With summer fast approaching more people are making use of the public parks around Moss Side and leaving their litter behind.
In the past months as the weather has been improving, the amount of litter being left in our parks and on our streets has gotten much worse.
Moss Side do have their own community group who meet up once a month to clean the litter from our public spaces.
Each month the Moss Side Eco Squad meet up in different parts of Moss Side.
The Countryside Charity found that 38% of people have noticed an increase in the amount of litter since COVID.
Even through the authorities have the power to issue a fixed penalty notice (FPN), it doesn’t seem to be enough to deter people from littering.
The Countryside Charity also found that more than 75% of people think that the government should be doing more to tackle the issue.
In August, Manchester City Council launched a new campaign aimed at tackling litter around Manchester. They have introduced bigger bins around the city centre, but there doesn’t seem to be any public plans to tackle the issue outside of the city centre.
According to the City Council, there are more than 70 groups based around the city, dedicated to cleaning up the streets from litter. Last year, the Wythenshawe Waste Warriors set a target of 2021 bags of litter but managed to collect more than 5 times as many bags throughout the year.
The responsibility of cleaning up our streets shouldn’t just fall on charities and independent organisations.
The Keep Britain Tidy organisation have carried out multiple surveys studying trends with littering across the country.
Their research shows how the presence of litter can influence how somebody will dispose of their litter.
They claim that people are more likely to litter if there is already litter in the area.
After completing a Grade A standard clean of the area, 25 different types of litter were placed in the test area to see if the presence of litter made people more likely to drop their rubbish.
Beacons of litter are described as being larger, bright or clearly branded items of food and drinks litter.
The ‘other’ litter category meant that smaller pieces of litter which were less noticeable were placed in the test area.
For the control group, the site was complete free from litter.
I went out to some of the parks in Moss Side to ask what people think should be done to address the issue.
A student living near Whitworth Park, Chloe Buck said: “I’m not sure I‘ve ever seen people tackling the problem here. There definitely needs to be more road sweeping the area, the litter just seems to keep on building up.”
She added: “There are a decent amount of bins around the area, people just don’t seem to be using them as they should. I think the more people who receive fines, the less likely they are to litter again”.
Chloe thinks that the issue is greater in areas which have more students;
Chloe said that she believes litter is more of an issue in area that have a high student population, she said: “I’m sure I’ve seen things being thrown out of the windows on Heald Grove, there’s always rubbish in the bushes and covering the road.”
I spoke to another student who has a view out of her window onto Heald Grove, near to the car wash at the end of the road.
Tilly Balderstone said that she thinks the litter is coming from the students living in the accommodations on each side of Heald Grove. She also mentioned that cars often park up to eat takeaways and throw the rubbish of the windows before leaving.
Tilly said that she feels the council should send out road sweepers in areas where litter is bad. She added: “In the nine months that I have lived here, I haven’t seen anybody clean up any of the litter.”
I asked her what it made her feel having to look at the rubbish from her window every day and she said it makes her “sad”, and “It could be a lot nicer if there wasn’t so much rubbish on the floor.”
I contacted both Manchester City Council and the councillors for the area to find out what action is being taken but I haven’t had a response.
To report any litter, debris, bodily waste or spillage, fill out the form on the Manchester City Council website.
Moss Side Spectator 