Why do people Litter?

[Raleigh]

Seriously, what causes people to just not give a crap and just toss their trash on the ground or out their car window?

When I was living back in the suburbs of Columbus I would just get pissed off at the occasional dog droppings in my yard by degenerate dog owners who neglected to pick up after their pets.  Now I'm living out in the country and there is so much garbage in my front ditch from people tossing out their bottles, cans, drive through bags...  I was cutting the grass the other day and I fully expect to see all the trash there, but as I made a swipe around (I'm set off a ways from the road so it's like a 15 minute circle) there was fresh trash where I just cut and there isn't a lot of traffic that travels on my road.

I can understand (but not agree with) the beer and other alcohol bottles/cans that I find, but at most that makes up about 25% of what I find, the rest is the run of the mill soda/juice cans/bottles and other food wrappings/containers.

Do they learn that from their parents or what?  I unfortunately eat a lot of fast food and other crap in my car but I've never once had the urge to toss out my trash, I wait until I get home or to my destination to get rid of my waste or at times have excess trash in my car.  More than once I've had friends (college graduates, and what I consider respectable members of society) who were going to toss ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of my car and I've had to tell them to toss it in the back or on the floor.

Rant over.

[bfauska]

I don't know the answer but I too wonder... WTF!!!! how hard is it use the trash can and/or just respect your surroundings? Do these people live surrounded by filth, the only reason I can picture them being like this is that they don't mind the mess it leaves.

I'll make this next part clear so the auto sensor can clean it up if necessary.

---uvulas---, what is your ---smurfing--- problem?  Are you too ---smurfing--- stupid to be bothered by this, or do you live in a pile of ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- so that it seems natural too you.

Some people are just ---meecrobs---.

[Singapura]

Since I live in Singapore I notice littering a lot more.  Here you get a $500 fine if you so much a throw a tissue on the streets. Chewing gum is completely illegal and if you spray graffiti you get caned 

[danny_galaga]

hard as it is to believe in the west, there is a cultural aspect as well. for instance, i was walking down the street with my neighbour one time. we had just bought something to eat from a service station. when he had finished drinking he threw the glass bottle on the ground. he is from Congo. he is a devout christian, well educated and was a public servant. i told him that we shouldnt throw stuff on the ground here and he was quite surprised and embarrassed!

that doesnt excuse all those slobs who live here who ARENT from the congo though...

[jbox]

There's somethin' rotten here (say what?)
You better hold your nose, oh (uh, uh, uh, uh)
(Hey, you disgusting slob, you better take the trash out)
Oh, boy there's a lot in here (a lot)
And every day it grows (uh, uh, uh, uh)
(Hey, you disgusting slob, you better take the trash out)
Make ya wanna throw up

[Thenasty]

I have lived in a country that constantly thow garbage on the street, they (name of country not mentioned for a reason) treat the entire Earth as a BIG GARBAGE CAN (not to mentioned pissing anywhere, hope thats not enough a clue to give away what country it is    ). But thankfully, I moved out on time and did not inherit that disgusting habit.

[danny_galaga]

I have lived in a country that constantly thow garbage on the street, they (name of country not mentioned for a reason) treat the entire Earth as a BIG GARBAGE CAN (not to mentioned pissing anywhere, hope thats not enough a clue to give away what country it is    ). But thankfully, I moved out on time and did not inherit that disgusting habit.

london isnt a country dude

[cdbrown]

The reason for littering in London is there isn't many rubbish bins around.  When the IRA were all about putting bombs in bins, the government got rid of them all.  They have been coming back, but you could easily walk around for 20minutes and not see one.  However, they do have a lot of street cleaners there to sweep up the rubbish and take it away.  Most tube stations have no rubbish bins at all but instead have a littering point on the platform where people just chuck the rubbish on the ground.  To me it doesn't feel right doing it though.

[danny_galaga]

The reason for littering in London is there isn't many rubbish bins around.  When the IRA were all about putting bombs in bins, the government got rid of them all.  They have been coming back, but you could easily walk around for 20minutes and not see one.  However, they do have a lot of street cleaners there to sweep up the rubbish and take it away.  Most tube stations have no rubbish bins at all but instead have a littering point on the platform where people just chuck the rubbish on the ground.  To me it doesn't feel right doing it though.

and the pissing is because...

