Keep America Beautiful (www.kab.org) released the results of its litter study, the largest ever conducted in the US and the first of its kind in 40 years. Details of the study can be found here —so I won’t go into any depth here other than to whet you appetite with some of its significant findings:
Litter conservatively costs our nation $11.5 billion per year. These are direct costs, including cleanup and prevention programs, and are carried largely by businesses and taxpayers. Not included in this figure are significant indirect costs:
* Cigarette butts comprise 38% of all items littered on the highways, streets, parks and playgrounds (in urban, suburban, and rural areas of America).
* People matter. Most littering observed in the study—81%—was committed “with intent” by the individual, and was mainly attributable to lack of individual awareness or sense of obligation.
* Context matters. 15% of all littering can be attributed to context. The strongest contextual contributor to littering is the prevalence of existing litter. Other contextual variables affecting litter are the number of trash or ash receptacles present, and the distance between receptacles.
* Age matters. Older individuals (30 and over) littered less than younger individuals, but gender was surprisingly not related to litter rates.
I received KAB’s news release on the Tuesday following thanksgiving, and as I was taking my noontime constitutional walk, I was startled by a missile about the size of a cigarette pack zinging past my nose into the prickly bushes separating the sidewalk from a small shopping center. In fact it was a cigarette pack, and even before I confronted the slinger, I barked out in my best all-caps, Marine Corps parade-ground voice, “PICK IT UP!!”
Then turning my full attention to the miscreant, I found myself face-to-chest with a mid-thirties monster-man taking a break from a street construction job. “Oops,” I thought, but seeing that he was as startled as I by the unexpected confrontation, I decided to tough it through. For what seemed like an eternity—in actuality only a second or two—we faced each other in silence, enough time to suspect I might be next to get tossed into the bushes, but then he shrugged, pushed past me, snatched the offending object from its prickly roost, and casually flicked it into a trash receptacle 20 feet away next to the parking lot entranceway. It was an admirable three-pointer he could have done to begin with.
What can we do about the situation?
* Well, we could all go around barking at litterers, but I don’t recommend it anywhere but in the most benign of situations…and even then where there’s a handy escape route.
* We could recruit and deploy an army of litter brownshirts to knock heads and drag offenders off to the pokey.
* We could ban cigarettes and candy along with all packaging materials, promotion flyers, and newspapers, but I suspect that inveterate litterers would find other materials to take their place…so what’s left?
* We could fund an anti-litter education program—but, without fangs, I’m not sure it will get the attention of those most apt to do the littering.
The one area that seems to offer some hope is that of context…specifically targeting known pigsties for cleanup and increasing trash and cigarette-butt receptacles in heavily frequented areas. But those don’t do much for motorists who can’t stand dirtying their ashtrays.
So is there something you have done that’s made a difference? How about sharing your success story with us? That’s where every litter bit can truly help.