reaking/oozing piles of skank. There is a woodsman's saying "don't sh@t where you eat", and lately I interpret that as "don't eat where they ...". Sure, they will whimper this is what the council insists on, to which I counter, find a better way to save your livelihoods and take some pride! It's ridiculous .
While we are at it, why don't they take some time to sweep in front of their doors and remove the cigarette butts and other rubbish many of their clients leave (take responsibility for a change). Or (as it's not just cafes in this list of shame), clean the eggshells or greesy boxes nearby . And reflect on their stinky bags at 9am, roasting in the sun? In fact, why not have some staff do a local cleanup and show some community pride? It would be good advertising and show commitment.In sharp contrast, I smile at the "Abundance " initiatives to brighten our streets. But scowl at the rubbish between the lovely plants , and rarely stop to admire them as the oozing bags, buzzing flies and stench hurry me on.How can we change this? Other countries (particularly hot ones), seem so better organised.Bring back a beautiful neighbourhood, and not this rubbish legacy we have.

Tim Mackinnon ● 13d21 Comments

Another problem can happen when the cleaners for a building come in in the morning and then put out the rubbish too late to catch the paid for and organised collection...  I used to live in dread as I approached the office that the rubbish would still be sitting there and that I would have to spend half a day or more trying to get hold of the waste collectors.

Philippa Bond ● 4d

Here's an old report on what WRAP was doing to reduce all the waste we were making:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7a11d9ed915d6eaf153894/wrap-funding-review-comment-20130503.pdf#page2I believe that it is reckoned that households waste one third of all the food that they buy which is why food waste collections are hopefully being introduced to all those households who STILL don't have one.

Philippa Bond ● 6d

I remember years ago searching the school curriculum for references to waste disposal and the avoidance, reduction and reuse of unwanted packaging which it mostly consisted of.  There were about FIVE references.  Packaging has been changed greatly to reduce its impact and ease of recycling  and very little is now mixed materials, ring-pulls no longer pull completely off and many plastic bottles have lids designed to stay attached so they can be recycled with the bottle.  Just look at all the cardboard boxes that you can  now just unfold.  Huge steps have been made and achieved by manufactuers but it seems not as many by those who buy and then just walk away from what they have bought.  If you bought a pizza to take out you also bought the packaging - and the responsibility to deal with that packaging and any you did not eat.  Just Do It!  It is a shame that WRAP who have done such a huge amount of work with well known manufacturers seem to have removed that work from the internet.  That journey was an inspirational lesson to us all - or should be!  You didn't buy a personal nannying service to clear up after you. You shouldn't need one.Parents and schools need to work together harder and more on instilling this responsibility in their young people and young people on their peers and elders who may be drifting off course to keep the spaces we all want to share how we'd like to find them.Once upon a time there were no mobile phones with torches but now so many have them that you can't just make the excuse of "it got dark".  Please don't just rely on litter bins for huge amounts of waste - take responsibility and take it home.  So much more of the earth's finite resources could be reused and the other birds and animals are becoming increasingly adept at getting into litter bins and removing and spreading the contents around.There used to be a brilliant and wonderfully inspirational  2 minute film competition on this and  perhaps we should be looking for more organisations to sponsor these?It seems we all need to be regularly reminded of our responsibility to share and hand on the responsibility to reduce the amount and volume of waste we make and I do wonder whether enough thought and time is spent on the teaching at home and school of appreciating how and why we need to do this this from a young age. 

Philippa Bond ● 6d

What you do is paste them into Twitter with all the extra links you can think of, and the council and those responsible, and tweet and retweet.You'll be surprised how that can work.I did it only a month ago for someone in Richmond, and a road that never got cleaned whatsoever and was on the what you would call tourist visitor route, now gets a full clean every two weeks.

Julian Pavey ● 6d

If they can TAKE stuff for a picnic then why can't they take it back? Also, the litter outside Caffè Nero opposite Turnham Green Church at closing time is unacceptable, they never bother sweeping up.

Juliet Hogg ● 6d

A walk from Chiswick High Road down King Street to Hammersmith demonstrates a sharp contrast between a Council that actively cares and one that shows little interest.

Elizabeth Ross ● 6d

Most businesses do that when they don't have access at the rear of their stores which many don't and nowadays you rarely get the owners of stores living above them as in the past.  You also have to remember that people living above stores in high streets are not keen on being woken up by noisy collections in the early hours and motorists don't like being delayed by collection lorries.  The magic solution is not to make waste but that is rare.  Most important is that they do have a waste contract or contracts to suit the types of waste they make and that they put out their waste to suit those collections but with what is sometimes a three month notice period it can be painful trying out companies. They can choose which registered licensed waste collector/s they use.https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/recycling-rubbish/commercial-recycling-rubbish-collections

Philippa Bond ● 7d

Surely the Council should prosecute them?

Steve Taylor ● 10d

Pizza Express leave bags of rubbish outside their restaurant every evening. Almost every morning the bags are ripped open and there is food and trash everywhere.  It’s disgusting.

Joe Wengler ● 10d

RIP Ronnie Barker

Andrew Jones ● 11d

If a shopkeeper is doing that then he or she should be investigated for not having a commercial waste licence.

Philippa Bond ● 11d

Third world Council with third world values protecting third world citizens with third world values.  Gone are the days when a shopkeeper in a brown coat would regularly sweep his shopfront and keep sidewalks clean. Now the shopkeeper contributes to dumping his litter around overfilled litter bins.

