One reader has been collecting litter in order to highlight just how much of it we drop.

Listening to all the concerns expressed about the state of our environment and the food industry being blamed for most of the problems caused by waste packaging, I saw and heard no mention was made of who is responsible for dropping litter.

MORE: Hellesdon High School pupil nicknamed 'trash girl' by bullies refuses to stop collecting litterThis is not left by retailers or manufacturers but by a sizeable and thoughtless minority of the public.

To underline this, I did a litter collection of about a quarter of a mile covering the grass verges close to my village. The evidence of this is shown in the picture. Most can be attributed to drivers and passengers because hardly any pedestrians use the road.

Whether litter is in urban or rural areas, the people who leave it have no thought of the cost, its unsightly impact or the harm it can cause.

Enforcement of anti-litter laws is either non-existent or completely impracticable. Draconian fines might have some effect but, in my view, unless there is a fundamental shift in people's 'don't care' attitude and behaviour towards litter, little will change.

MORE: Norfolk Waste Partnership to explore local recycling optionsTough and meaningful ways are needed to tackle the problem, as is the case in other forward thinking countries, otherwise Britain will remain one of the dirtiest and most litter-ridden of the world's advanced nations.