I have read that in previous inter-lockdown gatherings, particularly on beaches but also in parks and parts of the countryside used for things like picnics and camping, there has been an increase in human excreta.
I don't justify it, but I can see the logic of why it happens in contexts where public loos have been closed because of the pandemic. Where I am, in a built up area, we were already having a few problems pre-pandemic with excreta and urination in unwanted places, particularly from homeless people, although we also had what I'll call unofficial toilets in places like a corner of the churchyard, a garden of a long-empty building etc.
That began to become a problem after two things happened - firstly our council put the onus on businesses to provide toilets, e.g. shopping centres, pubs, supermarkets etc., and secondly after it closed most of the remaining public toilets because of drug users leaving dangerous items there, e.g. discarded needles.
Some businesses can understandably not want to admit someone who's not a customer just to use the loo. On the other hand, some other establishments such as places of worship and community centres may be more generous. But that's without pandemic restrictions and meanwhile people need, at the very least, somewhere to urinate, and most people will need to empty their bowels around once a day.
As for litter, again I don't excuse it, but what I do notice is news articles where journalists fume over mountains of rubbish in a park, say, without mentioning that the rubbish is in a pile, probably round a bin. No, the people didn't put the rubbish in a bin, but they did try to put it in the right place. But hey, why praise people for trying and encourage them to go a step further and take the rubbish home, when you can give them grief?
I got annoyed a couple of years back with some youngsters who dumped food and drink rubbish in my recycling bin, but to give them their due, they were from out of town and looked genuinely taken aback at realising that there were recycling bins with ordinary bins. They also seemed baffled when I said that where I am, it's quite normal to store your wheely bin up by the kitchen window, so that icky leftovers that stick to the bin and attract flies don't go down well here. With hindsight, I wish I'd found a way of saying thank you for at least trying but please try better next time.
After all, nearly getting it right is better than simply dumping it. I wonder sometimes whether people who do that do it at home as well. Just dump the rubbish and let another family member clear it up? Or live in a tip?
