OT: Costa customers and reading?

Generally dog owners are a bit dim, and thick and dim.

Funny though, I can remember seeing any of them drinking Costa coffee, so maybe you have it wrong?

Like, who would buy a takeaway and go for a walk and not think / bother to also take their rubbish home?

It stood out today because of how it was *entirely* Costa cups, like there was some free promotion on if you went for a walk?

You randomly also see beer cans / bottle (as mentioned) and sometimes the odd carrier full of McD or KFC stuff sticking out the top but nothing on this scale.

There is a good chance that the Costa dumpers do do it all the time, but in sufficiently low numbers to leave some room in the bins for their intended purpose.

I wonder if the Park Authority could charge Costa for collecting up their customers waste (I think some other fast food places are made responsible for doing such)?

Cheers, T i m

Walking and drinking takeaway coffee is the new COVID *thing*. Be grateful that they?re at least trying to bin them rather than chucking them in the hedgerows, dumping them in the sand dunes or tossing them in the rivers like they do here.

Sadly dog-owners around here can hardly claim any moral high ground given the high numbers of them who have completely failed to fathom out how to dispose of a bag of dog s*it other than to chuck it in the undergrowth.

Tim

As a matter of interest, why do you consider that coffee drinkers should be expected to take their waste home but dog owners should not? If they had recycling bins but no dog waste bins, I wonder what the dog owners would do :-)

I thought the standard technique was to hang the full bags from branches and stems of brambles. Ready to catch the unwary.

So it seems. ;-(

Well, whilst there is that, if they really no longer have the strength to carry the (now empty) container back to their car / home, they could al least remote the lids, tip out anything that's left and then stack them together or put their foot on them and flatten them to take up less space. But no, they don't want to inconvenience *themselves* any more than necessary but inconvenience the legitimate users of the facility in the process.

Well quite, but that's another issue.

Ironically, un-bagged dog waste would break down naturally in the undergrowth quite quickly, unlike a waxed paper cup and it's plastic lid, yet the vast majority of us to pick up after our dogs and carry the bag home when we find the bins filled with Costa cups.

But you are right, the extra rain has created a new 'high tide' of peoples waste.

What was quite nice was to see a small team of volunteers going round picking up after these people.

I wonder how bad it would be before the litterers start complaining about the mess they were having to wade through?

Cheers, T i m

I don't *expect* anything? However, the park provides dog waste bins (about 4 in a 9 mile walk) so we use them.

Well, *we* would do and what we have always done (and still do when out walking where there are no bins) and take it home or put it in a general roadside bin. *That* is what we pay our rates for and it's not something that should be taken home to recycle etc (unlike paper, cans and bottles etc).

Many places have combined bins (any general litter including bagged dog waste), some have split bins (large aperture for litter and a chute thing for dog waste, to stop the wankers putting bottles and such in) and specific dog waste bins.

The other thing the wankers do is empty their cars out in the roadside / park bins, denying the use of the facility to everyone else using the park. If we buy an ice cream when we are out we will generally use the bin outside the shop for the wrapper and take the stick home.

Or because some other wanker has filled the bin up in one go (without making any attempt to compress the contents of the bag or take recyclables home for recycling), so others who have driven there

Daughter has had to litter pick a local 'Green Flag' park and on a busy day in the summer that's resulted in two batches of 10 binbags full of rubbish, some that actually makes it into the bins and most that doesn't.

It might be reasonable if people had both the stuff from the cafe there but the vast majority of it all isn't sold there and so has been brought there. People actually bring stuff into a beautiful local park to dump it there ... and would be the first to complain if it wasn't quickly cleared up. What they don't seem to realise is that we all have to pay for it to be cleared up, unless people are willing to give up their free time to clear up after these dirty bastards. ;-(

Where is respect, decency, a sense of society or citizenship these days?

Cheers, T i m

p.s. There is a big difference between things that are dropped by accident (a tissue, face mask, glove or empty dog poo bag) and the stuff that people actually throw / put down because they CBA to take it back where *they* brought it from).

