TRASH TALKING

Clearing up the rubbish epidemic plaguing our trails is going to take more than just litter picking – we need a sea change in how to respect the countryside

- Julia Hobson

It’s late one spring evening and the last rays of the sun’s light are filtering through tall trees in an old woodland, lighting up carpets of bluebells on the forest floor. A perfect ribbon of singletrack snakes its way through the hazy blue ocean of flowers. On the surface it couldn’t sound more idyllic to us as riders… but the reality, as ever, is that all is not as it seems.

Hidden just out of sight beneath nature’s carpet is an underlay of human trash; old plastic bottles, crisp packets, drinks cans and no doubt a recently discarded disposable mask.

Let’s face it, this could be a scene from any trail in the UK right now. Many of us are guilty of riding through without even really noticing this litter. But why? It’s not because we don’t care. Have we stopped seeing it because we’re so used to it being there? Or have we become depressed into inaction by the scale of the planet’s trash problem?

A SPRING (NOT-SO) CLEAN

Those of us who are riders, runners and outdoor enthusiasts watched the natural world thrive this spring as wildlife returned to tourist-free cities, air pollution dropped to the lowest levels seen in decades, and many of us had the rare opportunity of enforced time at home to get outside and take advantage of watching the season unfold in our local areas. Stopping mid-ride to smell the wild garlic, witnessing the hedgerows turning increasingly green, and hearing birdsong fill the air. Despite the sense that the world was in complete turmoil, nature was there to remind us that life goes on.

It seemed that more people than ever were outside enjoying nature and finding a new passion for the outdoors on bikes and on foot.