Quick & dirty facts about litter

What Is Litter?

While there is no universal definition for the term litter, several definitions have been given, which include:

• Litter is simply trash that is put in the wrong place
• Environmental degradation caused by human agents
• Originates from a common source, at a decision point, someone, somewhere, either thoughtlessly or deliberately mishandled waste

Litter can be classified as:

• Dangerous - syringes, broken bottles and glass
• Offensive - cigarette butts and condoms
• Unhygienic - animal droppings and food waste
• Environmentally Incompatible – long lasting items – such as, plastics, glass, Styrofoam, etc.

There are large litter items and there are small litter items; once litter is on the ground, it can then be blown about by the wind and traffic, or carried of by water, or animals; and possess further threats to the community and environment at large. Litter is not only an environmental problem, but also a social problem and an economic problem as well.

Litter is Everybody’s Problem!

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• Litter is harmful to animals; small animals crawl into bottles or jars and get stuck and slowly starve to death; animals get caught in plastic rings, bags and other throwaways and suffocate; animals get cut by glass and other sharp litter items; animals get sick and die from ingesting decaying litter items, etc.
• Litter kills aquatic life directly (IE. choking) and indirectly through its impact on water quality; when litter decays in water it can decrease oxygen levels in water; or introduces harmful bacteria into water systems, etc.
• Litter is harmful to people; particularly when it involves items such as broken glass, needles and syringes; litter can be a fire hazard (cigarette butts); vehicle accidents are cause by litter when drivers attempt to avoid litter on roadways; children fall on dangerous litter in parks / playgrounds.
• Litter reduces the aesthetic appeal of public places, including streets, parks and waterways.
• Litter weakens the community sense of pride and it encourages further anti-social behaviors (more littering).
• Litter is costly to clean up; litter can cause blockages of drainage systems and flooding – costing dollars to repair; houses in littered neighborhoods have depreciated property values, etc. 
   

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Who litters?

There is no known gender, age or class differentiation in littering behavior. And while there are “litter bug” stereotypes (singles, youth, etc), all sorts of people drop litter, and there are many reasons given as to why this might be. Some general reasons for littering include; ignorance of items being littered (cigarette butts) and lack of knowledge of environmental effects of littering, lack of bins or laziness to find bins, lack of social pressure or civic pride to not litter, absence of penalties or consistent enforcement, amount of litter already present at a place, the presence or lack of signage and anti-litter messages to help stop littering.
 

In reality, the community ranges from those who collect other people’s litter to those who willfully litter. In the middle are those who don’t care enough to overcome the inconvenience of finding a bin. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified five types of people with respect to litter:

• Non-litterers – environmentally conscious, don’t litter and usually pick up litter of others
• Inconvenients – too hard, too much trouble, someone else’s problem
• Ignorants – these people are simply unaware of a link between the environment and their litter behavior
• Willful Arrogants – usually litter in a context IE "it’s OK to litter in urban areas but not in the bush"
• Anti-establishments – make a statement with purposeful littering
   

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Other Social Attitudes & Reasons Why People Might Litter:
All different kinds of people drop litter, for an assortment of reasons given as to why this might be. Here are some of the excuses we have heard:

• Some people are simply are too lazy or can’t be bothered to find a bin
• Today we live in throw-a-way society, which fosters a ‘convenience attitude’
• There is far too much packaging being used, so much to throw out – it gets tedious.
• Some people have no sense of pride in their community
• There is a lack of environmental education among citizens
• Littering is tied to the poor parenting and inadequate instruction of waste behaviors to our young people
• If an area is already dirty, why should I bother to look for a bin?
• People don’t understand the consequences of littering (environmental impact)
• It’s not cool to use a bin (peer pressure)
• Some people think littering keeps someone in a job (isn’t that far from the truth)
• People aren’t aware that some items are litter eg. food, cigarette ends, chewing gum
• It’s OK to litter if no one can see you!
• It’s OK to litter if you are drunk!
• There aren’t enough trash bins
• The trash bins are in the wrong place
•  The trash bins aren’t emptied often enough
• The trash bins aren’t big enough
• The trash bins are not suitable for disposing of types of litter (dog mess or cigarette ends)
• The trash bins are dirty
• There aren’t enough fines for littering
• No one really gets punished (fined) for littering
• I can get away with it so why not?
• One person can’t make a difference
• There is too much litter, too big of a problem, why start caring?
• It’s rebellious and anti-authoritarian to litter (is it?) That makes me cool, right? Not!
• Everyone else litters – why shouldn’t I?
• I’m too busy to deal with my garbage
• I’m in a hurry and I can’t find a garbage bin fast enough so “tough beans”
• Fast food outlets don’t care about the litter associated with them
• It’s the Fast food outlets fault – they create too much garbage. They should be cleaning the mess.
• It isn’t my litter – why should I pick it up?
• The Council aren’t doing their job properly
• Someone should be played to clean up this mess, it’s not my responsibility.
• There are much worse things in the world to worry about than litter.
   

Litter is everyone’s problem! There is never an excuse!

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