Litter warning after 50-year-old crisp packet find in Rotherham

BBC News

30-05-2025

A man who found crisp packets thought to be more than 50 years old buried in a hedge has urged people to remember that litter can take a lifetime to break down.Neil Collett, 53, found the crisp bags near Redscope Primary School in Rotherham when he was picking up litter on 24 May.He said he was shocked to find the packet of Smiths crisps advertised a promotion that ended on 28 March 1975 - a date before he had even started primary school."Any litter is always good to get off the street but the thought that I found such an old piece of rubbish, it was one of shock," Mr Collett said.
Mr Collett, who founded volunteer group S61 Litter Pickers four years ago, said the age of the intact crisp packets was "scary"."Straight away, I took a photo of the crisp packet because I knew it was vintage," he said."You might think you're just dropping a crisp packet, but it's going to outlive you."He said he felt it was morally wrong to drop litter and urged people to consider the impact."Think about what you're doing," he said."We've only got one planet. Just think of the consequences."
Environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy warned that plastic waste could take a long time to break down."Sadly, finding packaging that is decades old is an all-too-familiar thing for our litter-picking volunteers," a spokesperson for the organisation said."Litter, once in the environment, can pollute it for decades or even centuries."Plastics, in particular, don't just 'disappear'. They may break up into smaller and smaller pieces over time but they will still be there, ending up as microplastics."
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