The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 30: April/May 2017 | Page 31

IS IT ME?
IS IT ME?
John Davies is a senior corporate partner at leading commercial law firm
Thrings. In each edition of TBE John addresses a topical news or business-
related issue. This time John asks, “What is wrong with some people?”
Thrings
@ThringsLaw
www.thrings.com
I took my dog out for a walk in the
countryside over the weekend and found
myself constantly picking up other people’s
litter. Loads of it. On this occasion the
rubbish in question ranged from plastic
bottles and tin cans to sandwich boxes and
crisp packets.
This isn’t the first time, either. I’ve
previously had the dubious pleasure of
picking up broken glass, a child’s broken
scooter, magazines and cigarette packets.
And as if this isn’t bad enough, the
aforementioned bottles, cans and boxes
were, in the majority of cases, no more
than 50 yards from a bin. 50 bloody yards.
I genuinely don’t understand these people.
I can only assume they have brains the size
of a Ferrero Rocher (wrapping discarded,
obviously).
These culprits had evidently decided that
the countryside would be a great place to
have a spot of lunch. And why not? Lush
green grass, leaves beginning to blossom on
the trees and ducks on the river. Beautiful.
But after eating their lunch, they decided to
simply throw the rubbish on the floor and
wander off... someone else’s problem
I guess.
To make matters worse, as I walked
on a little further I came across an elderly
gentleman holding on to a fence post
attempting to bend over to pick up another
disregarded plastic bottle. We had a mutual
moan about the laziness of some folk, and
thanked each other for at least trying to
make a small difference.
These anti-bin bandits are spoiling things
for the rest of us. But their behaviour is not
only causing moderate discontent among
the good people of our fine county – it’s
also prompting them to take action. Earlier
this month thousands of local residents gave
up their free time to take part in a series
of litter picking events as part of the Great
British Spring Clean. In Wiltshire alone they
accumulated a whopping 14 tonnes of
rubbish - second only to Lon