Anger amid rise in 'dirty camping' in rural Scotland

[Alan De Enfield]

Abandoned campsites strewn with litter and even human waste have increasingly been found this year in Scotland's rural areas, say outdoors groups.

Locations include beauty spots in the Highlands and hillsides and woodland in the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh.

Hillwalkers and climbers group Mountaineering Scotland has dubbed the behaviour "dirty camping".

It said the sites were usually close to a road and unlike wild camping, which involves leaving little or no trace.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-49406333

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-49177918

 

[Toddy]

I read this earlier.

The bit that folks forget about the Rights of Access are that they are the Responsible Rights of Access, and these filthy cretins aren't responsible or courteous.

Selfish, lazy, dirty, and need fined for the costs of clear up and hit with community service litter picking up hours as well.

It's like the 'Dumb dumpers' thing, how do we get through to folks who don't think beyond their own immediate wants ?
I used to push the whole educate them approach, but I think that really it's a social mindset issue as much as it is an education issue. It's like vandalism, we haven't managed to stop that either

M

 

[Woody girl]

We have similar problems here on exmoor and Dartmoor Used to spend a lot of hours litter picking on Dartmoor when I was a volunteer ranger there. People would leave dirty nappies under bushes at picnic spots chuck stuff from cars onto the verges and leave plastic bags cans etc all over the place. Even fished stuff out of the river.
Not quite so bad on exmoor but I still regularly pick up empty plastic water bottles and dog poo bags in our local woods where visitors walk with their dogs. They just don't care. Grrrrr !

 

[dwardo]

You park on a double yellow in the middle of a large town or city and within minutes you will have a £70 fine in the post. I don't understand the reason for not fining them all for littering at the least.
Yes if they come off a train its hard work as you have nothing to ID the idiots but as they say its usually next to a road as the chimps cant make it more than 20 yards from the car, so ID the reg, wait till they get in and fine goes in the post along with the evidence.
Excuse of the rubbish already being there? Then either clean it up or go camp somewhere clean and leave it the same way you found it.

 

[daveO]

There seems to be a huge divide in society now as more people strive to reduce waste while at the same time some people seem to be trying their hardest to create as much as possible. I like to think of them as the Greta Thunbergs and the Utter Scumbags.

A local school group has put signs up in the local woods asking that people keep it tidy as the kids are using the area for education and someone is dumping their dog poo bags right under the signs like some kind of protest. In the same area people are driving up into the woods to dump rubbish or throwing bags of the stuff into the stream. I see kids walking about chucking litter everywhere and vandalising stuff with immunity now. They've been nicking the recycling bins from the houses, dragging them up into the woods, dumping the contents and setting fire to the plastic to try and get high off the fumes. Every time someone cleans up someone else seems to treat it like a blank canvas for litter.

Sometimes I wonder if it's a way of coping for kids today though. They're told they have no future, no chance of owning a house, can't afford education, world is ending due to climate change, mental health is a huge issue, big chance of spending your life working in a call centre taking flak for a company who don't care about customers or employees, what do they have to take pride in now? There's not enough police or council services to sort any of it out. The council here have employed private companies to crack down on dog fouling but they only cover profitable and easy to police areas. Some dog walkers don't care if it's a school or playing field that their dog uses for a toilet.

 

[Woody girl]

I have to walk for ten minutes through a dog toilet footpath to get into town. Children use it to get to and from school. It seems everyone with a dog takes it for a walk down this otherwise delightful path even the locals. Nobody thinks twice about letting their dog pee wherever it wants and I regularly have to step over fresh rivulets. Kids drop their sweet and chip shop wrappers every where. It's totaly disgusting. Nobody seems to care. There are many excuses by the council as to why they can do nothing. There are bins for dog poo and rubbish each end of the path too so there realy is no excuse. Our local tip has had its hours so reduced that it's worse than useless. Only Saturday mornings. Next nearest is a fifty mile round trip!. I'm amazed we don't suffer vast amounts of fly tipping ... maybe there is more of that on the moor proper but I don't go up there too often nowadays.
I think there is an attitude of what's the point. Everything has been ruined anyway so why should I bother? So sad. You have hit the nail on the head daveO.

 

[Janne]

The place where I go in Norway is famous for its 'eco tourism'. Sadly, those 'eco tourists' make exactly the same mess as you describe.
The vast majority are young people that have no respect for nature, the main thing for them is to take selfies.

When we created a mess in Nature when we were young, we just did not know. Today, everybody is informed well. No excuses.

 

[Woody girl]

Once two young girls about 13 or 14 were walking ahead of me. One screwed up her chip wrapper and dropped it. I called out and asked her to pick it up and put it in the bin three or four paces behind her. She flatly denied it was hers! I was about 10 paces behind her at the time. Did she seriously believe she could deny it and get away with it? She obviously did!

 

[Janne]

It is their messy/messed up world once we depart for Valhalla!


Starting in the early 1970's our Gen has improved hugely. IMO

 

[crosslandkelly]

One way of dealing with the scum!

 

[Woody girl]

Brilliant!!!!!

 

[Broch]

Why would any towny believe it's not OK to dump rubbish in the country? - this is the mass of plastic dumped by one of the local farmers in a small quarry just next to a public footpath! I despair at times but then go and meditate for 20 minutes

 

[demographic]

I am in no way shape or form condoning people leaving their mess after camping but I was born in the early 70s and can assure you that people have been leaving a mess for decades and in general I think its improving.

Obviously some places might be worse but on the whole its getting better.

I'm slightly concerned that outrage over this will diminish the areas we can use and just moaning at the younger generation is a typical old giffer thing to do. This kind of plays into the hands of the larger landowners.

Yeah, I can see its a problem, especially the dog owners who think just leaving a plastic wrapped dog egg on a tree is a good idea but I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[demographic]

Why would any towny believe it's not OK to dump rubbish in the country? - this is the mass of plastic dumped by one of the local farmers in a small quarry just next to a public footpath! I despair at times but then go and meditate for 20 minutes

View attachment 55233

Valid point, I'm not exactly sure about the laws regarding farmers tips but I'd be very surprised if they are allowed to dump anywhere near a watercourse at the very least.

Edit, I forgot to mention.
Put that picture up on Google Maps with geotags.

Its an honest picture and it shows what looks to me to be masses of silage bags and other general rubbish. Have a look and see if any of its chemicals that shouldn't be dumped and if so fire the pics up on the map.

 

[Janne]

I had some good times digging in an old dump belonging to a huge country house just outside Mayfield!

 

[daveO]

I feel bad for farmers in a way. Margins can be slim enough without having to pay for commercial waste disposal as well and until someone comes up with a compostable bale wrap they don't have much choice but to use plastic. There are farm dumps near me with metal (including full cars) that pre-date plastic farm waste though so the mindset can be pretty ingrained with some of them. Not to mention the miles of baling twine scattered around the countryside. It'll be a cold day in hell before farmers give that stuff up. Too useful.

 

[Trojan]

I walk to work and every day I pick up a bit of litter as my good deed of the day!

 

[SCOMAN]

I utilise the west coast and the worst spots are those used my caravans and campers near the remote roadsides. Full on jobbies, toilet paper and all. Foul creatures.

 

[Janne]

Seems they need to include a subject about the environment in the schools, from a very early age.....
The parents of these people have not done their bit.

Do not start me on farmers.......
( My ancestors, two generations back and beyond, were into agriculture. I have heard it all....)

 

[Tengu]

Im not sure these people are educationable.

And we get enough lectures from that Greta Thurberg girl...

Fly tipping is already illegal; why not more prosecutions?