I lead a litter-picking group, but I will always defend litterers. This is why | Leila Taheri

If any anger is justified, it should be directed at those who create our throwaway culture and make people's lives a misery

Rubbish seems to be everywhere you look. As one of the leaders of a community wetlands group in north-west London, I've witnessed a cormorant diving into a bobbing flotilla of plastic, shores made up of plastic and a heron starving to death due to red nylon tangled around its beak.

Last month, a new disease caused solely by plastics was discovered in seabirds. And in February, our group, Friends of the Welsh Harp, removed four tonnes of rubbish from a river and the surrounding woodland. Our rivers are not only open sewers, they're also open dustbins that lead to the sea.