I've just returned from a fortnight staying in a hotel on the lovely harbour of Chania, Crete. As one might imagine, the whole area is crowded with bars, restaurants, hotels, tourist shops and, of course, people. Astonishingly, you see virtually no rubbish anywhere, because there is a permanent patrol, seven days a week, of chaps in small electric vehicles with containers on the back, who pick up any discarded refuse, either from the ground or from the many harbour-side restaurants. They come past several times a day, including the evening, and so ensure that the whole area remains clean and tidy at all times.
I'm not suggesting that this would be possible in an area the size of Hounslow, but it does suggest that there are other ways to approach the problem of litter and that it might be possible to zero in on specific, defined areas such as the CHR, Turnham Green Terrace, South Parade, Acton Lane quadrangle. As for those who consider that the most efficient form of rubbish disposal is gravity, there's not much we can do about them apart from charging them litter fines, a sanction which, as we know, is more honoured in the breach than the observance. |