how can we solve the littering problem

The Futility of Picking Up the Trash

Litter collection may not be doing enough to stall a vicious cycle of new trash. Data on littering suggests a better route may be to hold producers accountable. 

Cigarette butts have remained the most-littered item in the U.S.

Photographer: Win Cowger/University of California, Riverside

Littering continues to be a growing environmental concern: In 2020, 24 billion pieces of litter were found on U.S. roadways, and another 26 billion were picked up near waterways, according to the nonprofit Keep America Beautiful . These bits of polluting trash not only pose grave threats to wildlife; they also hurt neighborhoods by spreading diseases and bacteria, and degrading quality of life.

But existing policies to penalize illegal dumping and clean up what’s already on the ground may not be enough to end the vicious cycle of new litter.

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Reasons, Consequences and Possible Solutions of Littering

• National Plastic Waste Management Program
• The Amount of Plastic Waste Worldwide
• Seasonal Study of the Morphological Composition of Solid Municipal Waste in Shida Kartli Region
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Littering can be defined as making a place or area untidy with rubbish, or incorrectly disposing waste. Littering causes pollution, a major threat to the environment, and has increasingly become a cause for concern in many countries. As human beings are largely responsible for littering, it is important to understand why people litter, as well as how to encourage people not to litter. This paper explores the reasons and consequences of littering and suggests possible solutions based on international experience.

Why do people litter?

Laziness and carelessness have bred a culture of habitual littering. Carelessness has made people throw rubbish anywhere without thinking about the consequences of their actions. Many people do not realize or underestimate the negative impacts of littering on the environment. People believe that their individual actions will not harm society as a whole. As a result, it is common to see people throwing wrappers, cigarette butts and other rubbish in public areas. The majority of people believe that there are others who will clean up after them and consequently, the responsibility of cleaning up litter usually falls on local governments and taxpayers. Thus, the lack of responsibility to look after public places is another problem.

In Georgia, many residents living in urban areas blame the lack of public trash cans for widespread littering in the streets. Several studies have proven a correlation between the presence of litter in a given area and the intentional littering of that particular spot. [1] When a person sees litter accumulated in one place, it gives the impression that it is somehow acceptable to litter there. This, along with the absence of appropriate local waste services, might be one of the main reasons behind illegal dumping in Georgian villages.

Consequences of littering

Litter adversely affects the environment. Littering along the road, on the streets or by the litter bins, toxic materials or chemicals in litter can be blown or washed into rivers, forests, lakes and oceans, and, eventually can pollute waterways, soil or aquatic environments. Based on recent data, 7 billion tons of debris enter the world’s oceans annually and most of it is long-lasting plastic. [2] Litter also reduces air quality due to the smell and toxic/chemical vapor emanating from the trash. A polluted environment can encourage the spread of diseases. Toxic chemicals and disease-causing microorganisms in the trash may also contaminate water systems and spread water-borne diseases which can negatively affect the health of both animals and humans if unclean or untreated water is consumed.

Cigarette butts take a grand total of ten years to decompose because of cellulose acetate, contrary to the common perception that cigarette butts decompose very quickly in only a matter of days. [3] In reality, cigarette butts are a serious threat to the environment, as they contain toxic substances like arsenic which can contaminate soil and water.

Plastic litter is another threat to the environment and its inhabitants. It has often been mistaken for food by both land and marine wildlife. When consumed by animals, they reduce the stomach capacity since they cannot be digested. In the long-term it affects the animals’ eating habits, eventually killing the animals. Much of marine wildlife including birds, whales, dolphins and turtles have been found dead with plastic and cigarettes found in their stomachs. [4] An estimated 100,000 sea mammals are killed by plastic litter every year. [5] Some of the materials may also be poisonous or contain sharp objects therefore damaging the animal’s vital organs or severely injuring them. Another negative aspect of littering is that it is too expensive for a country, society and individuals. Cleaning up litter requires a huge amount of money that is financed by taxpayers that could be used in more productive ways. Littered places are visually displeasing and they depreciate the aesthetic and real value of the surrounding environments. Places with large amounts of litter are often characterized with homes and property that are less valuable as a result. Similarly, it affects tourism as it makes city areas and roadsides look disgusting and tourists tend to avoid staying and even visiting areas that are littered. Furthermore, littering can lead to car accidents. Some trash in the road is enough to create a dangerous situation that could result in serious injuries or death.

The ideal way to handle the problem of littering is for each member of society to take responsibility and try their best to properly dispose waste. If citizens are required not to litter, appropriate conditions must be provided by local governments. Measures must be taken by appropriate local authorities to ensure more garbage bins are installed in various areas for effective garbage disposal. Installing enough garbage bins in town centers, walking routes, public areas, and near bus stops as well as fast-food restaurants offer convenience in disposing and collecting litter. To avoid additional problems due to overfilling, the bins must be emptied regularly.

Unfortunately, the existence of garbage bins do not guarantee that waste will not be dropped in the streets. Enforcing strict litter laws will encourage people not to litter in private and public places. Such laws work towards prohibiting illegal dumping and littering.

According to research conducted by the 2011 Keep Britain Tidy campaign, attitudes concerning enforcement are greatly shaped by the degree to which an individual sees it as a threat and many do not think it is likely they will be fined for environmental offences. The same research also reports that people who have seen or heard about fixed penalty notices being issued are less likely to litter. [6]

Littering penalties and other enforcement measures are common practices worldwide. For instance, the penalty for the first case of littering consists of fines from $100 to $1000 and at least eight hours of community service litter cleanup in California. For subsequent offenses, fines and the duration of required community service increases. In Louisiana, intentional littering can result in a one-year suspension of your driver’s license or imprisonment for up to 30 days in addition to standard fines and community service. [7] According to the Code of Waste Management, adapted in 2015, penalties for dropping municipal waste in the street varies from 80 to 150 GEL in Georgia. The Department of Environmental Supervision, Ministry of Internal Affairs and the local self-governments are the responsible institutions responsible for executing the law and violators are fined systematically by the appropriate institution. However, authorities cannot fine someone unless they actually see them litter and it is impossible to control every street.

Undoubtedly, penalties have a real effect on littering behavior, but education and raising awareness is crucial in guaranteeing long-term results. Community clean up events can be an effective way for spreading anti-litter messages in society. The issue can also be incorporated in bulletin boards, TV programs, social media platforms, and newsletters in a more intensive way in order to spread the message widely. Furthermore, an  anti-littering sign might be placed in highly littered areas such as the streets near public transport stations. These signs serve to constantly remind people that littering is a bad thing that should be avoided.

Some people argue that not only penalties but rewards also might be a good idea. People “caught” doing the right thing may be given rewards like shopping vouchers and their positive disposal behavior publicized in the media or social networks to encourage others to dispose of litter properly. [8]

[1] What is Littering? Conserve Energy Future. Rachel Oliver.

[2] Walking Green: Ten Harmful Effects of Litter, Green Eco Services, Cathy, 2008.

[3] Twenty Astonishing Facts About Littering, Conserve Energy Future, Rinkesh, 2018.

[4] What is Littering? Conserve Energy Future, Rinkesh.

[5] Walking Green: Ten Harmful Effects of Litter, Green Eco Services, Cathy, 2008.

[6] The Effectiveness of Enforcement on Behavior Change, Keep Britain Tidy, 2011.

[7] States with Littering Penalties, National Conference of State Legislatures, 2014.

[8] Why do People Litter? Litterology, Karen Spehr and Rob Curnow, 2015.

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New Ideas for How Cities Can Stop People From Littering

Douglas Sacha via Getty Images

Connecting state and local government leaders

By Meredith Jones, Kelsey Irvine, Marcos Pelenur and Lila Tublin

COMMENTARY | Research finds that anti-litter signage is ineffective and points to better options.

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• Waste Management

Cities across the United States are struggling to deal with litter. In addition to its negative environmental and health impacts , litter abatement costs local and state governments $1.3 billion each year . The pandemic has made matters worse, with garbage collection staff shortages and new types of improperly disposed of waste, like personal protective equipment .

Because littering is an inherently behavioral problem, local governments typically invest in signage to encourage people to throw their trash away properly. Yet 90% of U.S. residents already think that littering is an issue .

So do signs shift behavior?

New research suggests they do not—at least not enough to be worth it. With this evidence in hand, we can point to more effective long-term solutions for cities.

Testing the Impact of Signage in Indianapolis

In 2021, the nonprofit, Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), and the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability found that signs had little to no impact on the amount of litter at bus stops. The Behavioral Insights Team set up the study to test anti-littering signage informed by behavioral science, which is the study of human behavior and how our actions are shaped by environmental and contextual factors.

The 206 bus stops in the study already had trash bins or bags. We added signs encouraging riders to use the waste infrastructure. We also randomized which bus stops the signs were placed to limit the influence of outside factors on the results. Half received new signage, and the other half remained unchanged. We measured pieces of litter, cigarette butts and whether the bus stops were serviced by cleaning crews over the course of three weeks.

Bus stops with new signage had one less piece of trash on average compared to the unchanged stops (about 14 pieces of trash versus 15). That’s not enough to rule out that the difference was due to chance.

A Multi-city Study on Cigarette Butt Litter

Results from Indianapolis build on a growing body of evidence showing that signage does not help reduce litter. Dr. Wesley Schultz, a psychology professor at California State University San Marcos, conducted a study in Columbus, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee and Shreveport, Louisiana focused on cigarette butts, the most littered item on Earth . His team tested whether cigarette butt collection stands, public anti-littering advertisements or a combination of the two would reduce cigarette butt litter.

Community crews cleaned the 72 sites before the new stands and advertisements were installed to ensure a consistent baseline. The results showed that cleaning up existing litter alone reduced cigarette butt litter by 48% after three months. Adding collection infrastructure reduced litter by an additional 20%. Advertisements did not enhance the effects of either. In Indianapolis, signage also appeared to have no effect on cigarette littering behavior.

Why Littering is Tough to Stop

Behavioral science tells us that people tend to choose the easiest way to achieve their goals. Generally, we also value instant benefits over long-term gains . When it comes to trash, our goal is to get rid of it quickly, especially when we are out of the house. But unlike a behavior such as drinking, where we experience its negative consequences (a hangover), there are few immediate personal repercussions to throwing garbage on the ground.

Anti-littering signage is a tempting solution for cities because it is relatively low-cost and has been shown to work well indoors and on sidewalks . But thanks to decades of national anti-littering campaigns , many people already know that littering is wrong. Even fines do not appear to be a strong deterrent. Unless other changes are made, the convenience of littering will win out.

Littering solutions

To effectively reduce littering, cities should invest in strategies that:

• Prevent waste from being created in the first place.
• Make it easy and attractive for people to dispose of trash properly.

Preventing waste from being created can look like disincentivizing single-use plastics through fees on plastic bags or changing how people think about them . Facilitating goods repair and exchange networks and finding accessible ways for residents to reduce food loss may also help, but might be tougher for local governments to implement.

Cities can make it easy for people to dispose of trash properly by changing residents' physical environment. For example, improving the look and location of trash cans and strategically adding more to sites where people are likely to need them: city centers, outside dining and retail establishments and recreational areas.

Informing residents about free trash pick-up services could also help. In another study we conducted with KIB and the city of Indianapolis, we found that informative mailers had an immediate impact on proper disposal of heavy trash. Households that received a mailer were about 55% more likely to set out waste for collection.

