Bill Bryson angry about litter indifference

Bill Bryson, noted travel writer and president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), has called for "systemic and vigilant" enforcement of the law against litterers. Skip related content

Bryson, speaking after the CPRE Stop the Drop Anti-Litter exhibition in Parliament, discussed his concerns about "a growing collective indifference" to littering in the UK.

The US-born author, who has served as president of the CPRE since 2007, noted that littering was becoming an "increasing problem" in his adopted country, and that there was a growing "to hell with it" attitude to dropping litter.

"I've looked on with a certain amount of dismay as litter becomes an increasing problem," he said.

In Westminster to support the Stop the Drop campaign, Bryson said that anti-litter activism needed to be backed up by "concerted government action", and that the issue of littered streets could be solved "relatively inexpensively".

He said that "The only way to make real headway (on littering) is for a government or an authority to push it through."

"Litter is about the way you present yourself to the world, about the way you live, and what you're prepared to put up with in this country," Bryson said.

However, he stated that there was "a general sense of a lack of will" from the government to tackle this.

Bryson further expressed his concerns over the extent of littering in the UK, which he claims has become "yuppified".

"Dropping litter is moving across class boundaries and becoming universal," Bryson warned.