As with all the villages along the A170, Ebberston suffers its share of litter being thrown from cars at speed as they pass along the roads that top and tail our village. A few times a year, a dedicated litter picking team collects what amounts each time to over 10 bags of rubbish from the verges which is then collected by the council.
This month’s pick has reflected the shift by fast food restaurants to paper and card packaging, and so plastic and polystyrene have been found in much fewer quantities compared to this time last year. The card and paper degrades quite quickly which is better of course, but still not as good as taking your litter home with you and recycling it.
The “interesting” haul from earlier this year is still hard to beat: a combo which included two car wheels, a pair of long black high heel boots, a pair of black gloves and a DVD case for an X-rated film – probably trumping the separate find of a pair of men’s pants! But this time round the awesome haul included more car wheels, bits of a caravan, a packet of Viagra and a £5 note! That’s a good night out…
The note was filthy and almost discarded but was spotted, cleaned and given to the village hall who are using it to buy a new biscuit tin for the newly refurbished kitchen.
Other people’s rubbish and discarded items are the bread and butter of archaeologists, but what on earth would all this say about us in the 21st century?