Shifting the social norms of a space may also make proper disposal more attractive. If areas are already clean, people are more likely to keep them that way. In his multi-city study, Dr. Schultz found that cleaning up existing debris cut new cigarette butt litter by nearly half. Cities can organize similar community cleanups to change social norms around littering.

As more research is done on strategies to prevent littering behavior, we hope that local governments think twice before investing in signage. We have strong reason to believe that cities and states would be more successful directing funds toward infrastructure that will stop waste from being created and make it as convenient as possible to dispose of trash correctly. If you are interested in exploring behavioral solutions for littering in your city, contact the Behavioral Insights Team , who is part of the What Works Cities Certification program.

Meredith Jones is a Senior Advisor at the Behavioral Insights Team Americas.

Kelsey Irvine is a Senior Advisor at the Behavioral Insights Team Americas.

Dr. Marcos Pelenur is Head of Sustainability and Decarbonization for the Behavioral Insights Team Americas.

Lila Tublin is a Content Writer at the Behavioral Insights Team Americas.

NEXT STORY: EPA Calls Out Environmental Racism in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley

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Litter is more than a blight on our landscape. Litter is costly to clean up. It impacts our health and well being. It threatens our environment and wildlife. It finds its way into our waterways and oceans.

What’s also true is that litter is a solvable problem. The solution starts by recognizing that over 90% of Americans believe that litter is a problem.

How do we end litter in America?

Take Action

Affiliate network, individual action center, partners for change, litter in america: our research.

In 2021, we released the largest study on litter in America. The Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study provides a detailed understanding of the quantity, composition, and sources of litter across the United States.

Key findings of the 2020 study include:

• There are nearly 50 Billion pieces of litter along U.S. roadways and waterways
• We found slightly more litter along waterways (25.9B) than roadways (23.7B)
• The pandemic opened a new category of litter: we found 207.1M Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) items littered, about the same number as plastic straws

The Science of Litter

Part of understanding the problem of litter is defining it. We use world-class methodology informed by academics, professional social scientists, and leading researchers to gather data on litter and littering.

With the support of corporate America, foundations, and individuals , our report research follows a multi-method approach.

Community Appearance Index

Using Citizen Science, we conduct a comprehensive annual assessment to gather data to assess the overall appearance of communities using quantifiable indicators such as litter, illegal signs, graffiti, and more.

Measuring these points of data allows us to better understand the problem of litter , gauge our progress against it, uncover new challenges, and inspire new strategies to end litter.

trends in litter

There is good news. We’ve found a decrease of 54 percent in litter along United States roadways in the past decade.

Approximately 51.2 billion pieces of litter were estimated along United States roadways in 2009. The Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study estimated approximately 23.7 billion pieces of litter were along United States roadways in 2020, a reduction of over 54%! But the work continues:

The good news : several high-profile litter categories saw large decreases in the number of littered items from 2009 to 2020 including:

• cigarette butts
• fast food wrappers and containers
• soft drink containers

The bad news: other key product categories saw increases in the amount of litter from 2009 to 2020, including:

• beer containers
• food-packaging film
• sports drinks containers
• water containers

Take Action Now

Your donation in action.

Your generosity allows us to expand our program offerings, fund community improvement projects from coast to coast, and provide the means needed to make meaningful and lasting impact in local communities across the U.S.

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How to Take Action to Prevent Littering

Last Updated: April 8, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Bess Ruff, MA . Bess Ruff is a Geography PhD student at Florida State University. She received her MA in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016. She has conducted survey work for marine spatial planning projects in the Caribbean and provided research support as a graduate fellow for the Sustainable Fisheries Group. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 147,642 times.

In this day and age, it seems as though littering should be a problem of the past. Unfortunately, it is still a huge problem for the world. People litter for many reasons; for example, because they don’t feel responsible for taking care of the environment, because they believe someone else will take care of the litter, or because there is already so much litter in an area that they don’t think one more piece will make much difference. If you are concerned about a littering problem in your area, you can take steps to encourage others to stop littering and you can take action by arranging litter pick ups in the community.

Influencing Friends and Family to Stop Littering

• You can also check to make sure that any trash cans you own have a securely fitting lid. A huge source of litter comes from the trash cans that we set out to be collected. If the lid doesn’t fit securely and the trash can gets knocked over, the litter will be blown all around the neighborhood.

• Try to remind people that even if they don’t see what goes on, litter that is thrown on the ground will, at some point, become the problem of another human or animal.

• Every state in the US has created strict laws about littering. If you are caught littering, you will probably have to pay a fine that can range from $20 up to $3,000, and you could even face jail time depending on the situation. Be sure to warn people that when they litter, they are breaking the law.
• On this webpage you can find out what the penalties are for littering in your state.

• You can find out about how much your state spends on litter prevention programs by doing an internet search. For example, using the search terms, “litter prevention program” plus the name of your state.

Becoming an Activist in Your Community

• If you are with a child, and they see someone littering, set an example. Go pick up the litter that the person dropped, and throw it in a trash can. Explain to the child that although that person littered, it is a very bad thing to do, and they shouldn’t use that as an example of what is right.
• Spend time talking with children you know about why it is important not to litter. Explain how litter harms the planet and the people and animals who live on it.
• If you are a kid, and you see your parents or another adult family member littering, don’t be afraid to remind them not to litter.

• You can find out if your state has such a program by doing an internet search using the terms, “litter prevention program” plus the name of your state.

• You might consider going back in a few days to see if the problem has been fixed. If it hasn’t, consider going in and letting them know that you see they haven’t fixed the issue, and that you’ll be reporting them to your local authorities if they don’t do something about it soon.

• Some businesses might be more willing to participate in this kind of thing than others. For example, a cafe, deli, or restaurant that serves food to go might be happy to do something like this because they produce a lot of waste that customers might leave lying around.

Arranging a Community Clean-Up Day

• For example, if you choose to do your litter pick up on a weekday at 2pm, you won’t be able to expect that any working person will be able to come. Therefore, if possible, a Saturday or Sunday may be a good choice. If you want to do it during the week, try to choose a time in the evening before it gets dark.

• If possible, choose an area that has boundaries so that people won’t think they’re expected to clean up an entire forest in one day, for example.

• Try to choose a one or two hour window during the day, and advertise this as your scheduled pick up time. You can always stay longer if people want to, but this way, people won’t feel like they have to do a full day’s work on their day off.

• You can ask people to bring along their own gloves, too. However, try to have at least a few pairs with you for anyone who didn’t bring them.

• You should also not forget to invite people directly. For example, go to all of the homes in your neighborhood to speak to your neighbors directly. Let them know what you’re doing and that you hope they’ll be able to come along and help.
• You should also contact your local news station. In some cases, they may be willing to help you advertise your event to the people of your community by making a short announcement about what you will be doing.
• Also let schools in your community know about your cleanup. Many schools require their students to participate in volunteer community events at one point or another, so you may be able to get some students to help you.
• After the event, remember to go around and collect all of the flyers you put up so they don't become litter.

• If you do end up completely alone be sure to call and let someone know that you are out picking up trash, where you are, and when you plan to be done.

Expert Q&A

• When talking with people about littering, try not to seem as though you are talking down to them. Most people really don’t like this and will immediately stop listening to someone who is acting superior. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• Don’t expect to always meet reasonable people. For some reason, there are some people who don’t think it’s cool to care about the environment. If you get discouraged, just remind yourself that you are doing what you can to make a difference. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 5

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://education.seattlepi.com/littering-affect-environment-6802.html
• ↑ https://www.ncsl.org/research/environment-and-natural-resources/states-with-littering-penalties.aspx
• ↑ https://raleighnc.gov/transit-streets-and-sidewalks/tips-help-prevent-litter
• ↑ https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2336/Trash-Best-Management-Practices
• ↑ https://www.greenmatters.com/p/how-to-organize-community-cleanup
• ↑ https://www.litterproject.com/7-keys/
• ↑ https://www.flowstobay.org/solo-cleanup-events-for-positive-change/

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A sea turtle mistakes a plastic bag for food. © Ben J. Hicks / benjhicks.com

One of the reasons that plastic pollution is such a problem is that it doesn’t go away: “plastics are forever.” Instead, plastic debris simply breaks down into ever-smaller particles, known as microplastics , whose environmental impacts are still being determined.

Plastic Pollution Solutions: 7 Things You Can Do Today

Everyone can do something to help solve the plastic pollution problem, and millions of people worldwide are already taking action to reduce their plastic use . Here are seven ways you can make a difference, starting today.

1. Reduce Your Use of Single-Use Plastics

Wherever you live, the easiest and most direct way that you can get started is by reducing your own use of single-use plastics. Single-use plastics include plastic bags, water bottles, straws, cups, utensils, dry cleaning bags, take-out containers, and any other plastic items that are used once and then discarded.

The best way to do this is by a) refusing any single-use plastics that you do not need (e.g. straws, plastic bags, takeout utensils, takeout containers), and b) purchasing, and carrying with you, reusable versions of those products, including reusable grocery bags , produce bags , bottles , utensils , coffee cups , and dry cleaning garment bags . And when you refuse single-use plastic items, help businesses by letting them know that you would like them to offer alternatives.

2. Support Legislation to Curb Plastic Production and Waste

As important as it is to change our individual behaviors, such changes alone are insufficient to stop ocean plastic pollution. We also need legislation that reduces plastic production, improves waste management, and makes plastic producers responsible for the waste they generate. There are a variety of ways that you can support local, national, and international legislation that provide critical solutions to reduce plastic pollution. One such effort in the United States is the 2021 Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act , a comprehensive federal bill that aims to address the plastic pollution crisis, and there are a number of state level initiatives to introduce extended producer responsibility (EPR) legislation that makes plastic producers and distributors responsible for their products and packaging at the end of life.

At the international level, hundreds of organizations and businesses successfully worked together with United Nations member states to enact a global plastics treaty , signed by 175 member states, that will set global rules and regulations to reduce plastic pollution. And legislation that limits, taxes, or bans unnecessary single use plastic items, such as plastic bags, takeout containers, and bottles, has been successfully enacted in many places globally, and you can support the adoption of such policies in your community too. Here is a comprehensive resource and toolkit on legislative approaches to limiting plastic bags, foodware, microplastics, and more.

3. Recycle Properly

This should go without saying, but when you use single-use (and other) plastics that can be recycled, always be sure to recycle them. At present, just 9% of plastic is recycled worldwide . Recycling helps keep plastics out of the ocean and reduces the amount of “new” plastic in circulation. If you need help finding a place to recycle plastic waste near you, check Earth911’s recycling directory . It’s also important to check with your local recycling center about the types of plastic they accept.

4. Participate In (or Organize) a Beach or River Cleanup

Help remove plastics from the ocean and prevent them from getting there in the first place by participating in, or organizing a cleanup of your local beach or waterway . This is one of the most direct and rewarding ways to fight ocean plastic pollution. You can simply go to the beach or waterway and collect plastic waste on your own or with friends or family, or you can join a local organization’s cleanup or an international event like our Global Ocean Cleanup  or the International Coastal Cleanup .

  Take Our 7-Day Fight Plastic Waste Challenge Join the global movement to fight plastic waste with our 7-day challenge. With just a few minutes a day, you’ll be on your way to reducing ocean plastic pollution from home. Take the Challenge

5. Avoid Products Containing Microbeads

Tiny plastic particles, called “ microbeads ,” have become a growing source of ocean plastic pollution in recent years. Microbeads are found in some face scrubs, toothpastes, and bodywashes, and they readily enter our oceans and waterways through our sewer systems, and affect hundreds of marine species. Avoid products containing plastic microbeads by looking for “polythelene” and “polypropylene” on the ingredient labels of your cosmetic products (find a list of products containing microbeads here ).