I'm pretty sure it's not 'standard' if you see how often the dog bins are pretty full compared with the number of bags you see elsewhere. That could vary where you live / walk etc.

I think things like not littering are really the things that should be ingrained in you from a child and some cultures / social groups seem more likely to do so than some others.

Cheers, T i m

here they hang the bags from shrub branches

And some just hang it on a tree.

Well, to be honest, most people have given up now. This was evident just before Christmas in the bun fight at the stores which I did not join in with. To my mind what we should have done is cancelled all Christmas, and rescheduled it for the middle of June instead. What is sacred about December? Its normally cold wet and dark. Brian

The problem lies with the dog walkers.

Not only is taking a pack animal like a dog for a walk on a lead all on its own completely unnatural *for the dog*, and therefore is essentially a form of animal cruelty, that fact remains that the term 'dog waking' is a polite euphemism for taking the dog out in order for it to pass a bowel motion.

Leaving piles of stinking dog s*it about has, due to the self-centred nature of the 'dog walkers' themselves, lead to laws being passed that require the s*it to be bagged up. Unfortunately, despite the helpful presence of 'dog litter' bins. the self-centred 'dog walkers' persist in some numbers in throwing the bags of dog s*it into the nearest bush.

This, of course, means that the 'dog litter' bins are much under-used, leaving space for them to be used by conscientious people for other forms of litter.

The 'dog-walkers' have only themselves to blame for the mess they have helped to create. After all, they could just take the dog s*it home and dispose of it there, and there would then be no 'dog litter' bins overflowing with other litter.

It's funny, we regularly do a 9 mile walk, most of which is in a national park, paths lined with trees and bushes and I can't think of a single instance where there is a dog poo bag 'hanging in a tree'.

Yes you see the odd one by the side of the path [1] or on the ground under the dog waste bin (when it's full of Costa cups) or even 'slightly' hung up in the undergrowth, exposed when all the leaves are off etc.

Maybe people do put them in the trees and the wardens take them down, but there are none there.

Cheers, T i m

Luckily ... I don't think 'most people' have, just a slightly larger minority (or we would be inundated with it everywhere).

Quite right.

I think it's a combination of things for it to be at this time of year, winter solstice, little baby Jeebers (so should be in the spring?), 'Yule', meat being available because they didn't want to feed livestock during the winter, Oden, Saturnalia, Juvenalia,

Not everywhere. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Local marinas had large bins installed for the use of boaters but had to remove them as local people, including shop keepers, were using them for their domestic waste

We don?t all leave the packages if the bins are full but I agree the inconsiderate ones do. If caught they should be banned from keeping animals for life. A sizeable dog licence fee to fund the provision of dog waste bins and dog wardens would get my full support. It should be linked to the dogs microchip and the fee increased for more dogs.

I suggest you visit Specsavers at this time of year the packages are more common than leaves on trees and bushes.

Some dog owners should be banned from owning a dog for life. We need a sizeable licence fee linked to the dogs microchip. The fee should cover dog bins and wardens and prosecution of irresponsible owners. As a dog lover I would welcome such a system.

Or know the law, that letting dogs s*it on *agricultural* land is legal.

Foxes do it all the time. Smellier poo than any dog.

I'm not surprised (about it all).

Ho do you instill a sense of social responsibility into a minority?

If we went to McD's and had finished our meal (normally take-away) we would flatpack everything as well as possible and 'might' put a couple of extra tissues or small bits from the car whilst we were doing so but at the same time would take home any plastic bottles or clean cardboard to recycle ourselves, never trusting that they would.

I've even see kiddies scooters sticking out of the bin in a local park.

Round here there are some housing association flats and it's fairly common to see a fridge freezer or a wardrobe or heap of kids toys just dumped out on the grass outside their own place. Because they are flats it's easy to hide which flat it came from.

Now, I get that they may not have cars (although they all seem to have BM's and Mercs) and so may not be able to take such things to the Recycling Centre themselves and (assuming they aren't the car owners), afford to pay the Council to remove such things for them. Or not want to 'afford to' over drugs and expensive trainers etc. ;-(

Cheers, T i m