DISGUSTING amounts of litter were picked up by a heroic Dursley resident last weekend.
Last Friday, 60-year-old Eric Torrington discovered the fly-tipped garbage in a lane leading up to Stinchcombe Hill from Stinchcombe village while on a walk.
He returned on Sunday (January 10) to cut away the brambles that had grown around it and loaded the bags, thought to have been there over a year, into his van.
The bags contained cans, bottles and takeaway material.
Eric, a semi-retired power generation industry engineer said: "It is quite rare for me to find such a quantity locally.
"It is perfectly represents the national issue of fly tipping.
"This fly-tip was probably from one individual, mainly a lager drinker.
"It is not representative of what I find locally normally.
"These have been accumulated over some time, flattened and bagged and then dumped, they had done all the hard work but not recycled it."
It took about an hour to remove and recycle the hundreds of items collected.
"While I have always picked up the odd can I started serious litter picking during the first Covid lockdown," he said.
"I walk around three miles every day and bring home between 10 - 70 items.
"I target vehicle thrown litter within a 3 mile radius of Dursley centre to include roads, lanes and woodland.
"I pick up items that can be recycled in the main and other people collect the larger items."
He told the GAZ that he doesn't judge the people that throw litter.
"I don't judge, I just pick it up," he said.
"Britain has a culture of throwing litter, I'm just doing my bit to raise awareness of a national problem.
"I get some exercise out of it and a sense of achievement."
There is much that can be done and is being done by councils, litter community groups and individuals.
He explains what he thinks could be done.
"For me the answer lies with future generations getting the kids to move away from the bad habits and culture of the current generation.
"We need to get debates going in schools and find solutions.
"I asked my son what he would do, his answer was to incentivise the return of recyclable items, which has worked in some countries.
"Fly tipping on a large scale is a huge problem with whole country lanes and farm land affected, so local farmers have been impacted.
"If you drive between Dursley and Stroud via Uley or Dursley to Glos via the A38 you will come across vehicle thrown litter every 10 -20m typically on the open road verges.
"I just do the small stuff and I'm on a bit of journey to try and do my bit and give something back to the community.
"Ultimately, national action is required post Covid."
Highways England has recently released figures that show that taxpayers paying £8m to pick up roadside litter, as almost 550 sacks of rubbish are collected each day from the side of UK roads.
The picture above and below are what Eric picked up last night (January 14) from the pathways through a housing estate near Cam Mill in Dursley.
He reports that this is typical of what he picks up on a daily basis.
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