Why Do People Litter?

[Wallo Tweed]

I have traveled all over the U.S. and one thing I find wherever I go is litter. Granted, I am an old fart and I was raised to believe that if you throw trash out of your car some one has to pick it up. So without making any accusations, I would like to ask why do people litter? What are they thinking when they do it?

[Post Toastie]

Maybe they are used to littering in the country they came from.

[R. Stratenstein]

They're lazy trash themselves, raised by trash who set a bad example and/or never taught them any better. Smokers are among the worst; they seem to think their butts and matches don't qualify as litter.

[Post Toastie]

I went to Mexico a few years back and there was trash all over the side of the road. When we pulled off on turnouts to take a break and enjoy the views , all we saw was debris dumped off the road into ravines that looked like a landfill.

[gitrhack]

Agree on the smokers.

I've started trying to make my little part of the world cleaner - I walk my dog twice a day, no matter what the weather. I have one bag to pick up after her and the other I pickup trash. The most common items.... Cigarette packs, cigarettes, slurpee cups and fast food bags/wrappers.

It's only about a mile round trip, but I'm hoping others see me picking up their crap and maybe they'll stop and think before throwing stuff out the window.

[tazzboy]

Originally Posted by R. Stratenstein

They're lazy trash themselves, raised by trash who set a bad example and/or never taught them any better. Smokers are among the worst; they seem to think their butts and matches don't qualify as litter.

I agree with Lazy Part

[TeleAnon]

I do it to make an Italian dressed as a Native American cry fake tears.



I also do it because that crap is never gonna boidegrade under the seat of my car.

[Telarkaster]

There's a reason why I hate the spring. The snow melts to reveal all the garbage that accumulated over the winter in the streets: fast food wrappers, newspapers, cigarette packs, broken glass, cans, etc... and dog doo.

A sub question to the OP's valid observation/query is why don't all dog owners pickup after their pets? Leaving it in a plastic bag for someone to pick up isn't cool either.

Pet peeve of mine: people who leave newspapers in the subway, thinking that someone else will pick it up to read. They just get scattered on the ground and block the doors.

I know the city removes a lot of garbage cans in the winter, but would it kill people to make an effort?

Rant off, it's a pretty easy thing to dislike...

[Bones]

Once a week, someone throws a bag of mcDonald's trash out of their car and into the street a couple blocks from my house, There's not a mcDonald's with in ten miles of here. If I ever see who is doing it, i will give them an ass beating.

[TeleTim911]

People who litter and get caught should have to do a day of roadside cleanup for punishment. They might change their minds out there picking up all that crap...diapers, empty soda/beer bottles or cans, cigarette packs, rotting fast food in bags, etc.

I have a trash bag in my car. No one in my car is allowed to throw anything out the window. If they do, I'll stop the car, make them get out, and pick it up. Just ask my grandson.

[R. Stratenstein]

Originally Posted by Bones

Once a week, someone throws a bag of mcDonald's trash out of their car and into the street a couple blocks from my house, There's not a mcDonald's with in ten miles of here. If I ever see who is doing it, i will give them an ass beating.

My house is apparently positioned in exactly the right position for losers to stop in at the local convenience store, buy a couple of lottery tickets, get back in their cars and start down my street, they scratch off the lottery tickets, and light up their last cigarette, by which time they're in front of my house, so out the window goes the losing lottery tickets and the cigarette pack. Oh, yeah, and I forgot to add, chug a can of malt liquor or tall-boy of cheap beer, and chunk the empty in my yard. That or a Mountain Dew bottle of snuff spit. disgusting. Burns me up, I have to be the trashman almost every day out in front of my house.

[Bones]

Originally Posted by TeleTim911

People who litter and get caught should have to do a day of roadside cleanup for punishment. They might change their minds out there picking up all that crap...diapers, empty soda/beer bottles or cans, cigarette packs, rotting fast food in bags, etc.

I have a trash bag in my car. No one in my car is allowed to throw anything out the window. If they do, I'll stop the car, make them get out, and pick it up. Just ask my grandson.

Years ago when I was working at a family run construction company (not my family) I was driving back to the shop with my boss' son and the son's BIL in the truck with me. The boss' kid decides to throw his empty soda can out the passenger window of the truck onto someone's front lawn as we were passing through a lower income neighborhood. I stopped the truck, backed up and sat there until the kid got out to pick up the can in front of a bunch of people who were none too happy with the disrespect he showed their property. The boy learned a good lesson that day.

[kingfish]

Beer cans on the moon...

[TJNY]

I live on a small dead end road. Kinda in the middle of nowhere. I find trash there all the time. Coffee cups, papers ect. I pick it up, take what I can to the dump with my recyclables. I would like to catch them as well. None of my neighbors seem to care. No one else going to pick it up. I don't mind all that much. It's just sad that it has to be this way.

[Colt W. Knight]

+1 on smokers and the lazy SOBs who throw their fast food trash out.

Another group that ticks me off is the drinking and driving A$$holes who check their bottles and cans out so they don't have open containers riding around with them.

[Breen]

You guys should have a policy exchange with my country and see how it could change your street view~

[Bones]

Originally Posted by Breen

You guys should have a policy exchange with my country and see how it could change your street view~

wut?

[adifferentbreed]

Some of us smokers carry portable ashtrays and don't throw our butts on the ground. Granted, not many of us, but some of us do. As far as the littering, I agree, some people are just pigs. I see it in the gulf as well while sailing, people just throwing trash overboard, it's truely disgusting.

[1293]

Originally Posted by R. Stratenstein

My house is apparently positioned in exactly the right position for losers to stop in at the local convenience store, buy a couple of lottery tickets, get back in their cars and start down my street, they scratch off the lottery tickets, and light up their last cigarette, by which time they're in front of my house, so out the window goes the losing lottery tickets and the cigarette pack. Oh, yeah, and I forgot to add, chug a can of malt liquor or tall-boy of cheap beer, and chunk the empty in my yard. That or a Mountain Dew bottle of snuff spit. disgusting. Burns me up, I have to be the trashman almost every day out in front of my house.

If you didn't live 1000 miles from me, I'd swear we were next door neighbors.

[1293]

Originally Posted by Bones

wut?

You'd get caned in his country.