7 May 2020

Flytipping

In Britain, we use the word "flytipping" to describe the illegal dumping of rubbish - often in the countryside late at night. Fortunately, the people who do it are few and far between. The rest of us shake our heads in despair. How could anyone be so terribly antisocial, caring so little for the local environment? And who the hell do they think is going to clean up their mess?

Yesterday, as I walked for six miles  across a pancake flat landscape in bright May sunshine, I came across several saddening examples of flytipping. As well as the old tyres and disused gas cylinders in the picture above, I saw fridges, sofas, mattresses, a broken shed, garden waste, builders' waste, a suitcase and old clothing. The detritus of modern living.  Some of it had even been tossed into drainage channels that criss-cross  the area. How can the selfish perpetrators sleep at night?

Putting that heartbreak aside,,, Near Maud's Bridge I illegally crossed the railway track to secure this picture of a tree in a potato field with wind turbines beyond. The locality is known as Nun Moors...
And here is the peaceful view westwards along the Sheffield and South Yorkshire Navigation Canal, seen from Maud's Bridge:-
Back in the town of Thorne, I noticed  interesting sculptural work on Travis's Charity School (erected in 1863). The artefact must have been added  in modern times - for its sculptor, Byron Howard, is, I believe, still alive and kicking. The building is certainly no longer used as a school. In fact, a little googling revealed that it is Byron Howard's studio. Not to be confused with the Disney animation director of the same name.
It was a splendid, non-taxing walk - mostly along single track country lanes. I hardly saw any vehicles - just a few other walkers and a handful of cyclists but at Thorne Number 2 Level Crossing the red lights began to flash and moments later a short local train flashed by in an instant on its way to "Sunny Scunny" (Scunthorpe) in North Lincolnshire.

32 comments:

  1. That was an unusual walk for you, no hills and farm houses, no cows or sheep. But every now and then, such flat landscapes have their very own appeal, don't they. I very much like tha canal, and the tree with the wind mills. Not so sure about the sculpture; I find the eye above the woman's head a little unnerving.
    Flytipping is indeed one of the worst antisocial kinds of behaviour I can think off. How someone who does that justifies their own action in their minds I would really like to know.

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    1. Yes, Librarian, YP might as well have been driving through Belgium (flat as a pancake, plenty of wind mills, though a lot of asparagus at this time of year). It gets interesting once you try to navigate going round Brussels on your way to a more varied country (I am talking pre-Sat Nav days).

      The eye above the woman's head you find a "little unnerving" is the holy grail, Librarian, the inner eye, the eye that sees beyond the visible. My son once did a drawing of me, he was very young at the time, and most likely didn't know about the third eye's meaning, though does now. He did draw me with that same third eye. One of the more humbling, and eerie, moments of my life.

      Hope you are enjoying your time at OK (sorry, that abbreviation makes me smile every time - better than KO I suppose). Insert smiley by way of softening impact.

      U

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    2. When Ms Meike first started referring to OK, I thought she was going out with a bottle of brown sauce! See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK_Sauce
      I knew that was "the third eye". It sometimes figures in the symbolism of the masons' movement. Thanks for calling by - both of you Germanic ladies!

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  2. Class 150/2 Sprinter.

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    1. There was no sprinting involved - just steady plodding. Oh, you mean the train!

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  3. Super photos. I notice litter everywhere when I am out walking in rural Ireland next to the sea. Especially on verges and beaches. But then again I never see litter bins either. Some people won't or don't take their rubbish home.

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  4. Great tree. It's not their fault but windmills do ruin landscapes. On the other hand they keep you awake when hammering Belgium's motorways on your way through.

    Fly tipping? You ain't seen anything yet. As part of the lockdown all city dumps/tips/recycling centres are closed. No ignore that. I am just making up excuses for those who can't sit on their rubbish for a little longer. Worse, and I do believe it does exacerbate the problem that City councils in England do charge for items being taken away. Where I live I believe it's £10.00 for one item (say, a mattress or a white good - fridge/freezer/tumble dryer/washing machine/cooker), £15.00 for two. Discount! Aren't you lucky. And so on. Naturally that doesn't stop the City Council from NOT collecting any recycling, be it glass or mixed in these Virus stricken times. Forget cake. Let us drown in our recycling (obviously people with large garages and gardens won't feel the impact quite as much). Normal household rubbish? Well, one should be so lucky as to our council tax going that way. In the meantime chase a mouse or two, attracted by the overspill. Because that is what is happening, people losing the will to live leaving rubbish all over the place, fly tipping their neighbours' bins. The seagulls party, the mice play (the only reason I don't mention rats because I can't stand the idea of them) and no one, inner city, has a cat.

    Thanks for that, YP. I don't feel better for having offloaded this into your comment box but at least I can, briefly, wipe my brow.

    U

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    1. I spoke to the farmer at Buildings Farm and she said that flytipping had been a problem down those lanes for years but she had noticed an increase in the past month. Now excuse me while I wipe away some of the steam that came out of my laptop in direct relation to your comment Ursula!

