East

Over a year this adds up to a whopping 67.2m pieces of rubbish.

Nicholas Crane, journalist and Vice President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, took a trip across the East to see some of the most shameful litter hotspots, and to meet some of the people trying to make a difference.  

Lorry drivers get blamed for a significant amount of the rubbish that’s dumped on our roadsides.

But Nicholas took a trip with one trucker who really cares.

A trucker’s view

Kevin Hessey has been driving a truck for 24 years and he travels all over the UK.

Kevin Hessey: the problem is attitude

He’s so unhappy about the situation that he’s trying to start a campaign to get truckers to stop littering.

He keeps a bag in his cab and wonders why other drivers can’t do the same.

"I watch people sling stuff out of their windows, because someone else will clear it up.

"I thought 'This isn’t right, people don’t care enough'.

"Lorry drivers are to blame for a proportion of it… they’ll put their rubbish in a bag – and then throw the knotted bag out of the window.

"The problem with litter is people’s attitude. 

"I’ve seen people drop litter with a bin about a foot away. We’ve become a race of lazy people.

"Most people regard lorry drivers as the lowest of the low. We’re not wanted wherever we go, and we have no say in where they put us.

"If you give us some decent facilities, we might use them.

"I’m not going to let this one go."

Research from 'Keep Britain Tidy' suggests that people throw litter from their cars because they feel they will not be seen and won’t be caught.

So they do it, because they think they can get away with it!

Alan Adcock from Essex isn’t prepared to just sit and do nothing.

He’s one of a growing number of people who go it alone and pick up other people’s rubbish.

A roadside resident's view…

Alan is 71 and picks litter from the road outside his house two or three times a week.

Alan Adcock: "I really detest it."

He claims that the council litter gang won’t do his stretch because it’s too dangerous without traffic lights. 

"I simply can’t bear to see it, and I only live 10-15 paces from the road so I can see it from my house. 

"I just hate it. I know how dangerous it is for animals. 

"Plastics and balloons can blow into fields, and then the animals eat it and you’ll end up with a big vet bill. 

"It’s really destructive

"There’s more of it now, and none of it rots away. 

"It’s cans and plastics, which just sit there.  I just don’t understand the mentality of it. 

"I really detest it."

'Don’t be a Tosser'

In 2008 BBC Radio Suffolk ran a campaign to tackle roadside litter.

One of the nastier items - an 'amber bottle'

'Don’t be a Tosser' was a big success and now the council has to team of three people who regularly clean up rubbish.

One of the nastier finds are so called 'amber bottles' – bottles full of urine that have been thrown out of the windows of passing trucks.

Sadly the message just doesn’t seem to get through to lots of people.

Take your litter home!

The manager of one service station where we were filming told our crew that he picks the rubbish up himself every week. 

But two days later the litter is back - just as bad as before. 

The solution is so simple… if we all just took our rubbish home or put it in a bin!