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Tuesday, August 12, 2008, 08:44
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), which is headed by Mr Bryson, is calling for tough government action against litter and fly-tipping.
But local councils have said it is often difficult to prosecute offenders because of loopholes in the law.
Mr Bryson, author of the best-selling Notes from a Small Island, said that although fines for littering in 2007 reached £1.5m, the 2006-2007 cost of cleaning up the mess left behind by fly-tipping in England ran to £373m.
Despite the cost and scale of the problem, the CPRE said only 1,700 people were successfully prosecuted and almost half of the more than 43,000 fines went unpaid.
Mr Bryson told BBC News 24: "I think what's happened here is that people are leading different lifestyles.
"People are eating on the run now and increasingly dispensing of the packaging out of the car windows but we are clearing it up as if it was 25 years ago."
So what can we do about the problem of litter in our streets and countryside?
Should litterbugs face harsh penalties, even prison, for their deeds?
Or should we just accept it will happen and employ more stewards to collect the rubbish?
Have you seen litter dropped in an unsuitable, even dangerous place?
Use the form below to let us know...
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