 

[ChadTower]

I live on a main road and it always disgusts me how much trash people toss out of their cars.  When we moved in my roadside bushes were about 4' high and people would actually chuck their crap over the sidewalk and my bushes into my yard.  That takes intent and effort.  At first I thought it was just me being targeted but I asked the neighbors and they said the whole street gets it.  A couple of times I'd hear a bang on the side of the house to find that someone had chucked a beer bottle 25' from a moving car and off the side of my house.  I have to go out twice a week and pick up all the fast food trash, beer cans/bottles, coffee cups, cigarette packs, and occasionally have to get the rake out to snare a condom without touching it. 

Our bushes are now about 13' high and the trash doesn't make it over them anymore but I still have to pull it out of them since they fill up with trash after a while.

[cdbrown]

The reason for littering in London is there isn't many rubbish bins around.  When the IRA were all about putting bombs in bins, the government got rid of them all.  They have been coming back, but you could easily walk around for 20minutes and not see one.  However, they do have a lot of street cleaners there to sweep up the rubbish and take it away.  Most tube stations have no rubbish bins at all but instead have a littering point on the platform where people just chuck the rubbish on the ground.  To me it doesn't feel right doing it though.

and the pissing is because...

 

Ahh that's because you can pretty much drink alcohol in public spaces as long as you aren't making a nuisance of yourselves (except in Westminster which is the city centre).  Drink on buses, trains, in the park, walking on the street.  So with all that extra drinking.... I leave you to join the dots.

I personally haven't seen people pissing everywhere, no more than any other city that's for sure.

[patrickl]

I had an office in Amsterdam where people lived above it (4 stories apartment building). They would actually toss their garbage bags off their balcony. When they ate nuts they would simply toss the shells down. Well the whole neighbourhood was a dump, but still. Actually the whole of Amsterdam is a dump

[shmokes]

The only time I visited Amsterdam the garbage workers were on strike.  So I came out of the train station, which is right at the end of a (the?) main road, and every fifteen feet or so there was an enormous, stinky pile of trash, maybe 6 - 10 feet tall.  It was pretty nasty.  Once off the main road, though everything was pretty much fine.  Dunno what they were all doing with their garbage.  Beautiful little city.  And bicycles are free there.  You can simply steal one off of any corner and go wherever you need to go.  By the time you come out, someone will already have stolen it from you, forcing you to steal another one..  It seems to be a pretty efficient system, and it keeps things fresh.

[ChadTower]

  So I came out of the train station, which is right at the end of a (the?) main road, and every fifteen feet or so there was an enormous, stinky pile of trash, maybe 6 - 10 feet tall.

I call BS on this.  I've never seen a 10 foot hooker.

[patrickl]

Lol. Yeah that garbage worker strike was pretty bad. Don't think it lasted that long even. Thought it was only a week. People were supposed to hold onto their garbage for a week. Most people did, but probably the companies on the street from Central Station couldn't since they produce so much garbage. Also depends if you have a garden I guess. The people with a balcony are used to just tossing it down 

I was showing some people around Amsterdam a few weeks ago and I have to say that at least they got rid of most of the flying rats (also called pigeons)

[tommy]

Florida is rather clean, atleast in ft lauderdale where i live. Maybe i do not get a chance to see garbage on the ground because our city workers are very fast to get it up.

[boykster]

Seattle on the whole is pretty clean, but there are ALWAYS bad apples, and it drives me nuts.  Heck, a couple of years ago there was a charity that included a leg through our neighborhood.  My wife and I were on our deck having breakfast, watching the people walk by.  there were 2 ladies walking by the house, drinking their iced mochas or whatever, and one of them finishes her drink and simply chucks her cup in our yard.   

I don't know what the walk was for, but it would be  ironic if it was an earth day, or other environmental cause.......

[ChadTower]

That's when you go grab it, follow her down the street, and make her take it back.  And then when she gets hoity you throw it at her.  That's when she'll notice you refilled it with a brick.