6. Spread the Word

Stay informed on issues related to plastic pollution and help make others aware of the problem. Tell your friends and family about how they can be part of the solution, or host a viewing party for one of the many plastic pollution focused documentaries, like A Plastic Ocean , Garbage Island: An Ocean Full of Plastic , Bag It , Addicted to Plastic , Plasticized , or Garbage Island .

7. Support Organizations Addressing Plastic Pollution

There are many non-profit organizations working to reduce and eliminate ocean plastic pollution in a variety of different ways, including Oceanic Society , Plastic Pollution Coalition , 5 Gyres , Algalita , Plastic Soup Foundation , and others. These organizations rely on donations from people like you to continue their important work. Even small donations can make a big difference!

These seven ideas only scratch the surface for ways you can help address the growing problem of plastic pollution in the oceans. The important thing is that we all do something, no matter how small. For more ideas and resources, sign up to join our Blue Habits community of people worldwide committed to joyful daily actions that improve ocean health.

  Reduce Plastic Pollution From Home with Our 7-Day Challenge Join the global movement to fight plastic waste by participating in our 7-day challenge. Take the Challenge

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A convenient truth: Helping solve litter pollution

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How the History of Littering Should Impact the Solution

Littering has wreaked havoc on ecosystems all over the world. What do we do now to amend the global problem of chronic waste?

By Emily Folk

A single plastic bottle can take up to 450 years  to degrade.

Today, we know the impact littering has on our environment and human health. With access to the Internet and social media platforms, we witness the havoc pollution has wreaked on ecosystems all over the world. Solving the littering issue can seem like an insurmountable challenge. However, there are ways to amend the global problem of chronic waste, even though it may initially seem overwhelming.

Kids learn the definition of a “litterbug” starting in elementary school and receive regular reminders not to throw trash on the sidewalk. For decades, the conversation around litter points the finger to the consumer—the person throwing trash out their car window or tossing food wrappers in the park. 

When finding a solution to littering, we need to examine its history. Discussions for the past few decades have placed the responsibility of preventing litter on the individual. In actuality,  much of the blame goes to the industries that create waste in the first place. 

Litter isn’t the problem. It is simply a by-product of a convenience-oriented economy. If you look at the history of litter, there remains one constant. Production of trash, including plastic packaging and aluminum cans, has continued to grow. Despite efforts to reduce waste and promote recycling, corporations like Coca-Cola continue to produce plastic pollution at an unsustainable level.

Litter would not exist if it were not for the businesses that created disposable packaging and capitalized off their invention. The primary anti-litter campaign, Keep America Beautiful, was founded by the very companies producing the waste. 

Sustainable solutions to litter involve looking at the role of the packaging and bottling industry. To truly put an end to littering, we need to put more accountability on corporations to reduce the amount of waste they create in the first place.

The Keep America Beautiful Campaign

Keep America Beautiful is perhaps the most well-known anti-litter movement in the United States. Founded in 1953, this organization works to inspire and educate people on improving their communities. Today, it leads initiatives such as the Great American Cleanup and America Recycles Day. 

Volunteer efforts funded by this organization are significant in slowing environmental harm. Annual events take place all across the country. The collective effort results in an impactful reduction in waste pollution in public places and along roadways.

However, most people are unfamiliar with the organization’s origin. When states began responding to the litter problem, the packaging and beverage industry worried the message would undermine their business models. Their profits demanded disposable cans and food packaging. So they founded Keep America Beautiful, which put the litter problem back on the people and out of the hands of corporations.

The packaging industry relied on convincing people they needed to buy more stuff and that these items would undergo a cycle of becoming trash almost immediately. Society had to be trained to dispose of single-use plastic. The bottle and can industry used the power of advertising to convince consumers that the things they were reusing, like glass bottles, were garbage. 

The Recycling Movement

Following the rise of disposable products, advertisers convinced Americans they needed convenience above all else. In the post-World War II era, marketers sold the American society the idea of microwaveable dinners they could consume in front of the TV. These companies also marketed plastic soda bottles that did not require reuse. In the 1970s, consumers became increasingly uncomfortable with the amount of waste sent to landfills. 

In response, Keep America Beautiful founded another organization, the National Center for Resource Recovery. With serious lobbying efforts, this initiative persuaded state legislators to favor recycling over reusing or reducing consumer goods. The Container Corporation of America invented and funded the phrase “reduce, reuse and recycle.”

By creating the recycling movement, corporations extended their influence across all levels of policy development. Most notably, they actively limited policies that would require corporations to take responsibility for their own waste management. Between 1989 and 1994, Keep America Beautiful spent over $14 million in lobbying efforts to limit recycling policies and let consumers bear responsibility.

The recycling movement has a dirty secret, too. For decades, anti-litter advertisements, including Keep America Beautiful’s infamous “Crying Indian” PSA video, have distracted consumers from making a real impact. Today, people are well-aware that recycling doesn’t always work. Corporations benefited from the recycling industry’s inefficiency, setting up recycling initiatives to fail from the beginning. 

Most of the recycling collected by municipalities in the last thirty years has been shipped to China, where it was most often dumped into the ocean or added to landfills with little to no environmental standards. 

Littering Corporations and the Circular Economy

The contemporary equivalent of the first anti-litter campaign is the corporate standard of a circular economy. Circular economies keep products and materials in continuous use, extending their lifetime and reducing the amount of waste generated from the system as a whole. Also referred to as a closed-loop system or cradle-to-cradle, the concept is only successful if it radically changes consumerism on a global scale — instead of making more plastic out of recycled materials. 

If you look at the fashion industry, companies like H&M are making sustainability efforts that drastically overstate their ability to combat pollution. Creating clothes out of recycled materials may sound like a great idea, but if the growth potential remains the same, the impact does not change. 

According to a study conducted by Greenpeace, Coca-Cola generates over  100 billion plastic bottles  annually. A so-called circular economy may devolve into a form of greenwashing that enables unsustainable business models to persist without making real change. There is a real concern that the concept of a circular economy may award companies for their “sustainability” efforts while simultaneously allowing them to continue polluting at the same rate.  

Recently, Coca-Cola has also announced a new initiative, launching their campaign of Coke bottles consisting of plastic from the sea. This concept might seem more optimistic if it were not for the fact that they are largely responsible for the plastic being in the sea in the first place. While the concept of a circular economy is promising, the way companies implement it will ultimately make the most significant impact.

Littering and the Individual  

Modern consumers are demanding transparency. More so than ever before, buyers are supporting companies that engage in sustainable practices. People are increasingly aware that recycling is not a single solution. Lifestyles that advocate for buying less, like minimalism, are becoming mainstream. The solution to the worldwide littering problem is to hold corporations responsible for the waste they create. By advocating for smarter consumption, individuals can make a big difference in how materials become trash.

Buyers are widely knowledgeable of the impacts of waste pollution and are making efforts to ensure waste is handled more sustainably. City-wide green initiatives reduce litter and encourage recycling. Online companies promote the purchasing of secondhand products like clothes. 

Individuals are managing their waste better while also holding the companies that create trash accountable. Organizations like Keep America Beautiful have helped in cleaning up the U.S.’s public places, sidewalks and roadways. Now it is time for them to take responsibility for the waste they generate before it reaches the consumer.

This article was originally published in the Conservation Folks blog on June 19, 2020.

Featured photograph provided by Boyce Duprey .

About the Author

Emily Folk is a sustainability and green tech writer. Her goal is to help people become more informed about the world around them and how they fit into it.

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6 insightful and creative solutions to tackle littering

By Alex Robinson  16th August, 2021

On a sunny weekend last month, Brighton set an unwelcome record: the most litter ever collected from the beach in a weekend. The council scooped up an eye-watering 31 tonnes of rubbish from the beach(1), confirming fears that the end of lockdown, pent up demand from holidaymakers and increased hygiene concerns could lead to a huge surge in litter. Already, over two million pieces of litter are dropped in the UK every day – at a cost of over £1bn to the taxpayer – so it's no surprise that 81% of us say it makes us angry and frustrated. And it’s not just an eyesore: litter contributes to the 8 million tons of plastic that ends up in our oceans every year(2), doing immense harm to marine life. So, what can we do about it? From our award-winning #NeatStreets campaign back in 2016 to our latest work using AI and drones to map litter in Bournemouth, Hubbub has become a leading expert on how to reduce litter and increase recycling. Our approach is simple, and always starts with fresh insight: we seek to understand a problem in its specific context before we try to tackle it. Our latest challenge: understanding why young men litter. Hubbub polling in 2020 found that a third of 16–25-year-old men admitted to littering in the past month, making them the most likely demographic to do so. We wanted to know why, and what can be done to change their behaviour. Our new report, Big Boys Don’t Litter, in partnership with Burger King and Coca Cola, is released today. Some of our findings include:

• Litterers from this group often have good intentions. One respondent told us: “You want to do the right thing, but bins are always full. Leaving rubbish next to a bin is probably best.”
• Group dynamics play a big role (and so does alcohol).
• Why young men are likely to drop litter from their cars.
• Finger-wagging won’t stop them, but humour and male role models could be effective ways to reach this group.

We’ll be drawing on these insights for our current and future campaigns. While we set to work on that, here are six ways that Hubbub’s insight-gathering has already led to unusual and effective approaches to tackling litter and boosting recycling:

• Back in 2015 we spent hours watching revellers during nights out in order to understand cigarette littering behaviours. We realised that we needed to grab their attention by focusing on what interested them. So we made a bin that asked them a question: who is the best footballer in the world? The smokers voted with their butts, and the idea went viral. Nowadays our Ballot Bin is one of the world’s leading cigarette butt litter solutions, proven to reduce litter by nearly 50%.
• If you’re confused about what can be recycled where, you’re not alone. For our recent Wimbledon #InTheLoop campaign we ditched the widely misunderstood ‘mixed recycling’ label and asked the public for plastic bottles and cans only. So far this has resulted in 86% of items ending up in the right bin. Simple.
• Listening to residents in Oldham as part of a project to tackle fly-tipping, a key theme emerged: they were proud of their neighbourhood. We tapped into this sentiment with our Love Where You Live campaign by helping neighbours to get together and beautify their alleyways together. They achieved much more than simply reducing fly-tipping.
• Highway litter is a tough nut to crack. Seeing that many lorry drivers didn’t want to leave their cabs to dispose of their rubbish, we created bins with huge openings to make it easy for them to chuck their bags of rubbish out of the window, and still hit the target. Find out more here .
• Our pirate-themed litter campaign, #TreasureYourRiver , features silent disco litter picks and a robot boat on the hunt for lost treasure. Why? Litter-picking can seem a bit earnest, and we’ve learned that first-timers are more likely to get involved in something if it’s fun. If we’re going to hit our target of removing 90 tonnes of litter from our rivers, and prevent another 95 tonnes from entering them, we need all hands on deck.
• Bournemouth currently boasts the world’s first Disco Bin: as well as playing the hits, its lights can be seen along the beachfront. Research for our latest #NeatStreets campaign from tech company Ellipsis Earth’s drones showed us that groups of young people were leaving litter on beaches at night. Bins with lights and glow in the dark stickers seek to make it easier to do the right thing. More info – and results when we have them – can be found here .

