Why do people Litter?

[ChadTower]

You don't get those piles in states that have a refund.

When we were kids, in MA, two liter bottles were a dime.  It was so much better then for the deposit, even the nickel was worth getting, you could actually buy something with it.

[RayB]

I don't understand why all states don't have the bottle & can refund. We had it in Quebec since at least the70's. Kids and the homeless end up cleaning up the streets and gutters "for free". I scrounged up much of my arcade and candy money this way!

[BobA]

The bottle and can deposit on BEER bottles is 10 cents in Alberta Canada,  On pop it is only 5 cents.   I think this helps alot in keeping some of the bottles and cans from littering the roads.   It does not help with slurpy cups and starbucks cups which are all over the place.

[ChadTower]

I think some states won't do it because of the mess the homeless/kids leave when they're looking through dumpsters and bins.  In some areas, in the morning, you'll find half of them dumped and not put back.

[Donkey_Kong]

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

    * California (5 cents; 10 cents for bottles 24 fl oz or greater), implemented in 1987 and increased 25% in 2007
    * Connecticut (5 cents), 1980
    * Delaware (5 cents), 1982
    * Hawaii (5 cents), 2005
    * Iowa (5 cents), 1979 (also applies to wine bottles)
    * Maine (5 cents, also applied to fruit juice and bottled water; 15 cents for some wine bottles), 1978
    * Massachusetts (5 cents), 1983
    * Michigan (10 cents), 1978 (beer bottles were 5 cents until the 1980s)
    * New York (5 cents), 1982
    * Oregon (5 cents), 1972
    * Vermont (5 cents), 1973

11 states != "the us"

MICHIGAN!!

[SavannahLion]

I met one old school smoker who didn't litter. After puffing out the cig', this guy unrolled the cig' and dumped out the remaining tobacco, then he rolled the paper up in a tight ball and stuck it in his pocket. He smoked filterless. I asked him about it, apparently there was a time when throwing cigarettes on the ground was considered taboo or something. So a lot of men made sure their cigs were compacted as small as possible before discarding them.

I guess the introduction filtered cigs changed all that. 

[ChadTower]

When I was little there was this woman in our apt complex that was mean to all the kids.  I used to gather up butts from the gutter and dump them under her bedroom window.  Then I'd knock on it and run away.  She called the cops and told them someone was stalking her and peeping in her windows all day.

[SavannahLion]

And, typical of everything down there, you'd have to make 4 trips to the place before it was open.  And then when it was open, they wouldn't have any money or the machine would be broken.

In California, there's very few "permanent" recycling locations. Most are mobile, moving from parking lot to parking lot every two or three months. It's usually not worth bringing one bag to get the money swo most people save up. By the time you get enough bottles and cans just to pay for the gas, the ---smurfing--- recycling center moved.

And you never get cash. It's a printed check they hand you. Doesn't do a fat lot of good for the homeless guy.

BTW, the only permanent location I'm aware of is about three blocks from a homeless shelter, the only one I know of that actually hands out cash, and usually has a line twelve deep.