Observations from Alasdair Meldrum ..
As discussed on episode 9 of the podcast, I spent the weekend in Poland visiting my son who was doing an Erasmus placement as part of his degree. First impression was a busy town with lots of tourists but wherever you went there was next to no litter, no cigarette butts and no chewing gum on the pavement. We spent Sunday taking a bus to Callum’s University office and walked back via country parks and cycle paths. On the bus journey, the lack of roadside litter, when compared to Scotland’s roads, was noticeable. On the paths and active travel routes, again hardly a spec of litter in sight. What was noticeable was the excellent active travel routes into the city – it felt like everyone was out walking, jogging, running, cycling, roller blades, skate boards etc. We have much to learn in the UK about active travel!
So why is there less litter – is it that Polish people care more about their environment? Is it because they travel by active means, they notice it and have a better understanding of their environment? As someone who walks, runs and cycles regularly I am very well aware of the shocking state of our road side verges, which is much less noticeable when you drive. Final question is how do we get the population of Scotland (and UK) to actually care and stop discarding litter, cigarette butts, chewing gum and vapes?
We still have so far to go in Scotland and across the UK to tackle our litter problem, and like a lot of our podcast guests, and those working in our industry, I can’t help but assess how other countries and cities are doing things when I visit them.
I’d love to hear other’s experiences across the world and any opinions on this? Write to us via the form on the website, let us know on social media, and if you’re really passionate, let us talk to you on the podcast and put our heads together!
Hi Alasdair, what you observed is not restricted to Krakow. We observed the very same thing when in the southwest of Poland at Wroclaw last year for our son’s wedding. Not only was the city spotless, the main and side roads were equally clean and litter free. As a waster, it was a pleasure to be taking pictures of good standards and we regularly saw mechanical sweepers and orderlies keeping it so.
Turned out that my son’s new father-in-law was cleansing manager for his local council area. When they visited Scotland this year they commented on how beautiful Scotland was and were surprised by the amount of litter.