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10 Ways to Reduce Plastic Pollution

Help keep our marine life (and ourselves) from being overwhelmed by plastics and harmful chemicals.

Rich Carey/Shutterstock

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While soaking up the relaxing cadence of crashing waves on the beach, no one wants to think about how the ocean has basically become garbage soup . But here’s the buzz-killing reality: There are millions of tons of debris floating around in that water—and most of it is plastic.

This constant barrage (the equivalent of 136 billion milk jugs each year, a study published in the journal Science estimates) poses a serious danger to marine life. Animals can get tangled up in this trash or ingest it—either because they mistake it for food or because the plastic has been broken up into tiny particles (aka “microplastics”) floating through their habitats. 

Equally alarmingly, plastic pollution in the oceans is essentially  irreversible . It takes hundreds of years (or longer) to fully degrade; all the while, those pieces of plastic are also leaching toxic chemicals. And we're not just talking about people dumping their garbage overboard. Around 80 percent of marine plastic pollution actually originates on land—either swept in from the coastline or carried to rivers from the streets during heavy rain via storm drains and sewer overflows.

Of course, plastic is pervasive throughout our ecosystems (and even our  clouds ), and our addiction to the stuff is a danger to terrestrial animals as well. And that’s to say nothing of the  hazards the plastic crisis poses to our climate and our health too.

Given all these dangers, it's in our best interest to try to keep as much plastic as possible out of the waste stream in the first place. The good news? There are many small ways you can have a big impact.

1. Wean yourself off single-use plastics.

Half of all plastic produced is for throwaway items that are used once and then chucked: grocery bags, plastic wrap, disposable cutlery, straws, coffee-cup lids. Take note of how often you rely on  single-use plastics and replace them with reusable versions. It only takes a few times of bringing your own totes to the store, garment bag to the dry cleaner, silverware to the office, or travel mug to the coffee shop before it becomes habit.

2. Stop buying bottled water.

Each year, close to 20 billion plastic bottles are tossed in the trash. Carry a reusable bottle in your bag, and you’ll save money and plastic—you may also be making  the safer choice by sticking with tap water .

3. Boycott microbeads.

Those little plastic scrubbers found in so many beauty products—facial scrubs, toothpaste, body washes—might look harmless, but their tiny size allows them to slip through water-treatment plants. Unfortunately, they also look just like food to some marine animals. Opt for products with natural exfoliants, like oatmeal or salt, instead.

Approach cosmetics, in particular, with caution: When the Plastic Soup Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit, tested the 10 most popular brands from Europe’s four largest cosmetics manufacturers, they found that  only 13 percent of nearly 8,000 products (ranging from mascara and lipsticks to foundations and deodorant) were free of microplastics. 

4. Cook more.

Not only is it healthier but making your own meals doesn’t involve takeout containers or doggy bags. For those times when you do order in or eat out, tell the establishment you don’t need any plastic cutlery or plastic carry-out bags. For some serious extra credit, bring your own food-storage containers to restaurants for leftovers. 

Another tip for the kitchen: Choose wooden cutting boards. A recent  study published in the journal  Environmental Science & Technology found that plastic cutting boards could be a significant source of microplastics in our diet. With proper care, wooden cutting boards are a safer alternative that can last you many years. 

5. Purchase items secondhand.

The shine of new toys, trinkets, and electronic gadgets wears off fast. Search the shelves of thrift stores, neighborhood garage sales, or online postings for items (plastic and otherwise) that are just as good when previously used. For things you rarely need, consider borrowing before you decide to buy new. Not only will you consume less plastic when you start making  these efforts to reduce and reuse more in your life, you’ll save yourself a few bucks, too.

6. Recycle.

A recent report from the nonprofit  Beyond Plastics found that the recycling rate for plastics in the United States in 2021 was down to about 6 percent. While  we can’t recycle our way out of the plastics crisis , recycling is still important to reduce the footprint of our waste stream. To sort through what can and can’t go in the bin, check out the number on the bottom of your containers. Most beverage and liquid cleaner bottles will be #1 (PET), which is commonly accepted by most curbside recycling companies. Containers marked #2 (HDPE; typically heavier-duty bottles for milk, juice, and laundry detergent) are also commonly recyclable. Containers marked #5 (PP; plastic cutlery, yogurt and margarine tubs, ketchup bottles) also qualify in some areas. For the specifics on your locality, check out Earth911.org’s  recycling directory .

But remember, reducing is still the better option.

7. Support a bag tax or ban.

Urge your elected officials to follow the lead of those in San Francisco, Chicago, and more than  500 other cities, counties, and states by introducing or supporting  legislation that would make plastic bag use less desirable .

8. Buy in bulk and look for eco-friendly packaging.

Single-serving yogurts, tiny packages of nuts—consider the product-to-packaging ratio of items you tend to buy often and select the bigger container instead of buying several smaller ones over time. Look for opportunities to buy staples like rice and pasta from bulk containers and store them in jars at home. When you have the option, choose products in nonplastic packaging (e.g. go for the glass jar of honey, not the squeezable honey bear).

9. Choose clothing made from natural fibers.

An estimated  9 percent of the microplastics in the ocean are coming from synthetic fibers—the kind found in materials like nylon, acrylic, polyester, and fleece. They’re shed from the clothes we wear, and  make their way from our laundry machines to wastewater plants, before spreading throughout the environment. When possible, choose clothing and textiles made of natural materials, like cotton and wool, instead. 

10. Put pressure on manufacturers.

Though we can make a difference through our own habits, corporations obviously have a much bigger footprint. If you believe a company could be smarter about its packaging and use less plastic, make your voice heard. Write a letter, tag them on social media, or hit them where it really hurts: Give your money to a more sustainable competitor.  

This story was originally published on January 5, 2016, and has been updated with new information and links.

This NRDC.org story is available for online republication by news media outlets or nonprofits under these conditions: The writer(s) must be credited with a byline; you must note prominently that the story was originally published by NRDC.org and link to the original; the story cannot be edited (beyond simple things such as grammar); you can’t resell the story in any form or grant republishing rights to other outlets; you can’t republish our material wholesale or automatically—you need to select stories individually; you can’t republish the photos or graphics on our site without specific permission; you should drop us a note to let us know when you’ve used one of our stories.

Plastic pollution has been linked to everything from cancer in humans to death in wildlife.

A strong Global Plastics Treaty could help rid the world of harmful plastics—and as one of the world’s largest producers, the U.S. has a critical role to play.

Urge the Biden administration to enact a strong Global Plastics Treaty

Plastic pollution has been linked to everything from cancer in humans to death in wildlife. A strong Global Plastics Treaty could help rid the world of harmful plastics—and as one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of plastic, the United States has a critical role to play.

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Solving The Global Litter Problem

Littering is an ever-increasing worldwide problem. Chances are, you’ve seen litter scattered along roadsides, floating in waterways, or blowing across a parking lot.

The well-being of people, animals, and the environment is compromised by litter. People can become injured by items such as broken glass and are susceptible to disease caused by unsanitary conditions. Animals are at risk to ingest garbage and become trapped and debilitated by waste. The environment becomes threatened when litter invades natural habitats and when toxic chemicals from items, such as plastic, seep into soil and groundwater.

It takes a  long time for litter to break down. An item that is commonly irresponsibly disposed of, the plastic bottle, can take up to 450 years to degrade . Not too far behind, an aluminum can takes an average of 80-200 years to break down. These are just two of the many  items that cause harm if they are not responsibly disposed of.

Many youth who are concerned about the global litter epidemic are motivated to take action in their communities. Through Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program and other youth-based initiatives, young people have launched an abundance of projects aimed at solving the litter issues in their communities. Young people are organizing community clean ups at their schools, places of worship, and in their communities. Some groups are handing out reusable shopping bags to replace plastic bags,  others are making art out of the litter they collect ! They are raising awareness about the consequences of littering by educating peers, friends, families, and the everyday public. One Roots & Shoots group is taking action to prevent cigarette litter by distributing cigarette disposal units in their community.

Countless numbers of young people are making positive changes to solve the litter problem we face. You can, too! Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Neighborhood Cleanup Invite your friends and neighbors to join you in keeping the neighborhood clean. Make a goal to collect  a certain amount of litter each day or week, and challenge others to do the same. Check the lids on your trash/recycle bins when you set them at the curb. Ask yourself if the lids are secure or if any items can escape. Encourage your neighbors to follow your example. A small action like securing the lid on a trash bin can make a big difference.

Participate In a Litter Prevention Program There are countless programs aimed at solving the litter epidemic. Consider participating in a campaign led by Keep America Beautiful or an Adopt-A-Street program (search the Internet or contact your city hall to learn about your local program.)

Download the Litterati App Litterati is an app that tracks the amount of litter you pick up. Just take an in-app picture of the litter you collected, tag it, and upload it to the Litterati digital landfill! Litterati is a great app that will motivate you to continue to pick up litter and do good for the Earth.

Join Roots & Shoots Roots & Shoots provides valuable skills, tools, and support to help you complete a successful community campaign. Plus, it’s free! Click here to learn more.

Resources https://www.rootsandshoots.org/project/t-shirt-bags-0 https://www.rootsandshoots.org/project/stop-drop-0 https://www.rootsandshoots.org/project/cigarette-disposal http://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/waste-decomposition-rates.html https://www.kab.org

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About Author

Abby is a member of the Roots & Shoots U.S. National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC). She is passionate about causes such as literacy, fracking, roadside litter, menstrual hygiene, lyme disease awareness, and wildlife conservation. Her biggest achievement yet has been donating over 1,300 books to organizations serving youth in MA & RI. If she isn’t dancing en pointé at the studio, Abby can be seen exploring state/national parks, creating art, or reading a good book.

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The Menace of Littering and How to Solve It

Littering is a common menace one can witness in all urban areas. Streets, sidewalks, parking lots, roads and highways are mostly covered with food wrappers, soft drink and water bottles, plastic bags, handbills, cigarette butts, tissues, papers and others. Littering is most likely to take place at locations where litter is already ‘present’.

The Growing Menace of Litter

Around 1.9 billion tonnes of litter end up in the ocean every year, which clearly shows that people tend to throw things randomly anywhere, more often than they throw waste in garbage bins. Litter is not just an ugly or an aesthetic problem; it has serious environmental consequences that can persist for decades. Styrofoam container takes up to a million years to decompose and break down. A disposable diaper can take more than 500 years; cigarette more than 10 and even orange or banana skins stick around for more than a month.

Litter has the potential to cause harm to human health , safety, welfare, as well as the environment. The harmful impact of litter includes trapping or poisoning animals, killing aquatic life directly through choking and indirectly through its impact on water quality. Littering can be a fire hazard and it attracts pests and rodents.

Litter carry germs and rats are carriers of many types of diseases that make people ill. Litter also cause accidents as drivers try to avoid litter on the road. Young children fall on litter in playgrounds and can get injured.

Litter also harms plants, vegetation and natural areas. There are several factors that may impact on littering behaviour. These include inconvenience and laziness, absence of ownership or pride for the area, feeling that someone else will pick it up, number, placement and appearance of litter bins at or near the site, absence of realistic penalties, legislation enforcement, lack of social pressure and lack of knowledge of the environmental impacts of littering. Almost all of us litter in one way or the other. Littering is something we learn from others and unconsciously pass on to our children.

