Whenever I see someone driving along a road, open their window and throw some litter out, I could quite easily drive them off the road, drag them out of their car and beat them unconscious. Without any hesitation. Setting their car on fire would just be the next natural step.

Trouble is, it wouldn't do any good. There are far too many people out there with the attitude "out of sight, out of mind" who simply don't care. Like a baby who throws a toy out of the pram, once someone throws an empty crisp packet out the window, it ceases to exist in their mind. It's no longer their problem. "Someone else will sort it out".

Now I see a great deal more of the countryside than most as I spend a lot of time walking around taking photographs and have had many a summer's day covering miles on my mountain bike. So when people throw out plastic bottles, crisp packets or plastic bags full of rubbish out, I know that it eventually finds its way all over the place. Stuck in ditches, up against walls or fences, wrapped in tree roots, it ends up anywhere and everywhere. It looks terrible and I can only guess what these synthetic products do the the environment. It makes me sick.

Although to be fair sometimes they make for interesting photos (as above). But if you take a long term view of it, I wonder what the countryside will look like in 50 years time. The throw-away society we seem to be a part of is still relatively new, but I don't see it disappearing any time soon. It's not going to be pretty if things carry on the way they are. I just wish people would take pride in the planet on which they live – it's my planet too.