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  5. Flytipping is disgusting. We regularly used to find rubbish dumped all along the lanes here even when the refuse tips were open and ours don't charge for receiving it. Just pure laziness on the part of the tipper.
    I was immediately drawn to that photo of the sculpture. I find it very appealing. I didn't even notice the third eye until I saw the comments above!

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    1. Flytipping is another good reason why they should bring back the village stocks! Let's pelt the culprits with rotten fruit and vegetables. Afterwards they will be required to clean up the mess before the word "FLYTIPPER" is tattooed on their foreheads.

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  6. Dumping garbage is despicable and yes, the people care only about themselves and their immediate needs. Is that canola in bloom already? I know that not all people like canola but I do love the color and the smell of it in bloom.

    That irrigation canal photo is gorgeous. I love reflections.

    I didn't like that sculpture of the woman at first but the longer I looked at it, the more I liked it. Thank you, as always for the lovely photos.

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    1. In England we don't use the word "canola". We call it rape or rapeseed. And yes - it was that. By the way, that is not an irrigation canal - it was built for commercial barges. Thanks as always for calling by Lily.

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  7. I am surprised that none of your readers have commented on the apple in the sculpture. Quite feminine. I love the sculpture.
    People here dump garbage all the time. Garbage dumping garbage. Or, rubbish. Whichever.

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    1. I had noted the apple myself Mary but felt too prudish to comment upon it. Yes, very feminine. No wonder Adam accepted the apple from Eve.

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  8. Rural areas here suffer from the same fools who dump garbage to avoid landfill fees.

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    1. Thank God, it's not only England that has to suffer such ignorance.

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  9. I never, ever heard that word-flytipping-before. Not in all my reading, my English prince of a son-in-law, never! Why they do it is, to me, unconscionable. It is a plight, everybody hates it, it makes such a lovely place, ugly, and the state or government has to use our dollars to clean it up!

    On the other hand, it seemed a wonderful day with a calm track and beautiful skies. Lovely pictures. The woman and child and book is a brilliant piece of art in that place. Is that supposed to be the eye of god at the top of the woman's headdress? I know there lies within you a poem about the old tree juxtaposed against the modern windmill.

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    1. Thanks for calling by again SS (surrogate sister). I don't know how the term "flytipping" came about but possibly it is linked to the expression to do something "on the fly" which means you're doing it fast and probably not carefully.

      I am glad that you agree with me about that piece of sculpture, carefully designed to fit into that Victorian niche on the tower. Much older photos show it simply as a ventilation opening.

      Do you agree with DJT that the virus was most likely made in a secret Chinese laboratory by Fu Manchu?

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  10. Love the sculpture. I believe many people, especially woman, have a third eye.
    Watch out for those windmills, tRump says they can cause cancer. That is a great picture however.

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    1. If he says they can cause cancer then they must be very safe. Thanks for dropping by here Carolyn.

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  11. The sculpture is exquisite and fits the niche perfectly; that child has a very knowing, world-weary look and the mum looks as though she has arrived from a far distant place. I knew that Howard sculpted the unusual and thought-provoking war memorial in Thorne with all its layers of symbolism, and knew that he was a Doncaster lad, but how wonderful to be able to find somewhere so architecturally unique that had the space required to be his studio right in the heart of the community too. Elizabeth.

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    1. I only found out later about the war memorial. I took a photo of it from twenty yards away - not realising that Byron Howard had remodelled it. That's how things go sometimes.

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  12. Like Red, we also have rural dumping here, next to beautiful little streams and brooks. If people can truck their crap to the middle of nowhere, why can't they truck it to the landfill? To avoid a minimal tipping fee? I guess. No concern for nature.

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    1. Perhaps they drive over from Alberta.

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  13. Leaving trash like that has always been disturbing to me. I don't understand how anyone could live with themself after doing that but then I guess it is a totally different kind of person.

    That is an interesting sculpture that seems to be full of much symbolism. The tree you show in the second picture seems to be so lonely.

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    1. I am glad you commented on the tree Bonnie.I was drawn to it - all alone in a large potato field. I cannot understand why the landowner left it there but I am pleased that he/she did.

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  14. Our recycling centre was the very first thing to shut to the public. Fortunately we are getting all our bins (general, garden, glass and other recycling) collected but with everyone going mad during lockdown there is fly tipping here too - much of it outside the recycling centre.

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    1. It seems quite crazy that recycling or dump-it sites have been closed. What did the authorities think might happen? Still, this in no way forgives ignorant flytippers.

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  16. You weren't very far from me then. There is a big free car park at Thorne.
    A flytip story to warm the cockles of your heart. Bags of household waste were found last week at an industrial unit. Owner of unit opened it up and found envelopes with a name and address. He delivered it back to the dumpers house and emptied the lot on the persons front door step. Pics appeared on the village facebook page :o)

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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