Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
The Litterpluggers of Haringey
Thanks to Dan McQuillan this morning for sharing on Twitter a link to this blog on the practice of litter plugging.
Okay you could argue that's it's just litter but it's a common sight in London to see holes, empty receptacles, backs of cabinets, tiny spaces etc used as 'pop-up' waste bins to borrow a fashionable phrase. This has led me to speculate often with my fellow student of littering ethnography Alan Stanton on the thinking behind it. Click photos to view some of our discussions.
Why go to the trouble to wedge it, shove it behind or perch it neatly?
Why not just throw it down? Is there a little voice that says, "yes I know I should take this to the rubbish bin but, [to quote the blog linked to], 'it's not littering if it ain’t touchin’ the ground! ' "
Some litter pluggers seem to go to some length to create their litter installation:
With others we can perhaps glimpse the lateral thinking behind their choices. Here's two of my personal favourites. Do you see what they've done there? Genius!
Of course this isn't a London problem...the that's not a trash can, now it is mentality is a global human phenonema.
Tags for Forum Posts: litter
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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A friend of mine back in NZ super-glued a beer can to a very high tower one night. We used to super glue beer cans to letter boxes mostly so this was seen as high art by the people who several years later tasked with painting the tower, painted over the beer can too. We didn't see it as littering, and we were quite fastidious about that.
I wish the council would just accept that and put a handful of those big bins out on Green Lanes. I know they'd get filled up with builders waste now and then (I've seen builders early in the morning emptying stuff into other people's skips) but the situation would be far better for everyone else.
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