[RayB]

Some people are lazy ---smurfs--- with inflated senses of entitlement.

[boykster]

That's when you go grab it, follow her down the street, and make her take it back.  And then when she gets hoity you throw it at her.  That's when she'll notice you refilled it with a brick.

Oh, don't worry, my wife went  ballistic and started yelling at her....she'd have chased her down teh street if she wasn't still in her robe.....

[SavannahLion]

The whole throwing trash on the ground thing is kind of weird. It's not so much that people do it wherever, I see a lot of kids do it. It's the idea that people do it then throw a fit when they see someone elses trash. (Not saying OP does that.)

I lived in the heart of four ski resorts. Trash is a HUGE problem, especially in the spring time. A lot of people throw their crap on the snow, more snow covers it, then more people throw their crap on top, then by spring we have a huge pile of garbage to deal with. Generally, resorts focus on picking up visible trash on the snow, but not the trash that appears after spring melt. So spring clean up is usually left to the local residents.

The lodge with the most trash every year is exclusive to "America's oldest, largest, and most effective environmental organization". Members will throw a ---fracking--- hissy fit if any other lodge dare have a soda can lying on the bike path, but their lodge will be surrounded with everything from junked mattresses (why they have at least one mattress out on the snow leaves something to the imagination), forgotten sleeping bags, hundreds of Red Bull cans, powerbar wrappers, and Cheez-ITS boxes.

[tommy]

Heh, what the hell. I was done with that icecream rapper anyway.

If you have anything to toss out make sure you do it anywhere but on my lawn. Isn't that the attitude normally.

[BobA]

I did a trash pick up thing a couple times.  "Buck a bag" deal.

One year, we went to the last 'major' exit off the highway.  You drove on the left there, in an American car, so you made a right turn across 2 lanes.  People would toss their drink out the window as they turned there.

Anyway, about a dozen of use picked up **36** 30 gallon bags of beer bottles.  I've never seen so many beer bottles in my life, and we didn't even make a huge dent in the pile.  80% of the bottles were Heineken (which was cheap down there).  Now, I used to buy a Heineken at the gas station and drink it on my way down the highway, but it never occurred to me to throw it out the window at that turn (which I took to see my girlfriend).

The next year, we did the field next to a strip club.  oh man.... g-strings, a high heel, costume jewelry, a mattress hidden in the bushes, along with thousands of Heineken bottles.

Isn't there a refundable deposit on Heinekin bottles where you are?   Piles of beer bottles would not be around for a day where I am with the deposti set at 10 cents a cab or bottle.  The guys that live out of a shopping cart would have them gone pretty fast.

Anyway back to the original question.  They litter because they were taught no manners and no respect for their country or city.  It usually goes back to the parents and they obviously did a piss poor job.

[AtomSmasher]

Anyway, about a dozen of use picked up **36** 30 gallon bags of beer bottles.  I've never seen so many beer bottles in my life, and we didn't even make a huge dent in the pile.  80% of the bottles were Heineken (which was cheap down there).  Now, I used to buy a Heineken at the gas station and drink it on my way down the highway, but it never occurred to me to throw it out the window at that turn (which I took to see my girlfriend).

Does anyone else find it disturbing that many people are drinking and driving to create such a pile of beer bottles?  Seems like littering is the least of the problems in your town.

[Ed_McCarron]

My pet peeve is that smokers don't seem to consider flicking a butt out the window littering.  My wife would never toss a soda can out the window, why is a cigarette OK?

I've seen tons do that.

[Donkey_Kong]

Well I hate it when people throw trash out there window too.

My wife says the Earth is an ashtray, she's right. Have you ever looked down at a busy left handed turn lane, on a red. Do it sometime. But they aren't limited  to just there either.

This isn't a bag on smokers either. I used to puff on 'em. I ain't had one in like 6 or 7 years and I know I used to chuck my buts anywhere and  everywhere. I promise if  ver take up puffing again (but i won't) I will not throw my buts randomly out the car window etc...The result is mighty disgusting, specially in high traffic areas.