Large numbers of camels in the Middle East die every year due to plastic ingestion

Solving the Litter Problem

The temptation to ‘litter’ is usually motivated by disrespect to the law and its enforcement, as well as ignorance and arrogance in our attitude, thinking that somebody will clean our mess. Significant amount of money is spent to collect and clean up the litter that many people have thoughtlessly tossed out on the streets and other public spaces. The litter collection is a time-consuming and costly exercise with walking marshals collecting the litter from far off places to keep the country tidy.

Litter is a problem that can be controlled. Education is an important tool . People who are aware of the dangers of litter often make more of an effort to always put their trash in bins. They also spread the word to others they see littering and teach them to dispose of garbage the right way.

Community clean-ups encourage people to take pride in their neighbourhood and maintaining a healthy look. Quick removal of litter keeps it from growing into an unmanageable dumpsite. Litter can be conquered. People can make a difference. It is our responsibility to clean up the litter in an ‘earth-friendly manner.’

فهناك المجموعات البيئية التي تتبنى الانشطة الموجهة في تنظيم حملات تنظيف البيئات الطبيعية في المناطق البرية والساحلية

Clean communities have a better chance of attracting new business, residents and tourists. There is no reason for any of us to litter because we can always find a litter bin to throw the trash away.

Let us set an example for others, especially children, by not littering and by carrying a litter bag in our vehicle, securely covering trash containers to prevent wind or animals from spreading litter. When visiting parks and recreation areas, make sure to leave the area clean for the next person to enjoy and restrict the distribution and disposal of handbills.

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Today was a welcome site to see so many cleveland residents trying to do the right thing and dispose of their garage properly. Kudos to the TDOT of Bradley County. The only thing I would suggest due to the over an hour wait is providing outside restrooms.

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I’m currently working on a research project for school that revolves around littering and I came across this blog and began reading it and realized that if we don’t take this issue seriously now it will come back to bite us in the butt. We don’t realize the danger we are putting ourselves in our families, our children, and the people we love, we need to stop and think about the actions we want to take when it comes to littering. And thanks to this blog I was able to discover new bad effects that littering brings.

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45 Prodigious Ways That Can Help You To Prevent Litter

In an ever-evolving world, with the global population steadily increasing, the amount of waste generated is also on the rise. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in America alone, each person produces about 4.40 pounds of trash per day .

And with a population of over 318 million people , it’s absurd to think each piece of garbage is going to make it to the dumpster, no matter how much we wish it weren’t so.

Wikipedia defines littering as,

“ Litter consists of waste products that have been disposed improperly, without consent, at an inappropriate location. To litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles on the ground and leave them there indefinitely or for others to dispose of as opposed to disposing of them properly. “

45 Spectacular Ways To Prevent Litter and Save the Environment

The world is home to various bugs, but the “litterbug” is arguably one of the worst. Keeping that in mind, here are 45 ways you can help prevent litter daily.

1. Don’t Be a Part of The Problem

You have control when it comes to the way you either help or hinder the problem of littering. Make sure your trash makes it into the trash every time.

It’s pretty common to see people throwing garbage on the roads because either they are too lazy to throw it in the trash bin, or they just don’t  care for the environment .

2. Create Less Waste

Creating less waste is the first step in decreasing the rubbish that ends up in our environment. Start with bringing reusable bags to the supermarket! It will save you the number of bags you’d otherwise have to dispose of once you’re done using whatever you buy.

3. Clean up Litter in Your Free Time

We create an awful lot of rubbish. It’s great to reduce the waste you create, but your household will inevitably create rubbish. When you find yourself just hanging out around the house, bored, with nothing to do, turn off the TV and go clean the streets.

4. Remove Your Rubbish Responsibly

We need to be responsible for our own waste, and it is one of the best ways that you can join the fight against litter. Not just picking up litter but disposing of it in the appropriate bin is a powerful way to make sure that less debris ends up in our streets and ecosystems.

5. Get Your Neighbors Involved

Ask the people who live around you to help keep the place you both call home clean . Places with trash all around become home ground for mosquitoes, which bring various diseases with them.

6. Ensure the Lid on The Trash Can Is Secured

Most lids close fairly tightly on their own; however, if you’re having an issue with your container, bungee cords or a length of rope will help. It will keep the contents of the bin from being accessed by rodents and other animals that might leave the place littered.

7. Don’t Leave out Unopened Boxes

For those who have curbside service, unsecured boxes make it easy for animals to get into your garbage or even simply for the wind to float your trash away.

8. Carry a Litter Bag in Your Car

Too many people underestimate the amount of litter that can fall out of a cluttered car. It is therefore considered wise to carry a litter bag always with you and hang on to litter until you find a garbage or recycling receptacle.

9. Make Bags

If you’re handy with crafts or know a website online where you can make custom bags, create some with a positive message and hand them out to neighbors, friends, and businesses. Not only will it inspire them to  contribute their part towards the environment, but it will also help you to build relationships with them.

10. Set up Litter Cleaning Groups

Whether you have a few good friends, decide to go bigger and create a MeetUp group, or find volunteers on Craigslist, more people helping means a cleaner Earth.

11. Adopt a Highway

Formally adopt a highway and make it your duty to keep it clean. Try to involve your friends with you. The greater the number, the greater the impact you have in making our planet a better place.

12. Reach out To Local Groups

Ensure that they have litter bags and proper disposal methods for any outdoor events.

13. Plant Flowers

It is statistically proven that people are less likely to litter when there are flowers on the ground. Hence, you can consider flower planting as one of the ways to minimize littering. Of course, it will even make the place beautiful.

14. Reach out To Local Businesses

Ask them to be sure they are providing their employees with proper waste receptacles. With these bins in place, it feels unnatural to just dispose of litter anywhere.

15. Make Time Once a Week to Pick Up

If you don’t want to pick up trash every day, maybe cut out an hour or two once a week and clean the streets around your neighborhood and the surrounding areas.

16. Make Signs

They can be as fancy as you want, as long as they get the  Please Do Not Litter message across. Or maybe some environment-related slogans that can get people away from throwing litter on the road.

17. Ask Businesses to Put Trash Cans out Front of Their Stores

Many people will give up and just drop whatever garbage is in their hands after not finding a trash can for a few minutes.

18. Educate and Ask Local Construction Companies for Help

Many construction companies don’t use a cover on their vehicles, causing trash to blow out of the bed. Kindly remind them that it is necessary to keep our  environment free of garbage .

19. Call Your Leasing Office

Ask that they have enough receptacles out in the common areas, as well as bags available to clean up after animals.

20. Donate Trash Containers to The Community

If you have the finances, call areas where you think there needs to be a container, purchase one, and donate it to the cause.

21. Choose to Package Wisely

Whenever you are purchasing something, consider alternatives to plastic like glass or another natural and sustainable packaging. Glass is made mainly from sand and recycled glass, is reusable, recyclable, and does not harm oceans or marine life.

22. Choose Reusable Containers

Choose reusable containers for food and beverages to live a more eco-friendly life. According to “ National Geographic ,” only 9% of plastic bottles are recycled.

Therefore, reusable containers can serve as an ideal replacement for bottled water, whether at home or on the go. Choose glass or stainless steel instead of plastic, which can hold hot or cold food and beverages and help protect the contents from any chemicals.

23. Reduce Your Single-Use Footprint

Always carry reusable bags and containers to the store . Some foods like cereal, pasta, and rice can be purchased from bulk bins and stored in a glass or stainless-steel container. You can further cut down on plastic waste by switching to reusable straws that are available in glass, stainless steel, or bamboo.

24. Remind Others

We’re all humans and forgetting from time to time what’s expected from us is inevitable. As such, consider reminding others on the importance of proper litter management. Of course, don’t do it in a mean and bossy way . A simple, friendly reminder goes a long way.

25. Ask Smokers to Throw Away Butts

Roughly 38% of the US’ litter comes from cigarette butts. Asking the smokers to properly manage their cigarette butts can therefore be a tremendous step in achieving a clean planet.

26. Carry Portable Ashtrays

If you can, have a couple on you to hand out to smokers in need. They will be glad to use them when out smoking, helping ensure that we achieve a cleaner environment.

27. Recycle when Possible

By  recycling , we can help reduce the amount of waste in the world by reusing. When you reduce the amount of waste that gets generated in your home, you actually reduce the amount of garbage that ends up at  landfill sites .

28. Recycle Better

We need to know what we can and can’t recycle in our community . Items like disposable cups, greasy pizza boxes , non-recyclable plastic containers (like those used for yogurt), and take-out containers can contaminate entire batches of recycling.

According to “ National Geographic ,” a whopping 91% of plastic isn’t recycled and can linger in the environment for hundreds of years, contributing to ocean polluti on.

Glass containers are 100 percent recyclable; steel and aluminum cans and cardboard are also easily recyclable .

29. Beautify an Area Near You

Beautify your neighborhood and community, including landscaping and repairing fences. Attractive, maintained neighborhoods are littered less, and research shows that they are usually safer, too.

30. Clean up After Your Pet

It should go without saying, but cleaning up after your pet is not only required by law but also common courtesy.

31. Make Sure All Bags Are Secure

As an extra precaution, make sure your waste bags are tied tightly at the top before putting them into the trash can.

32. Tie up Loose Paper

Or at least ball it up, loose paper is easily picked up and carried by the wind. Though a lot of it is biodegradable, some paper has dangerous chemicals that can  hurt the Earth .

33. Volunteer to Lead a Litter Prevention Education Group

Take some time, read up on litter prevention, make a slideshow or a small pamphlet, and set up a class at your local recreation center or library.

34. Adopt Small Areas Around the Community

It doesn’t have to be anything official, simply take responsibility for keeping one area clean around you. It will help the inhabitants learn from your actions and appreciate the efforts by not littering the area.

35. Reach out To Local Events

Too many times, local events, especially outdoor venues, don’t provide enough trash containers.

36. Talk to The Food Trucks

With the ever-expanding food truck business, many don’t provide proper trash disposal options or offer bags or small cans to ensure no plastics make their way onto the ground.

37. If You See It, Report It

Many people forget that not only is littering bad for our environment, but it’s also a crime. I’m not saying that yo should call your local police department every time you see someone throw a candy wrapper on the ground.

However, if you notice a repeat offender and they haven’t been listening to the kind words you’ve offered, it may be time to ask for help from the authorities.

38. Educate the Community Children

Children have an immense ability to help in the battle against litter. Not only will they religiously pick up trash if properly educated, but they can also be soldiers in delivering your message.

39. Make It Fun

Create games or have clean-ups followed by pizza and drinks at a friend’s or local restaurant.

40. Ensure Proper Disposal If You Live Near the Water

Head down to the docks and ask the harbormaster to ensure there are proper disposal receptacles for all fish, bait, and tackle.

41. Reach out To Local Schools

Ask them to hold an educational class or afterschool group dedicated to litter prevention . Many schools already have programs and may need help in certain areas. Feel free to volunteer and get involved with the children.

42. Create a Website

In today’s technological age, creating a website (or other online groups, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and promoting through various online channels is a great way to reach people and get them involved.

43. Contact the Government

When in doubt, reach out to the local government and ask if there is anything you or they can do to continue helping the community keep the streets clean.

44. Set an Example

Lead by example. Of all the things mentioned in this list, none is more powerful than the will of one person. Pick up one piece of litter every day. You never know when that one day will come around when a person sees you doing the right thing and decides it’s a change for the better they should also make.

45. Report Litterbugs

Littering is not only morally wrong; it’s illegal.

