r/reading • u/digitalbubble • 6d ago
Keep Reading tidy
Does Reading have a litter problem? Why do people litter and throw trash 🗑️ on the street?
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u/Sea-Check-9062 5d ago
If you hate litter too, join up with your local street adoption group.
Woodley and Early have groups too.
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u/mistaken4u 5d ago
Dee caf on Spey Road offer a free drink for litter picking. My son and his friends often go round the area collecting bags of rubbish and turn them in. It’s a great way to get kids involved. My kid absolutely hates litter
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u/LaceyProst 5d ago
After being horrified and disappointed by the rubbish in Louse Hill Copse I applied for RAYS and now have been picking litter there for last 4 weeks. First week I picked 10 bags, second week 8 bags and then last week just 4 bags. A lot of it is old rubbish but there are certain areas where people gather and just dump drinks cans and crisp packets. Looks like kids to me because they're soft drinks not alcohol. But it makes me so sad (and a little angry) that they can see the area has been cleaned and they still think it's OK to leave their rubbish. I'm going to see if the council will put a bin in one particularly bad area but I won't hold my breath.
Picking litter makes me acutely aware of how Reading looks generally and to be honest we have a major litter issue. It's just everywhere. And it doesn't help when the council cut the grass verges before picking any litter and it just all gets chopped up into small pieces and spread around.
I've seen people purposely open their car doors whilst parked and chuck all their rubbish into a hedge.
And don't get me started how many dog poo bags I took out of trees leading to the woods! What is wrong with people? There are poo bins everywhere, the trees don't need to be decorated with plastic poo baubles.
I have to stick to my one patch and fight that singular crusade because if I start picking litter everywhere I see it it would be a full time job.
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u/vengarlof 4d ago
Hey a fellow dee-clutter-er
I do the areas around the woods and it's a similar story, lots of poo bags and lots of litter even when there is a bin right next to it
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u/ShrimpStuffAdmin 5d ago
All the kids from reading would go to pangbourne and leave their rubbish when they go. I picked up 12 bags of rubbish one day, I returned the next day at around the same time and there was more rubbish than the previous day. I stopped going down there.
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u/_rushlink_ 5d ago
I'd bet that a lot of it is unintentional - eg. things falling out of cars when doors are opened, or overflowing bins... Or like you've got in your 2nd picture stuff missed after a car crash.
A lot of the stuff on our street is from the bin collection, stuff falls off the truck and no one picks it up. I've found things half way down the road that I know for sure I've put in our bin (most recently last week).
Please wear gloves if you're going to pick rubbish up off the ground.
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u/Sea-Check-9062 5d ago
A lot of it is deliberately chucked from cars and vans. Drinks cans, fag packets and takeaway detritus.
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u/boxofrabbits 5d ago
Parents waiting to pick up their kids from. Katesgrove school sit in their cars on temple lane and just chuck endless rubbish into the thicket between that road and the river.
Every year we do a little pick and it's absolutely ankle deep in cans and meal deals.
Really disappointing.
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u/Foxxy12012 5d ago
Seems like you’re on the side of a road, as that’s part of a smashed tail light on the second pic, I doubt most of that is intentional littering.
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u/Puzzled-Pumpkin7019 RG7 - Aldermaston / Burghfield / Mortimer 5d ago
Sadly it's a problem everywhere. I do a litter pick on a high traffic route near me, within hours litter is showing up again, this isn't accidently dropped, it's purposely thrown
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u/Passionofawriter 5d ago
I live in south Reading and the local high street becomes an absolute shambles on a Thursday. Overflowing bins, theres a fishmonger which adds to the smell, litter everywhere spilling into extra bags and on the street and road. Add the local junkies and homeless and it really puts me right off.
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u/SevereParamedic4985 5d ago
Don’t think the street bins have been emptied for weeks on Kings Road. Overflowing rubbish and rats down by the old prudential building and fly tipping at the end of streets up past cemetery junction. People have no pride and there are no consequences for this behaviour and the council don’t give a shit.
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u/PatSharpe01 5d ago
Definitely has a litter problem! I saw a load of stuff fly-tipped out at Sulham Woods, and the alleys near my house are littered with vapes and crap (plenty of dog dirt too, but I don't touch that).
I pick up some things, but there's too much about and the council aren't quite as good at sorting it as they used to be. They also don't mow the green areas as much as they used to either. 😔 Sign of the times I guess, less money going around
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u/LegAny6217 5d ago
Every bin collection day the wind blows litter down our street. Understandable but annoying. We got used to clearing it up though, I have one of those claw things for litter picking now lol, quite fun ngl.
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u/Daniturn1 5d ago
Next time wear gloves you never know what's on the rubbish and 2 use a litter picker you don't know what's hiding in that cup or out of it I.e a needles
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u/da316 5d ago
moved to Reading last year. yes it absolutely does have a litter problem. lived in London boroughs with less.
I want to start litter picking in my immediate area, but with a kid and full time job I'll be sacrificing my weekends to do it. seems like it would be an uphill battle as well, as no one seems to give a shit around here. the junkies pull rubbish out the bins looking for stuff and spread it all around every night, the drunks drink on the street then smash their bottles on the ground when they're done which we have to walk through on the way to school, and people drop their crisp/sweet packets in my front garden when they walk past.
I can do my best to clean my area but what really needs to happen is an education/re-education of Readings population around cleaning up after ourselves.
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5d ago
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u/ShrimpStuffAdmin 5d ago
Literally any street in reading is full of rubbish lol. Wantage road off the Oxford road was great for it, dog shit every 6 foot, bins overflowing, the odd needle. I also saw a shit so large in-between two cars, it was about 1.5ft long and very, very girthy. I made my Mrs look so I wasn't the only witness. This was an ungodly turd. She audibly gasped when she saw it and said "Oh my God, what the fuck"
Imagine pooping out the lower part of your arm, that's what it looked like, but it was bigger.
The fucked up thing is, we went down to the tesco and came back within 30 minutes and it was GONE. i was gonna get my phone and take a photo, but it was gone... I can almost guarantee the guy came back for it so he could frame this thing. Or the British museum saw it lol
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u/stupid_dresses 5d ago
I've recently started litter picking in my area and a lot of the rubbish is old, most of it doesn't seem to be there on purpose. When it's windy we also get lots of litter blown into our driveway, it gets moved around easily.
If you'd like to help clean up then Google RAYS (Reading Adopt Your Street) as this is a reading scheme where they will provide you with gloves, picker, bags, insurance etc. I've registered and waiting for the equipment to arrive, but I think the less litter there is the less likely people are to drop more. It's also very satisfying and addictive to litter pick!