[leapinlew]

[patrickl]

I will not throw my buts randomly out the car window etc...The result is mighty disgusting, specially in high traffic areas.

I have also seen piles of cigarettes on parkings. From people cleaning their car ashtrays out. What's the point of putting it in an ashtray if you throw out the whole ashtray anyway?

On the other hand, I heard that several Porsche Boxsters (the "cheap" convertible Porsche) went up in flames because people threw their cigarettes out the window and they got caught in the air intake in the back and from their into the engine (it's rear engined car) So throwing a cigarette out while driving might be dangerous in certain cars  

[shmokes]

Yeah . . . smokers bother me the most when it comes to littering.  They are incredible.  I've actually talked to smokers who "won't" litter, but they don't consider throwing cigarette butts on the ground littering.  WTF?  What kind of twisted reasoning can possibly produce results like that.  But, yeah, I've said for years that cigarettes should have a tax on them that goes directly into street sweeping.  For every smoker who doesn't litter there are probably 100 who don't think twice about tossing their trash on the ground.

[boykster]

Yeah . . . smokers bother me the most when it comes to littering.  They are incredible.  I've actually talked to smokers who "won't" litter, but they don't consider throwing cigarette butts on the ground littering.  WTF?  What kind of twisted reasoning can possibly produce results like that.  But, yeah, I've said for years that cigarettes should have a tax on them that goes directly into street sweeping.  For every smoker who doesn't litter there are probably 100 who don't think twice about tossing their trash on the ground.

the other option is to have a system for cig butts like for recycleable bottles.  Give each buck a nickel premium if it's returned to a collection center.  Even if the original smoker doesn't resist the urge to flip the butt, it would sure give kids and homeless people something to do 

[danny_galaga]

My pet peeve is that smokers don't seem to consider flicking a butt out the window littering.  My wife would never toss a soda can out the window, why is a cigarette OK?

I've seen tons do that.

yeah, and even worse is they dont consider it to be a fire hazard. many a time ive seen little fires burning in nature strips etc because of stupid smokers. and of course bush fires are often caused by these morons. i guess they dont want to get their ashtray dirty...

[danny_galaga]

  So I came out of the train station, which is right at the end of a (the?) main road, and every fifteen feet or so there was an enormous, stinky pile of trash, maybe 6 - 10 feet tall.

I call BS on this.  I've never seen a 10 foot hooker.

dunno, dennis cant be far off the mark...

[patrickl]

But, yeah, I've said for years that cigarettes should have a tax on them that goes directly into street sweeping. 

Another Amsterdam example again, but this time I think it might be a good idea. They want to make street vendors responsible for keeping an area of 25 meters around their place clean. There are a lot of fast food sellers who don't take care of their garbage bags and the customers end up littering the area around the shop. The city feels the seller should take care of the mess that's made.

[shardian]

Now, I used to buy a Heineken at the gas station and drink it on my way down the highway,

I guess I'm not the only one that isn't surprised by this comment.

[Thenasty]

NOt only Cigs, Bottles, Cups, Paper etc....seen on local main roads but, I have seen used CONDOMS as well in front of Churches and Pre-School/Kindergarden building.   

[ChadTower]

I guess I'm not the only one that isn't surprised by this comment.

I'm surprised you would bite on that.

Not sure where he was talking about but in the US the bottle deposit is 5 cents.  If it's not in a place (and many highways are like this) that you can get a shopping cart to with ease the bottle collectors wouldn't bother with it. 

[shardian]

I guess I'm not the only one that isn't surprised by this comment.

I'm surprised you would bite on that.

I just can't help myself - I'm like a fish to a big, fat worm.

[ChadTower]

That's why I specified "in the US".

The deposit is pretty much just a tax now anyway.  I know very few people who actually bother to return bottles for the deposit money. It's just not worth the effort, given how useless a nickel is now, and how much space it takes to store them.  Even a full trash bag is only a couple of bucks.  Woopty doo.

[ChadTower]

Yeah yeah.  Which of those 11 states aren't "in the US"?

[shardian]

I wish my state had a refund policy. I would have made mad cash as a kid just going to the park and filling up a few bags each week.