A cyclist's worst sin...

There are people who discard litter, and there are those who don't. It's not specific to a chosen means of transport.

edit - I'm shocked by the amount of crud you see on the side of the road tbh. If you drive up the A3 north of Guildford, it's just a constant stream of litter along the sides of the road. It's really quite sad.

Leviathan -

Most canisters I see around machester are actually nitrous/laughing gas - they are slightly smaller, usually painted grey and are not threaded. Intended for use in creamers, bought by kids for getting high.

The SIS gel wrappers discarded by the marathon runners around Sale and Altricham are annoying.

How many gel wrappers are being thrown away because people see the pros throw them away?

Mind you, the biggest litter round the country lanes where I live is lucozade sport and I reckon that's the local runners.

Discarded gel wrappers really annoy me. As fatbeggaronabike says, it's going to blow up at some point and be used as another stick to beat riders with. I don't understand being squeamish about sticking it back in your jersey pocket. Yes, it's sticky, but surely the jersey is going in the wash as soon as the gel eater gets home?

There is a campaign within clubs and event organisers on the continent to stamp the problem out, but I've seen nothing over here.

Can't honestly say I've ever seen a spent one on the road, and I would definitely recognise them as I use them myself. 

I do see loads of gel wrappers everywhere here in Edinburgh. Actually, everywhere in Scotland including (especially) the Highlands now. They should start making gels in some sort of quickly biodegrading packets as we're at a point where clearly masses of people don't give a toss and will just throw them on use, be it cyclists, runners, hikers or whoever.

The CO2 thing I don't understand. They don't get mucky like a spent gel does and you're not moving when using it. No-one likes putting a sticky spent gel back in their jersey pocket, which is what you have to do basically when you're on the move. Might be a dick move to throw a gel pack, but I can at least see the attraction.

Same with co2 there are a lot of people with punctures round the back of one of the community centres near here. I didn't realise it wasn't CO2 they used for a high and dont think they all do. My LBS has them in a screw top plastic jar on the counter and yes there is the impulse buy aspect but guess they're also there as will slip easily into a pocket.

Round my way you can tell when there's been a "sportive" event because the roads and verges are littered with gel wrappers. Many years ago the anti blood sports mob started a campaign of sorts against anglers using discarded line, bits of tackle and litter as a weapon/way of discrediting them, we have enough motorists and other assorted haters out there without giving them more ammo.

I agree with John Dory. For every 1 CO2 canister I've seen I must have seen a hundred nitrous canisters, if not more. Such is Bristol. 

Not sure where you're riding and seeing these, but don't confuse CO2 cartridges with Nitros Oxide (laughing gas) cartridges. There's a large nightclub near my place of work in Smithfield, London, and the area is littered with the little silver cylinders, especially after the weekend. Initially I wondered why so many cyclists were having punctures in such a relatively small area until I made the connection? How I laughed at my ignorance!