Seeing red over littering? Try yellow.

Bolton's environmental education and enforcement manager Andy Bolan and officer Alan Jones

In my opinion the residents of Bolton, UK are lucky indeed. Okay, not everyone would view with such a welcoming glance a lemon-yellow surveillance truck with "Anti-social behaviour" written on the side.

But in the view of this humble litter investigator and scribe, any place that's willing to tackle anti-social conduct with such zeal deserves a place in the Litterland Hall of Fame.

Litter doesn't diminish on its own. In fact it multiplies like an invasive species. 

Bolton takes the nip-in-bud strategy to environmental offences.  Did you know that the threat of being seen and the embarrassment of being caught are two powerful deterrents to all these unwanted behaviours?  

CCTV cameras?  Too bad they are needed.  With all due respect to privacy purists, this may be one instance where the overarching public good trumps the personal infringement argument.  I will leave it to others to debate this.  All I know is I am heartened every time I see a punctuated response to littering, dog-fouling, graffiti and dumping.  Not a one-off of sloganeering or political posturing and toothless laws, but a well thought out series of linked steps to bring the majority-held standard into effect.

You can read more about Bolton's approach in Crime Reporter Miranda Newey's piece in The Bolton News.

When one tries to push for holistic action on littering, the first instinct of those who could most help is to try to dismiss you as crazy.  While Bolton's bold posture fails to prove I'm not crazy, it sure gives legs to my advocacy for sustained responses to littering here at home.