HUNDREDS of bags overflowing with human poo, soiled adult-sized nappies and plastic bottles filled with wee lie piled up in a stinking heap.
But this isn’t a rubbish dump – it’s one of hundreds of British motorway lay-bys that truck drivers use to relieve themselves during long road trips.
Shockingly, a tonne of human poo is left on roadsides across the UK every day – and it’s the job of highway patrol men like Calum and Clive – who feature in this week’s Grime and Punishment – to clean it up.
“I’ve been here two years and while at the start it was a bit disgusting, you get used to it,” says Calum. “I’m just not allowed home in my work uniform.”
And while it may seem gross to us, it’s all in a day’s work for these poo pickers.
As Calum and Clive pull into their first lay-by of the day, they’re immediately met by the stench of the poo that fills the ditches at the side of the road.
Pointing to a collection of scattered tissues, Calum explains: “They [the drivers] just have a poo down there and put tissues to cover it up and just leave it there. It’s disgusting.”
A few paces later, he stumbles across multiple drinks bottles filled with wee – which he says is commonly chucked out the windows of truck drivers completing long journeys.
“We’ve got a bit of humane excrement here,” exclaims Clive, pointing to a poo on the pavement.
“I was quite horrified the first time I saw one because lay-bys were something I’d never stopped in before,” says Clive as he inspects the mess. “Now, it’s an everyday occurrence.”
He uses a large brush and water to wash it away – but the same can’t be said for all of the waste the pair find.
“Instead of stopping to go to the toilet, some people are pooping in nappies and then they throw those out the window,” says Calum as he spots an adult-sized diaper and scoops it into a big bag.
“And here, someone’s had a poo in a bag and chucked it out.”
Moving on to the next lay-by just a mile away, the team find even more human waste – some not even in bags.
Clive finds a large pile of human diarrhoea that has been left by a driver, which he has the task of picking up with a shovel and putting into a plastic bag.
“Human excrement again,” he says. “If excrement is left in the lay-by, other people see it and they feel it’s acceptable to do this when it’s not, so we have to clean it. It is grim.”
“It’s disgusting really,” says Calum. “Some people have to stop here to have their lunch break and they’ve got to come here with the smell of people’s wee.”
Clearing up the last of the poo bags, Clive explains that the pair can easily find up to three quarters of a tonne of rubbish every day when patrolling this stretch of road.
“I’m sure if I looked harder I would find plenty more,” he adds. “If one person leaves a bag of poo, other people think it’s okay, so we have to keep on top of it.”
Piling their rubbish bags onto the truck to take back to the dump, the hardworking duo assess their finds for the day: beer cans, general litter, bottles of wee and of course, lots of poo.
“It’s been a good day,” concludes Clive. “Only because I haven’t stepped in anything.”
Grime and Punishment is on Channel 5 on Thursday at 8pm.
