Rubbish

[zexel]

Blimey I think some of you need a bit more excitement in your life to be worrying about a banana skin left at the side of the road.

 

[Chris.IOW]

I did the Walk the Wight last weekend, (It's a charity walk from one end of the Island to the other) About 10,000 people did it.

I started a bit later then planned so there were a fair few thousand people ahead of me, I was amazed at how little rubbish I saw along the route (and that includes banana skins and Apple cores). If that many walkers can keep things tidy I'm sure cyclists can as well.

 

[fossyant]

There are many sportives where people dump rubbish. What's the big deal to shove the wrapper in a spare pocket - i.e. the one without the food in, and chuck it in the bins at the next feed ?

I will drop a banana skin, but make sure it lands under a bush or out of sight so that it will be eaten.

 

[Svendo]

When I'm eating on the bike, I sometimes have to put the awkward triangle of wrapper from opening a bar down the bib or up the bottom seam of the shorts. This is in case I accidentally drop it trying to manouver it into a rear pocket with limited touch due to the gloves and/or waterproof and because I don't want to litter (or be seen to litter).

Is this a bit obessive?

 

[Chris.IOW]

Is this a bit obessive?

No, I think this is to be commended. Hope it doesn't chafe though!!

 

[Alun]

I saw somewhere that whilst most fruit biodegrades fast, banana skins take longer and cause a problem for a while :-(

And you might slip on them !

 

[PaulSB]

Woah, chill out! Re-read my post - I was talking about food. Specifically bananas skins, apple cores, scraps and leftovers.

So you wouldn't object if a passerby threw the remains of a sandwich into your garden?

 

[PaulSB]

The worst case of rubbish I've come across was last year's Ironman triathlon when the ride was held on parts of several of my local routes. For weeks the roads where littered with discarded green water bottles provided by the sponsors

 

[funnymummy]

My first Sportive this year was in March, we started late then my friends chain snapped, so by the time we finaly bcak on the road, we pretty much were right at the back of the pack.
I was shocked at the mess we saw, gel packs, wrappers, water bottles (Ok some bottles could have been dropped by accident - riders trying to get them back in while on move)
Food i'm not bothered about, as has been said it bio-degrades so provides a food source for other lifeforms. But the banana skins did annoy me, at least have the decency to throw them into the hedge not leave them mid road for some poor soul behind you to possibly skid on.
I have a bar bag, all my rubbish goes bcak into that then into the bin at the end.
My next sportive was in the New Forest, such a beautiful place, driving down the night before I had a thought "I hope they don't leave a mess like last time" I don't know if it was because the ride was held in a 'National Park' or just a different mindset of riders, but I only spotted a couple fo water bottles, lets hope next weeks is as tidy!

Also agree that organisers of big events have a responsibilty to clean up after their event and remove anything left by unscrupulous riders.

But that's just my opinon.!

And a valid one.. They do keep their eyes open when going round taking down markers at the end of the day(s) - Rumaging in hedges is such fun

 

[lukesdad]

The road that runs past our drive is hedgerowed so the buggers just wait for the gap and throw it down our drive

 

[Ian H]

Take a leaf out of John Warnock's book (Winner with 520 miles in last year's 24hr). He discarded no rubbish, tucked gel wrappers into the legs of his shorts to be collected by his team when he stopped.


...and he was actually racing.

 

[Norm]

Blimey I think some of you need a bit more excitement in your life to be worrying about a banana skin left at the side of the road.

Indeed, and I think the majority of the concern initially raised was about the plastics rather than the fruit skins, so let's not get too critical of others and read stuff that just wasn't written.

For me, I never chuck non-local stuff. Apples, for instance, are native fruit (or have become localised for the hyper-pedantic) and discarding them will generally benefit the local eco-system. Orange, banana, peach, pineapple don't grow round here and they won't benefit the environment much. That's why apple cores will be gone fairly quickly whereas banana skin and orange peel shrivels and dries.

As an aside, if a banana skin disappeared within a week, you've got rats (or foxes or possibly badgers but most likely rats, IMO).

 

[asterix]

So you wouldn't object if a passerby threw the remains of a sandwich into your garden?

At one point it was thought the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak was from a sandwich, but:

The consensus today is that the FMD virus came from infected or contaminated meat that was part of the garbage being fed to pigs at Burnside Farm in Heddon-on-the-wall. The garbage had not been properly heat-sterilized and the virus had thus been allowed to infect the pigs. Seeing as FMD virus was apparently not present in the UK beforehand and given the import restrictions for meat from countries known to harbour FMD, it is likely that the infected meat had been illegally imported to the UK. Such imports are likely to be for the catering industry and a total ban on feeding of catering waste containing meat or meat products was introduced early in the epidemic

 

[cyberknight]

I stuck all mine in my little saddle bag as i went along, i cant see the point in just throwing rubbish in the hedgerow for all the obvious reasons , would they do it in their own garden?
They have pockets FFS !!

Lazy sums it up .

 

[cyberknight]

"The consensus today is that the FMD virus came from infected or contaminated meat that was part of the garbage being fed to pigs at Burnside Farm in Heddon-on-the-wall. The garbage had not been properly heat-sterilized and the virus had thus been allowed to infect the pigs. Seeing as FMD virus was apparently not present in the UK beforehand and given the import restrictions for meat from countries known to harbour FMD, it is likely that the infected meat had been illegally imported to the UK. Such imports are likely to be for the catering industry and a total ban on feeding of catering waste containing meat or meat products was introduced early in the epidemic"

Are you sure it was not Spanish meat that a certain Bertie has been taking?