To conclude, if we all do our part, even if it’s just a little bit a day, here and there, we can change the world and make our Earth shine. Not only will this make our planet a great place to live and survive, but it will also reduce the number of health problems that occur due to places that become breeding ground for flies and mosquitoes.

About Rinkesh

A true environmentalist by heart ❤️. Founded Conserve Energy Future with the sole motto of providing helpful information related to our rapidly depleting environment. Unless you strongly believe in Elon Musk‘s idea of making Mars as another habitable planet, do remember that there really is no 'Planet B' in this whole universe.

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What You Can Do About Trash Pollution

We all play a role in helping to prevent and remove trash in the environment. You can take action at home, school, and work to ensure a cleaner community and healthier waters. 

Watch the video " Repair the Future " to learn how everyone can help to reduce aquatic trash. This video was created by marketing students from California State Polytechnic University-Pomona and was the winner of the 2020 American Marketing Association (AMA)- EPA Trash Free Waters Video and Marketing Brief Competition.

On this page:

• Reduce Consumer Waste 
• Dispose of Waste Properly 

Volunteer in Your Community

• Learn More and Spread the Message 

Reduce Consumer Waste

The most effective way to prevent trash from polluting our waterways is to reduce the amount of waste you create .   

• Replace single-use plastic packaging, bottles, and containers with reusable products or eliminate packaging when possible. Discover 10 ways to  Unpackage Your Life page.
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• Learn more about how to Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle .

Dispose of Waste Properly

Marine litter is often the result of poorly-managed trash on land. If trash is intentionally or accidentally littered on the ground, wind or rain can carry it into nearby waterways. The trash then travels downstream and can ultimately, end up in the ocean. 

Never litter. Put trash in the appropriate bins and do not leave trash next to- or on top of an overflowing bin. 

Go to your municipality's website to learn how to properly dispose of your recyclable and non-recyclable waste. Be sure to recycle more, recycle right.

Take these steps to prevent trash from escaping from your outdoor trash bins on collection day:

Keep your lid closed and don’t overflow the trash bin.  

Put trash outside shortly before pickup.  

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Organize and participate in local waterway cleanups . 

Collect data on what you find! 

Use the  Marine Debris Campus Toolkit  to bring positive change to your university.

Invite your friends, family, and classmates to join in! 

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Read the Trash-Free Waters newsletter or watch our webinar series  to stay up to date with recent trash capture projects and research efforts. 

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38 Causes, Effects & Solutions for Littering

“ I see litter as part of a long continuum of anti-social behaviour.”

Bill Bryson

Littering: Causes, Effects & Solutions

Litter can be defined as waste products that have been disposed of in an improper way at undesirable locations.

Litter can be composed of several different materials like plastic, metals or paper.

It can also include large and hazardous waste like batteries, electronics or tires.

Littering can be regarded as a serious issue to our environmental system since it has severe adverse effects.

In the following, the causes, effects and also solutions regarding littering are examined.

Audio Lesson

Causes for littering, construction, people are lazy, people do not care, attitude towards littering, stubborn behavior, pack behavior, lack of education, not enough trash cans.

Construction activities are one cause for littering.

Since at big construction projects, many workers are at one place and often live in housing nearby, they usually produce large amounts of waste.

This may be waste from the lunch break or also from packaging material.

This waste is often dumped nearby and may lead to littering.

Many times, the simple reason for littering is just laziness.

Many people are just not willing to keep their trash and dispose of it in the next trash bin.

They rather throw away their stuff right where they stand.

A good example of this behavior is the disposal of cigarettes.

People just dump them on the ground when the cigarette is finished, seemingly too lazy to dispose of their cigarettes in a proper way.

Another reason for littering that people often seem that they just do not care about how they dispose of their waste.

Some people seem not to care about the environment at all, just throwing away all kinds of items even in forests or in landscape conservation areas.

The attitude towards littering of our society plays an important role in the process of littering.

Studies found that people are more likely to litter in areas where there is already a high level of littering.

This implies that people are also forced by social norms. In areas with high levels of littering, people think it is more accepted to litter and therefore are more eager to do so.

Thus, the value system of our society also determines the level of littering.

Another cause for littering is simply the immaturity of some people.

If they saw that their actions adversely affect the environment, people would likely be more careful and avoid littering, assuming they are responsible enough.

Since many young people are quite immature, however, they do not care too much about our planet at this kind of age and are often too selfish for responsible trash disposal behavior.

However, not only young immature people may contribute to the littering issue, also old people who are unwilling to change their behavior may do so.

If a person becomes older, he or she is less likely to change their daily life behavior.

Thus, if people do not learn to avoid littering until they reach a certain age, they are less likely to learn it when they become old.

We are all affected (at least unconsciously) by the people who we spend time with.

Thus, if we spent time with people that live their lives in an environmentally-friendly way, we are more likely to also pay more attention.

Therefore, people who hang out with people who do not care about the environment and do litter quite frequently are also more likely to start littering.

In many countries, the fines for littering are quite low.

There may even be no fines at all.

For example, it is quite common in Europe that many people just throw their cigarettes on the ground when they are finished.

Nobody seems to care about this behavior and they are almost never fined at all.

Thus, since people do not have to expect to get fined, they are more willing to stick to their littering behavior.

Education is always crucial when it comes to developing responsible behavior towards our planet.

Many people simply do not know how their actions affect the environment.

Thus, they do not care about the littering issue and just throw their garbage on the ground since they have always done it like that.

Therefore, a lack of education is another cause of the littering issue.

In some areas, there may also be not enough trash bins around.

People are often not willing to search for trash cans for a long time.

If they do not find them right away, people are more likely to throw their trash on the ground and thus to contribute to the littering problem.

Effects of Littering

Spread of diseases, social costs, social tensions, increased probability for fires, breeding ground for insects, soil pollution, water pollution, air pollution, decrease in tourism, visual pollution, effects on quality of life, effects on animals, effects on plants, effects on aquatic life, effects on birds, economic effects.

Littering can cause the spread of diseases , depending on how the littering mass is composed of.

The littering of organic waste always poses a threat to human health since it attracts animals like rats which are known to be able to transmit serious diseases when they get in touch with humans.

Moreover, litter can be the breeding ground for many harmful bacteria which can lead to the spread of diseases like Cholera or other serious health conditions.

There may also be injuries caused by littering.

People are especially at risk when the litter is composed of metals, blades or needles.

For example, if children are playing outside, they are likely to pick up the things on the ground since they want to play with them.

If the litter contains harmful bacteria, children can be affected since the litter containing class could cut through their skin and transmit serious diseases.

Littering also leads to significant costs in our society.

On the one hand, the litter has to be cleaned up by employees which adds up to quite a lot of money which has to be spent on this cleaning process.

On the other hand, there are costs related to the pollution of our environment.

Litter usually has adverse effects on our environmental system since it causes all kinds of pollution.

In the long run, we will have to pay the piper for our littering behavior.

Thus, the littering issue can lead to high social costs.

Littering may also cause tensions in our daily life.

For example, I see people arguing about littering on a daily basis.

When someone throws garbage on the ground, there are other people who want to convince this person to avoid this behavior.

However, in many cases, the person who littered does not see a reason to change his behavior and will openly communicate his attitude.

This may lead to conflicts between both parties which could result in fights if things get out of control.

Littering may also contribute to fires.

For example, if people just throw away their cigarettes wherever they stand, they are at risk to start wildfires.

This is especially true if people throw away their cigarettes in areas that are at high risk for wildfires like dry woods.

People simply often underestimate the dangers of their behavior.

They do not believe that a cigarette could be enough to start a fire.

Thus, littering can cause an increase in probability of wildfires.

Litter can also serve as a breeding ground for insects or pests.

Especially organic litter can be quite harmful since these insects and other pests are eager to breed on organic substances.

Thus, littering can lead to an increase in undesirable insects since it contributes to increase in their population.

Soil pollution is another important adverse effect of littering.

Litter can be composed of several materials like glass, metal, organic stuff and so on.

It can also contain hazardous materials.

This is often due when it comes to batteries.

Batteries contain many harmful substances.

If these batteries are disposed of improperly and result in litter, they may pollute the soil in a severe way.

The soil is likely to store harmful substances.

This in turn may also contaminate our groundwater since through heavy rainfalls, the harmful substances are washed through the soil.

Water pollution from littering can come in several ways.

Our rivers and lakes can be polluted through littering when people just dispose of their garbage directly in the water.

Moreover, part of this garbage is likely to eventually end up in our oceans.

In addition, water pollution also includes the pollution of our groundwater.

When people throw away their garbage, harmful elements are washed into our groundwater due to natural rainfalls.

Thus, littering can contribute to water pollution in a significant manner.

In some cases, in order to get rid of the litter, it is just burned.

However, in the combustion process, there are many harmful substances that can enter our air and thus lead to air pollution .

This problem is especially severe when it comes to the burning of plastic since this leads to the emission of many toxic gases and particulate matter which in turn can harm the human respiratory system.

Many poor countries rely on tourism since that is their biggest source of income.

They are quite aware that their nature is their biggest asset in order to be able to survive.

Thus, many countries have strict laws against littering in order to protect their nature.

They know that littering will pollute their environments and tourists will stop visiting these countries if they are polluted too much.

Tourists are usually looking for places which are clean since they want to experience the best sides of the country and also want to relax.

Thus, polluted beaches may not be their first choice for their vacation.

Therefore, littering can lead to a serious decrease in tourism.

Visual pollution is another effect of littering.

It just doesn’t look nice if beaches are polluted with rubbish or when forests are full of tires or other garbage.

People will feel uncomfortable which may lead to more stress for them.

Thus, littering may lead to visual pollution and thus may also lead to related adverse effects.

Littering also affects the quality of life of people living in the affected areas.

People like to have a clean environment where they can relax after work.

If there is trash on every corner and every square foot is polluted by cigarettes, the life quality of many people drops significantly.

Apart from the many adverse effects on humans from littering, there are also several serious adverse effects on animals.

Animals will try to eat some of the litter.

However, they may not be aware that a big fraction of the litter may impose significant health issues on them.

For example, if animals try to eat cigarettes, chances are that they simply will die.

Animals may also consume organic food contaminated with certain bacteria.

This can lead to a spread of epidemics in the animal world.

Thus, littering can have severe effects also on animals.

Plants can also be affected by littering.

Through the pollution of the soil through littering, plants are also contaminated since they get their nutrients from the soil.

If the soil is covered by cigarettes, the harmful substances from the cigarettes will be washed in the soil and therefore also end up in plants.

This could in turn eventually even lead to contamination of humans with these harmful substances in a later stage through the food cycle.

Aquatic life can also be adversely affected by littering.

Our lakes, rivers and especially oceans suffer from a vast plastic pollution problem.

Much of this problem is caused by littering since people just dispose of their trash into rivers and lakes which finally ends up in our oceans.

Many water animals and plants may die off since plastic contains harmful elements that contaminate the water.

Moreover, some fishes try to eat plastic particles and also die from this since they are not able to digest plastic.

Birds are also affected by littering and the implied consequences.

When the trash from littering finally ends up in oceans, many birds can die since they will try to eat this trash.

Moreover, they eat fish that may also be contaminated with plastic and in turn suffer from adverse consequences.

Apart from the adverse environmental effects, there are also significant economic effects from littering.

As we have seen, littering can lead to serious environmental problems.

These problems also transfer into economic problems since we have to spend quite a lot of money to clean up polluted areas.

Many people have to be employed in order to be able to get rid of the adverse consequences of littering.

