It's frustratingly common to see litter scattered in the woods while enjoying time in nature — but for one visitor to England's Peak District National Park, the garbage was on a whole new level.
"I thought I was in the Peak District, but somehow I've ended up at Glastonbury the day after the Festival's finished and all the litter needs to be picked up," YouTuber MatthewMakingMemories (@matthewmakingmemories) joked wryly in a video.
As he walks, he pans the camera across several overflowing bags of garbage and loose items. "I can only assume this is the result of some sort of litter-pickup operation, which is great; however, this is all being collected from these woods," he says. "What are people doing? They should be ashamed of themselves."
He goes on to showcase more "delights," including beer bottles everywhere, the remnants of an illegal fire, several opened containers of raw meat (and some unopened ones), various plastic food wrappers, and more.
"I'm lost for words," he said.
In his caption, he wrote, "This kind of behaviour is entirely unacceptable. How would they feel if we all turned up at their house and littered and set up camp fires."
He also points out that the consequences of this littering aren't just aesthetic. "These kind of people are ignorant to the consequences of their actions. This kind of littering can have serious consequences to the natural habitat," he wrote. "Illegal Campfires can easily get out of control and devastate entire landscapes."
He's not wrong. In the U.S., the National Park Service has estimated that almost 85 percent of wildland fires are human-caused, per Leave No Trace.
This is an expensive issue to have. It costs approximately $3 billion per year for the U.S. to fight wildfires; in the U.K., the estimated total economic cost of wildfires in 2020 was £12 billion, according to a U.K. government website.
Additionally, litter is unsightly and can leach toxins into the environment. The Peak District, where the video was captured, writes on their website: "There is no formal requirement on the National Park Authority to provide public litter bins (including general and dog waste) and associated litter collection services."
Instead, they encourage that "in line with responsible behavior from those who enjoy the Peak District, we expect all visitors to 'take home what they bring'."
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