Steve Taylor ● 11d

The plastic bottles of urine found in gutters is generally linked to the lack of public toilets and to working practices that make finding public toilets even more difficult ie all those online deliveries being delivered under time pressures.

Philippa Bond ● 12d

Chronicled to the nth degree, and what's more, no lincs.

Denis I. Fox ● 12d

In other countries residents themselves take much more responsibility for and pride in keeping their streets clean and taking responsibility for safeguarding their rubbish - and clearing up spillages.  Here everyone now seems to prefer to moan at the Council - or anybody and everybody other than themselves. I used to regularly see the staff of the Roebuck sweeping the street outside their premises early in the morning.  I can only claim to seeing two other residents sweeping the street outside where they were living and neither was British. With Business Waste it depends on all the different licensed waste collection companies who collect business waste in the area and compete on the open market.  Business rates do not include waste collection and every business is supposed to have a contract.  Contracts sometimes are not very flexible eg three months' notice and you have to hope that the collection times will suit you.  In some places the collections have to be made between set hours and waste must not be placed on the street outside some hours and there are often notices in the street telling people this.  However I still don't see why some of these bags can't be protected on the street.  In seaside towns you will see gullproof bags attached to a building to protect the black sack inside but I suppose when it is business waste those would have to be easily identifiable by the different contractors - more difficult in the dark in winter. I would be mortified to see my neighbours or potential customers tiptoeing through my rubbish on the pavement but it seems that many others don't seem to mind.  I do remember there being residents who would replace bags of rubbish in gardens of the houses which they came from when residents failed to protect their waste in a bin and left it out on the pavement the night before to be ravaged by - foxes, seagulls, cats, rats, magpies and crows - as well as kicked or tripped over by pedestrians and if hit by a car it wasn't long before it was spread right the way along a whole street.Food waste is now supposed to be separated which makes it easier but it was very obvious who was and wasn't wrapping their waste and who wasn't recycling or making any attempt to reduce the volume of the waste they were making with cardboard boxes unflattened and still filled with unrecyclable polystyrene. Luckily there is less of that and of mixed materials in packaging now.Don't businesses belong to any groups?  Once upon a time there was also someone who was employed by the Council to liaise with the shopkeepers.

Philippa Bond ● 12d

Yes you don’t find this level of rubbish and litter across Western Europe or the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore etc. This is 3rd World behaviour.

Steve Taylor ● 12d

Shops and business place in their rubbish in bags on the street because that is where commercial waste is usually collected from in the early hours of the morning.

Sam Hearn ● 13d

With regard to street cleaning and "weeds" (ie garden escapes and wild flowers) they would not be able to grow so easily if the streets were swept. So when you have flowering trees and plants dropping their dead and dying flowers and leaves this creates with all the other dirt on the streets something for them to root in.There is a lot of muck in the road gutters and this needs cleaning regularly for seeds not to take root - or are we all waiting for Thames Water to deal with that too?  With so many cars parked along streets and contractors often not giving good and sensible notice of when they want to clean (LBE not LBH) then this makes it even more difficult.  It only takes one report of a shopkeeper or resident sweeping leaves and grot etc into the road and being ticketed for that in some well known trouble making newspaper and there is less public cooperation and a big drop in goodwill.Where and how that grot will be collected and taken away will make a difference as will anything that we, our children and animals bring into our homes from the pavements. Will we be given notice of when to avoid going out or touching anything we've dropped?https://agfundernews.com/bayer-responds-to-new-glyphosate-study-it-is-clear-this-study-has-serious-methodological-flawshttps://www.lawsuit-information-center.com/roundup-lawsuit.html

Philippa Bond ● 13d

Yes with the perceived local crime wave it's turning into a real dystopia in W4.Residents will soon be too scared to sneak out to La Trompette for their egg and chips.

Keith Iddon ● 13d

We were always taught to take our litter home with us.  It's absolutely gross the way some people just get up and leave all their waste surrounding where they were sitting.  It reflects badly on them, their parents and the way they have been brought up and is a cost and danger to them and their environment.If you can carry your picnic to a park - you can clear it away properly with you. Make sure everyone takes some responsibility!I don't just mean shove it all into a huge black plastic bag which is then half full of air and will leak when you carry it and too quickly fill any litterbin or skip!  Is it park you want to visit or a smelly rubbish tip?Treat the grass or picnic table as if it was your own home.  Separate your easy to recyclabes for recycling snd take them home.  Use a bit of sense - it doesn't take much - and flatten pizza boxes and other easy to flatten card - don't just post them into a bin blocking the way for anyone else to use it properly!It's a shame that Govt once again has delayed a deposit return system on much packaging as it may be the only way thst you can instill the cost and value of it.  It works well in other countries.  Take your recyclables home if there is no recycling bin.  We should all take up the challenge of creating and having waste-free picnics and celebrations!  Plan wisely and there'll be less mess and clearing up!You'll also find the area you want to use in a much more enjoyable state.Birds and animals will spread what you leave all over the place - they are very resourceful - and why should everybody be paying unnecessarily for cleaning up after you?

Philippa Bond ● 13d

https://www.hounslow.gov.uk/councillors.../area-forums/2We might well ask where all these 'street captions' and environment champions' are - not to mention these 'ward improvement officers'. Yes, we should all try and do our bit (and casual fly tipping with all sorts of household goods no longer wanted being left outside houses for others to take really gets my gears crunching) but the fact is the council do not drop/dump or leave rubbish all over the place - we do. We should all have a little bit of pride and caring about the area we live in.

Vanessa Smith ● 13d