Thus, littering also leads to the spending of a lot of money which could be used for other purposes it there was no littering issue.

Solutions to the Littering Problem

Government regulations, higher fines, more controlling instances, additional trash cans, pick up litter, community programs, use trash bins, physical signs, cleanup events, convince others.

One solution to the littering problem is to impose strict government regulations .

Governments and municipalities should make clear that littering is not welcome and that it has severe environmental downsides.

This should be communicated from politicians to people on a regular basis so that people get aware of this problem.

Higher fines for littering are an effective measure to mitigate littering and its adverse effects.

People are usually quite sensitive when it comes to their finances.

Right now, littering is not fined at all or just with a few bucks in many countries.

If we change that and the fine for littering will go up in a dramatic fashion, people will be more eager to avoid littering.

Currently, littering is not controlled and fined in an appropriate manner since there are simply not enough controlling instances or people who can control littering.

Thus, people know that they can get away with littering on a daily basis since nobody stands ready to fine them.

Thus, in order to get people to stop littering, we have to increase the number of people for controlling and fining littering.

In order to mitigate the littering problem, it can also make sense to provide additional trash bins in areas that currently lack a good supply.

If people do not have to walk a long distance to find the next trash bin, they are more likely to use trash bins instead of disposing of their trash on the ground.

Another measure in order to mitigate the littering problem is to pick up litter.

You can contribute to a reduction of waste from litter if you are willing to pick up trash from others.

In this way, the trash from littering can be reduced.

However, not many people will be willing or have time to pick of litter caused by other people.

Thus, picking up litter may be a supplementary measure, but is not likely to make a significant impact on the overall problem.

There may be opportunities to set up community programs in order to show people the negative effects of littering and to raise awareness on how to avoid litter.

Therefore, people may be more eager to change their behavior and to avoid littering.

A simple way to mitigate the littering problem is simply to use the trash cans instead of throwing your garbage on the ground.

Thus, through this simple but yet quite effective measure, the adverse effects of littering can be reduced significantly.

In order to reduce the littering problem, local authorities may also put up signs which show people that littering is not welcome.

In this way, people may become more sensitive to the littering problem and may stop littering.

Another contribution to mitigating the littering problem are cleanup events.

Many people can gather and clean up parks or forests to get rid of the trash.

Through this group effort, people are likely to be more eager to gather trash and also to avoid littering in their own daily life.

Education is a crucial step to be able to mitigate the littering issue.

We have to show people how their actions in their daily life affect the environment.

We also have to show them that it is quite easy to avoid littering and thus to contribute to protect the environment.

This education should already start in school since children are usually more willing to learn and adjust their behavior than adults.

Moreover, children may convince their parents which may in turn pay more attention to avoiding littering.

In addition, when the children grow up, they may also be more aware of the littering problem and may be more motivated to take measures to mitigate it.

We have to also assure that our waste is disposed of properly.

This means we should separate garbage in our daily life.

Moreover, it has to be assured that industries have proper waste disposal processes and do not dump their trash in nearby rivers, lakes or other storage spaces in nature.

Littering is a big problem in our society.

Many people are just throwing their garbage on the ground and seem not to care about the adverse consequences of their behavior on our environment.

Many people may even not be aware of how littering affects our planet.

Littering has severe environmental effects, including adverse effects on humans, animals, plant and marine life.

Littering can be mitigated by several measures.

Many of them are easy to implement in our daily life.

We can all make a big impact on mitigating the littering issue if we pay attention to our own behavior and also by trying to convince other people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter

https://sciencing.com/effects-littering-environment-animals-8634413.html

https://trashhero.org/de/blog/why-is-litter-a-problem/

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.

As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.

After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.

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Flows to Bay

Clean Water. Healthy Community. It's a team effort!

Litter Prevention

Over time, small amounts of litter on our roads, sidewalks, and trails build up and contribute to a big water quality problem.

Take the Flows To Bay Litter Pledge and help be a part of the solution.

Nobody likes litter. It’s unsightly and pollutes our environment. As it happens, about 80% of litter found in our local waterways originated from land. Make every day Earth Day! Taking care of our environment is a very important job that everyone can do, including you! 

Imagine how much of an impact we can make if we all pitched in and took action? Whether it’s making a conscious effort not to litter, saying “no, thanks” to single-use plastics, and picking up litter when you see it—YOU CAN HELP MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

In an effort to help establish a litter-free San Mateo County and reduce the amount of litter found in our waterways, Flows To Bay has launched a litter pledge to encourage everyone to be committed to keeping your neighborhood, community, business and school — LITTER FREE!

Flows To Bay Litter Pledge

• Pledge Taker's Name * First Last
• COMMIT: I pledge to take small but meaningful actions each day to reduce litter in my community
• ENGAGE: I will speak with others about this issue, learn more, and join at least one cleanup activity in my town or city.
• Yes, please!
• Name This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Here Are More Litter Prevention Tips

• Bring Your Own (BYO…) – Reusable bags to the store, water bottles to the gym or the park, beverage mug to the coffee shop…you get the idea. The 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) still ring true. The fewer single-use products you buy, the less trash you create.
• Don’t litter. Make an extra effort to place your trash in the nearest trash bin. Keep garbage and recycling cans tightly covered to prevent litter from being blown away or scattered by animals. 
• Cover your load. If you have a truck, cover any items that could blow onto the road.
• Pick it up. Show you care for your community and inspire others by picking up litter that isn’t yours. Go one step further and help organize a community clean-up with your neighbors and friends.
• Green your garden. Use non-toxic pest control methods , conserve water, and befriend native plants to keep your garden happy and healthy.
• Encourage local businesses to reuse, recycle, and generate less packaging . Ask your local stores and shops if they recycle or take back packaging, fluorescent bulbs, batteries, etc.
• Support manufacturers who are eco-friendly. Encourage the use of green design and support manufacturers who take responsibility for their products at the end of their usefulness. Vote with your dollars!
• Drop off items that can’t go in the trash. Contact the San Mateo County Household Hazardous Waste Program or visit our household hazardous waste page to learn about the proper disposal of common household toxic products that require special care.
• Get Involved! Help local waterways by cleaning up litter with us. Check out our calendar to find events to participate in and build a stronger community. 
• Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and see how we’re maintaining a litter-free San Mateo County. Become inspired with our suggestions to live eco-friendly or provide your own suggestions!

Cigarette Butt Litter Reduction Program

When butts are littered onto streets and sidewalks, they are easily washed, blown, or flicked down storm drains that lead straight into local creeks, the Bay, and the Pacific Ocean without any treatment. In addition to being unsightly, cigarette butts never disappear because they are made of plastic and do not biodegrade. They are toxic to marine and freshwater fish.

San Mateo County is leading the charge in reducing the number of cigarette butts we see in our community by providing community resources and connecting with local cities, non-profits, and the Sheriff’s Departments to raise public awareness about the harmful impacts littered butts have on our environment.

Click here to see how you can help and to learn more.

City Offices Closed Thursday, July 4

July Fourth Holiday

Published 7/2/2024 at 9 a.m. Updated 7/2/2024 at 11 a.m.

Tips To Help Prevent Litter

Help keep Raleigh beautiful!

Updated: Jun 11, 2024

Litter is defined as waste products that have not been discarded properly. Litter endangers our environment, our wildlife, and our economy. It pollutes our neighborhoods, decreases property values, and destroys our city's natural beauty.

The ideal way to handle the problem of littering is to prevent it in the first place. Let's all take responsibility and try our best to properly dispose of waste!

• No littering! Take your food wrappings, drink containers, newspapers and other potential litter home with you and dispose of it in your own trash or recycling carts, or use one of the 96-gallon bins provided in the city’s streets and parks.
• Do not throw trash out of your window! Keep a litterbag in your car and dispose of your trash properly once at your destination.
• Keep your yard clean and free of things that can blow into the street and become litter. You are responsible for any litter or debris that's in stormwater pipes or a stream in your yard.
• When you visit a park, remember to take out what you bring in. Keep trash and recyclables in a bag or backpack until you can put them in a litter basket.
• Recycle! Recycle! Recycle! Talk to your family and friends about recycling to reduce the amount of litter you throw away.
• At home, make sure garbage and recycling bags are tied securely so that loose papers and other items can't fall out and become litter.
• Educate children about the importance of disposing of trash properly .
• Participate in community cleanup events, like our stream cleanups that are held in the spring and fall.
• Properly dispose of bulky household waste items.

What are the harmful effects of littering?

Litter cleanup cost in the United States total more than $11.5 billion each year! Litter can lead to soil, water , and air pollution. Trash along our Raleigh roads can serve as a breeding ground for insects and rodents. Litter can be composed of flammable materials that could immediately start a fire. Trash on our roads and highways can lead to accidents. And millions of animals die each year as a result of ingesting harmful objects or becoming entangled in littered substances.

Most plastics don’t decay. So, when items like plastic bottles and bags get into streams, they can harm wildlife and eventually end up in the ocean. This contributes to a major pollution problem around the world.

Think Clean!

Did you know.

Under  North Carolina’s anti-littering law, individuals may be fined and face community service for intentionally and unintentionally littering.

Intentional littering in the amount of 15 pounds or less is a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $250 to $1,000 and up to 24 hours of community service.

Let's all help keep Raleigh beautiful.  Think Clean!

Report Downtown Cleanliness or Appearance Issues

6 Ways to Prevent Water Pollution

Stream Cleanup

Residential Curbside Recycling

Public Nuisances

NCDOT Swat-A-Litterbug

86it Anti-Litter Campaign

To report litter:

If the offense takes place on a State road, call NCDOT at 1-800-331-5864.

For City streets, Citizen Service Request .

Supported Services

Littering: Causes, Problems and Solutions of Littering

Table of Contents

Etymologically, litter means rubbish carelessly dropped or left about anywhere, especially in public places. Sadly, people are found littering the road or any other public place with impunity. Quite often, we see even educated persons travelling in an expensive car roll down their car’s window to dump trash on the road. They do not think twice about throwing half-eaten sandwiches or throwing empty soda can which hit the car coming from behind us with its driver trying to avoid it in a dangerous way. A truck loaded on the highway goes spreading trash due to its broken container. Who cares?

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Many people have an unfortunate habit of just dumping waste products at an inappropriate location. We callously drop objects such as aluminium cans, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles at a public place and leave them there indefinitely. Household waste and even hazardous items of rubbish such as tyres, electrical appliances, electronics, batteries and large industrial containers are dumped on public land. This way, we expect others to dispose them of as opposed to ourselves disposing of them properly.

Spitting anywhere and throwing garbage anywhere is an unfortunate tendency. People often spit on the stairs of an office building, on the over bridge and platform of the railway station. Pan, gutkha and tobacco eaters generally find it hard to resist the tendency of spitting.

The Problems and Causes of Littering

India is the most sluggish in terms of cleanliness among most countries of the world. There are many reasons for the sad mentality of people towards hygiene in India.

• A widespread social phenomena

Often poor sections are considered to be responsible for creating a pile of garbage, filth or garbage in public places. But what about the dirt spread by the pee and  poo of dogs of rich classes in parks, streets and roads? There is a charge against the slum dwellers that they spread pollution, but the truth is that there is a woeful dearth of proper waste management in multi-storey buildings, chemical industries and other factories which are responsible for spreading more garbage in the residential areas. So, the filth in the cities is not limited to poor people’s actions, but every section of the society is guilty of spreading the mess at its own level.

