Hanwell isn’t rubbish. It just has rubbish – pockets of litter and the like – around its streets and green bits.
Zen and the art of noticing litter
In the past year we’ve walked around Hanwell a lot more. We’ve spent more time being in its spaces, rather than just going through them. You notice the surroundings more on foot than in a car, and that includes litter and fly-tipped monstrosities.
So let’s go for a rubbish walk… (OK, no more throwaway lines). The first thing we see is an empty soft drink can some no-longer-thirsty soul has flicked over the garden wall. Nice. On the way up to the Boston Road random items placed on walls hope to find a new home. That’s not littering, though, even if by next morning said items lie in the gutter, soaking wet and chewed through. Rubbish strewn across a pavement after a fox or crow has picked through it doesn’t count either, in our book.
We’re trash, you and me. We’re the litter on the breeze…
What gets the goat is people who nonchalantly drop sweet wrappers in the street. Those who heave Boris bikes into the river, or dump old mattresses by the roadside. Those who let man’s best friend poo on the pavement by the school gates but don’t pick it up.
Who are these people? Why are they so thoughtless, so inconsiderate? At what point in life does a person become dropper instead of picker-upper?
Schools do educate their pupils and take them on litter pick-up trips. When I was a kid, being a litter-lout was an act of rebellion, a phase you grew out of pretty quickly. Who can forget those 1970s ads? PC George Dixon of Dock Green warning us to Keep Britain Tidy or else…
Once (and only once) I confronted a litter-dropper who had considered his actions. He explained that if people like him didn’t drop litter, road sweepers wouldn’t have a job. Oh, OK. I’ll torch your house then, to keep firefighters employed.
Too posh to pick
At the entrance to Churchfield rec, at the bottom of Manor Court Road, there’s a poster tied to the rose garden fence that says “Don’t be too posh to pick”. Luckily, the charming illustration makes it clear we’re talking litter, not noses…
Most dog walkers pick up their dogs’ poo, of course, yet in this very spot we did once see a guy do the ‘pretend pick-up’. He clocked that we’d seen his pooch unload, so he leant down and went through the motions, so to speak. But he had produced no bag, and there was no pick-up. Right by a dog poo bin, too.
They say litter is simply recycling resource in the wrong place, as a weed is a plant in the wrong place. Sometimes though litter has a weird charm, in a forgotten alley or in one of those nowhere areas behind strung-out old shop parades amid broken crates and abandoned shopping trolleys. Or maybe it’s just me.
But litter isn’t just a dispiriting sight, it can also be dangerous. At the bottom of High Lane we come across an information board that describes some of the wildlife around and goes on to request “DO NOT LITTER. It is unsightly and can injure or kill wild animals.”
You often see walkers perform random or organised acts of litter collection in the area, and particularly along this stretch. There’s the Brent River Park rangers too, and the Brent River & Canal Society, who all do brilliant work.
Our rubbish walk has brought us to the allotment, where nothing disturbs the robin’s song and the rustle of breeze through plum blossom. Apart from the occasional cry of seagulls wheeling above Greenford Recycling Centre. Oh, and something at the tip that makes a noise like a great dragon exhaling fire with a thunderous clatter and wheeze, every once in a while.
For many months now tip visits have been by appointment only. This may have led to some fly tipping, but it has always been a problem, everywhere. By 2017, according to MyLondon, fly tipping in the borough of Ealing was on an industrial scale and had made Hanwell the filthiest it had been in 35 years.
Pick me up before you go-go!
While digging the plot I sing Wham! to the attentive robin: “Do the litter bug. Do the litter bug. Do the litter bug. Do the litter bug…”
Recycling resource in the wrong place is also a problem at the allotment, at least behind the fence near our shed. It’s mostly plastic bags and old beer cans, and has been there for years. Whoever put it there must have done so from inside the allotment, and was definitely being inconsiderate. Why else would you dump it where it can’t be reached through undergrowth at its thorny densest?
Those allotment fence beer can dumpers weren’t too posh to drop, and I’m not too posh to pick. I’m gonna fight my way through the undergrowth and clear the rubbish myself.
But it’s already April. I have to consider the robin, who may well have built a nest in that thickest part of the thicket.
Maybe next year, then.
Links to more
MyLondon article
www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/fly-tipping-left-ealing-filthiest-12645400
Brent River & Canal Society
Ealing park rangers
www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201132/parks_and_open_spaces/639/park_rangers/1
Around Hanwell and up the allotment 
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