• Inability to share responsibility

Many people tend to believe that they have to maintain the standards of sanitation within the four walls of their houses. The filthy water, garbage, or the dirt of the dog, is removed from the house and thrown into the street, road or park. People believe that garbage-disposal is the responsibility of the government and the administration. It is neither their responsibility to keep the environment, road, park or the street clean nor they are accountable for the garbage or filth, which is thrown out of the house.

• Lack of spirit for maintaining cleanliness

In this densely populated country, most of us still spread dirt on the streets despite dustbins being kept along the roads. We just mean to clean up the place where we live and worship.

We do not do this because we like to spread dirt on the road, but we do this because we are a slave to our habit of littering.

Despite the much-talked about Swachh Bharat campaign, our country is quite dirty compared to other countries. There is no cleanliness campaign in other countries of the world. Despite this, they are cleaner than most Indian villages and towns. Unlike Indian roads, no one is seen sweeping a broom in other countries, similarly, important celebrities there do not flaunt themselves spreading campaign for hygiene with a broom in hand. Still, what is the hidden secret behind their cleanliness?

The answer lies in the spirit of maintaining cleanliness that lies in the character of citizens of those countries from a very young age. In many public places in India, the board of ‘Do not litter’ can be seen. Even then, that place is filled with dirt. People consider it their rights to defile public places, and cleaning is considered to be the job of sanitation workers.

• Increase in types of waste

In olden times, garbage was generally organic waste which would assimilate into the ground, but with modern development, the proportion of chemicals in the waste is increasing. It is extremely harmful to health. Earlier, in countries like India, materials used as bags were not harmful. Pottery was used for curd, and jute bag was used to carry other stuffs. The use of plastic has changed the situation and a problem has also arisen with it because the plastic never melts. There is no proper system to deposit or dump it. Now efforts are being made to deal with the problem by banning the use of plastic.

What Littering can do to the Environment?

Littering has a negative impact on the environment. In fact, it has become a serious environmental issue how to counter the ill-effects of littering. We all like to keep our houses clean, but after cleaning it many of us throw the garbage around due to which there is contamination of the entire environment. We never bother to understand that it’s our responsibility for not polluting the atmosphere, and spreading diseases by littering.

Before throwing the garbage out of houses and shops in the drains made in the roadside, nobody thinks that if the same garbage gets stuck, then due to excessive flooding in the rainy season, dirty water will be seen flowing out of their own houses.

Is Littering a Crime? What are the Penalties for Littering?

In most public places of the country, garbage bins are not kept, and where they are kept, they are not cleared for several days. In such a situation, the whole place is filled with dirt. People too do not have any shame or regret to make it dirty by spitting or spreading garbage anywhere. The absence of strict law against those who litter has stood in the way of cleanliness in the country.

Littering in foreign countries falls under the category of crime and penalties are also levied on this. Citizens have the responsibility to maintain cleanliness in certain areas around their homes. At one time, there was a tendency to spit everywhere in China. But today it has been curtailed.

In Singapore, anybody is fined $200 for throwing garbage. No arguments are heard. There is a ban on chewing gum. Stray dogs are not found here. Similarly, police can impose fines for throwing garbage in the streets in America, Australia and the Netherlands. North America runs a program to adopt highways. Under this, companies and organizations show a commitment to keeping a portion of the road clean. Germany, New York, the Netherlands and Belgium have enforced container deposit laws under which people are encouraged to collect garbage.

In Kenya, waste is turned into works of art and sold. A fine of up to 2500 pounds can be imposed if anyone is convicted of spreading dirt in the UK.

Unfortunately, no central law has been made in this regard in India till date. In many cities, municipalities warn people of fines, but these are not implemented in practice.

Why Litter is Dangerous?

In the form of garbage, the most disfigured item in the world is the cigarette butt. 4.5 trillion tons of butts are thrown annually. The time for the degradation of these remaining pieces of cigarettes is different. Some of them decay in five years and some take up to 400 years.

Often, plenty of food is served in any public program and wedding ceremony, but left-over food articles are thrown out of the premises. Due to lack of cleanliness, the garbage gets deposited on the side of the road, due to which many serious illnesses are born, for which we are responsible ourselves.

Solutions of Littering

As the world is developing and the living standards are increasing, there is a corresponding increase in garbage generation. There is nothing wrong with it as long as we find ways and means of proper waste disposal. Everyone is aware of Mohenjodaro , the ancient civilization which is still known for the best arrangement of irrigation and drainage. So, let’s get started today and from now on, start the unique civilization of proper garbage management.

• Learn to use waste-bins
• The number of garbage bins should be increased and they should be cleaned by Municipal Corporation as a rule. If we can make some strict rules regarding cleanliness and not spreading dirt along the lines of foreign countries, no one can stop the Swachh Bharat campaign from being successful. The full attention of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan should be on ‘no littering’. It is true that more the people will develop the habit of throwing garbage into the dustbin, the faster our country will move forward on the path of cleanliness.
• Children imbibe good or bad habits only from the elders. So, if we grow accustomed to using the garbage-can, only then our children will also adopt this good habit, and instead of throwing garbage anywhere, they would use the waste-bin only.
• Waste or trash-bin is not just required for sanitation but it is also the basic need of a civilized lifestyle. If all of us will adopt this lifestyle, then we will throw banana peel, peanut peel or even trash such as small pieces of paper in the dustbin.
• If there is a lack of dustbin, then we will keep such tiny litter in our purse, handbag or any carry bag and when we are able to access a dustbin, then put the same into it.
• All of us will have to contribute to ensure that there is a presence of trash-can everywhere from the street, road to intersection. These places should have such a system of waste-disposal which is easily within the reach of everyone. However, Panchayat, municipality or municipal authorities can make a positive contribution to this work.
• We will all have to make a valuable contribution in developing the model of clean spaces; it will be possible only when everyone will adopt the habit of using the waste-bin to throw waste. For this, it is necessary to arrange a trash-bin at about 25 meters on every road and intersection so that more and more people can use it.
• Even today, it is commonly seen that the litter from the big shops is thrown on the road, whereas the garbage-can is not very far away from their reach. Enough is enough, we all have to change this habit and use the waste-bin.
• So, let’s all of us take a pledge that we will not spread the dirt on the road and always use the waste-bin. By doing so, we will present the example of a mature, civilized lifestyle in front of the world.
• Launching Awareness Mission

Everyone’s participations is important to fulfil any work at the nation level, so if we all want to make our homes, villages and the country clean and beautiful then first of all people must be aware of it. Without the participation of all people, we cannot achieve this goal. So, if we want to clean our country then we all must be aware of cleanliness.

• Cleanliness at Public Places

It is often seen that if we go to some public places such as railway stations, bus stations, and buy something to eat there, then we think it our freedom to throw plastic packets or other trash here and there. We do not even realize that we have done something wrong, that we have become irresponsible citizens. So, every citizen has a contribution towards making our country clean.

• Recycling of waste

It is possible to reuse many things thrown in the garbage. The waste of resources can be prevented by recycling and the environment can be conserved.

• Involvement of children and youth

Children have a crucial role to play in the image of a nation. If children of a country are aware, then they can definitely make their country clean and beautiful, as the strength of any country lies in the youth of that country. So, all children should be made aware of the need of hygiene from the beginning.

They should not make it a point to ensure the following:

• Whenever we have to clean our house, we should throw the garbage in a fixed place.
• We should never throw the garbage out of the roof or veranda, because it can spread dirt in the streets.
• The drains attached to our house should be covered. These drains also breed worms and many types of mosquitoes, which give birth to several diseases.
• In the public places, the waste-bin should be used to throw any trash.
• The household trash should either be disposed or thrown in such a place where there is no human habitation.

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‘Polite littering’ is a rubbish problem – here’s why the British approach to tackling clean ups is not working

Lecturer in Geography, King's College London

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Since moving to London almost a decade ago, I’ve always been struck by the drink tins, sandwich packs and free newspapers draped on and wedged in every nook and cranny of this beautiful city.

I’ve coined the phrase “polite littering” to represent rubbish that has been left like this, without people even realising they’re littering. This could be why communications that ask people not to litter when they don’t know they are littering, are simply ineffective, and can discredit the efforts of people cleaning up our public spaces.

The act of littering has always fascinated me and I’ve never thought it was OK to throw rubbish on the ground. Most people in the UK agree – 95% consider a clean environment to be important . This may seem like a very positive outlook, but street cleaners report having to collect a staggering 2 million items of litter a day, costing UK taxpayers over £1 billion a year .

Despite the perception that littering is bad, the UK’s litter rates continue to rise . Littering fines in England recently increased from £150 to £500, while campaign groups such as Keep Britain Tidy regularly launch anti-littering communication drives and have organised clean-up initiatives for 70 years.

This dichotomy inspired my PhD. Since the 1970’s, academic research has tried to quantify the effectiveness of anti-littering techniques. But this approach misses a vital step in the scientific process – to understand exactly how litter is created before intervening.

In my research , I have taken a step back from what experts think they know about this behaviour to observe littering in action. I have spent six years watching and documenting the way people dispose of their waste in London, Brighton, Manchester and Birmingham. I have discovered that not all litter is intentionally littered.

Litter is typically defined as being scattered about by people flagrantly throwing rubbish on the ground. But if a bin cannot be found, some people find creative ways to dispose of their rubbish, leaving it neatly on top of salt and grit bins, window ledges, garden bushes or bin bags awaiting collection.

Cigarette butts – the most littered item in the world – are often disposed of by flicking away as part of the smoking ritual . Aside from that, almost half of the non-cigarette littering I witnessed seemed “polite” – instead of intentionally throwing items on the ground, people would place their rubbish neatly on or around bins or bin-like structures.

I regularly observed people seeking out a bin to throw away an empty drinks can, while immediately littering their cigarette. So while people may understand the need to avoid littering, there’s a fundamental disconnect – they won’t necessarily consider cigarette butts as litter, despite them containing toxic chemicals and plastic microfibres .

Improving rubbish campaigns

Politely littered items can get knocked over by a strong gust of wind. Neat piles of waste might collapse when someone else adds another item to it. Often, this rubbish ends up on the ground alongside other litter, by which time, the original offender is well on their way, completely unaware that their actions have contributed to litter in the more conventional sense.

So much of the litter in the streets is generated completely by accident. About a fifth of the littering I observed happened with the individual being completely unaware. Lightweight, low cost and small items such as hair ties, face masks and till receipts are regularly dropped accidentally when people are rummaging through their pockets or handbags.

Once politely littered, rubbish can be further littered by animals too. Bags of rubbbish left next to full bins ready for collection can easily get ripped up and scattered by scavenging foxes at night. Cleaning staff then report having to pick up litter, managers read these reports and assume littering is the issue. But when litter is created this way, intent and outcome are wildly disconnected. In reality, larger bins with greater capacity and more regular cleaning schedules would improve the situation.

Unfortunately, when litter is created unintentionally, it still has the same detrimental effect on the environment, and it also makes it more likely other people will litter as well .

Many councils are increasingly removing bins to encourage people to take their rubbish home and hopefully reduce littering . This is not a reasonable expectation, especially in busy tourist areas where home may not be nearby or for people with leaky, messy rubbish they need to dispose of while out and about. Waste removal services need to be better matched to binning needs, particularly in highly littered areas and during peak times.

Ultimately, the act of littering needs a re-brand. Campaigns would do well to stop assuming that litter equals littering. All forms of improper waste disposal, including well-intentioned polite littering and accidental contributions, must be linked to the litter problem.

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