Rant about litter!

Aggghhhhh! Sorry but i have to get this out of my system!

I was walking back to my school from town at lunchtime last thursday, (the year 11s are allowed to go out for lunch as a privalige for it being our last year), with a couple of friends of mine. A little way in from of us were two year 8s and a year 7 with a guy from my year (who shouldn't have been out of school anyway!). So, there they were walking along and all eating chips in polystyrene containers. As soon as they had finished they dropped the boxes straight in the middle of the pavement. 4 large, non-biodegradable boxes right in the middle of the pavement! This was soon to be followed by handfulls of sweet wrappers (oh, yes. We eat healithily at my school...) I mean, this is the town in which they live! Why on earth would you want to litter it like that!?!? It is beyond me how people can do this. When they heard me ranting and picking up the boxes they dropped more litter for me. What can you do?

I would think many of you have experienced this blatant disregard for the Earth but I just had to have a bit of a rant about it. Who has had similar experiences?

 

Thank you for picking up their trash.

Your story reminds me of a protest where the Black Block would overturn trash cans etc. and the Pagan contingent would follow behind cleaning up the mess.

What can you do? Its hard to convince litterers to change their ways. From what I have seen there are two kinds of litterers.

One kind is the person who just wasn't thinking at the time. They haven't developed the habit of being aware of their waste and its proper disposal. A gentel reminder (like seeing you pick up their trash) will correct the situation, until they forget again.

The other kind is the person who will do the least that they can. If they can get away with something they will. They won't be fooled into doing anything they don't feel like, especialy when no one is looking. Basicley jerks.

It sounds like you were dealing with teenaged jerks. It had less to do with trash than the fact that the youngsters were reenforcing the "teenage hoodlum" stereotype. I hope they grow out of it.

No matter the motivation of the litterers, people like you and I will keep picking up their mess. Keeping the streets (and rivers and air and...) clean is more important than making sure that people behave responsibility. So we do the work (picking up trash) that the slobs should have done. Momma Earth doesn't care who picks up the trash, so long as its picked up.

Thanks again for taking more than your share of responsibility.

 

Yeah I live in Alabama and there are a lot of people that litter and I try and pick up after them the best I can. It makes me so mad when I am going down the road and see all this trash on the side especially in wooded areas.

 

I hate litter! can't stand it. When my kids were small my pockets were always crammed with stuff, they'd give their litter to me if there wasn't a bin around, knew I'd go spare if they dropped it in the road. I walk round a lake, a favourite spot of many, and discarded beer cans are a plenty. Sometimes we do a big litter pick and on more than one ocassion found tiny animals dead inside these cans. Little shrews crawl in but can't get out. Another thing is irresponsible dog owners, yes they pick the poo up in the bags provided by the council, then they fling it in the bushes and it's left hanging there. There are bins provided, but it seems the act of carrying it to these bins is beyond them, gives responsible dog owners a bad name too.

We've had fly tipping and heaven knows what else, last week a roll of underlay had been chucked in the river, and someone went in and fished it out. These people should realise the lake and surrounding area is home for birds and wildlife. How would they like it if someone used their home as a rubbish dump. Respect, please!

 

Littering irritates me to no end. I usually either pick it up myself or yell at them to, but honestly--they're probably so used to other people doing things for them that they figure they can still get away with it and Mother Earth will be perfectly fine.
I'd like to dump a sack of trash on their front porch and see how they like it.

 

I just wish there were enforcable fines for peple who litter. that way even if they don't care, which they should, they would think twice since it would hit them where they do care, there pocket book. Thanks for doing your part and more MoonMaiden.

 

I can't stand it when people litter. I would have been infuriated too if I had saw that. It disgusts me when I go for a walk outdoors, or visit the park and see all of the litter everywhere. I mean, have some respect.

 

Yup, they were teenage jerks alright. I am with you- I hope they grow out of it!

 

Yeh it drives me crazy when people litter, especially if there are bins close by. It just shows complete disregard for their environment and thoughtlessness.

 

My daughter is in 1st grade. She got a "respect note" sent home from her teacher because she cleaned up trash that some kids through on the playground. I was very proud of her.

 

I litter paper all the time.
Well, that's because i'm lazy, i tend to shove plastic/foams in my pockets.

 

Oh, man, that is awesome! I hope that whenever/if ever I have kids, they do the same thing man. That is the coolest thing ever! It is so awesome that you taught your child to have such respect for our mother earth! That is just so awesome I can't even express it in words...


As far as litter goes, I really hate it. It is aweful. I used to work in a resturant and whenever I got off work I used to take a walk to wait for my parents to get there to pick me up (the schedual was designed so there was no exact time you would get off (whenever the rush was over) and we live like 20 minutes away) and I would walk behind some of the buildings and it was just aweful some of the crap people threw out! I mean, like there was this place between 2 buisnesses I guess neither one claimed and it also had a ditch in it. So it never got mowed or anything like that, and it had all this crap in it like chip bags and candy wrappers, bags from McDonalds, and even beer bottles. WE LIVE IN A DRY COUNTY!!! People really don't care man, and it is just sickening that they can't care any more... But I plan on celebrating Earth Day by going out and picking up a bunch of garbage.

But man, the other day I had just bought some thumb tacks, and on the way home the receipt like, flew out the window. I couldn't keep it from flying out and man, it made me feel so bad! and like there was a car behind me and I remember thinking "Wow, if they care at all about Mother Earth, they must think I am some kind of monster or something"... Good thing I haven't put any recycling or enviromental stickers on my car yet or they might have thought I was a complete hypocrite... Not that I care what other people think, I was just really bummed by it man.

 

Littering costs money, taxpayers money. These kids who litter, why can't they realise that the city has to hire folks to clean up after them.

Ppl complain about Toronto getting so littered and they blame politicians for not hiring enough cleanup crew , yeah one person wrote "if we all just pay an extra $10 a month we could hire enough ppl to keep the streets clean." Well that's $10 that not everybody has, nice to speak for everybody. But once the city raise taxes ppl balk.

I would like the city to get packaging taxes from goods sold with packaging, industries are not doing their share in waste management. So that would be 3 taxes on the goods sold in Ontario, one for each level of government, yeay, don't like taxes, well litterers suck. I go into more detail in my link in my sig

 

I hate litter. I absolutely cant stand it! When I see someone littering, I feel like yelling "Pick that up dickhead" but I dont as it will most likely result in me being beaten up .

 

Congratulations for rasing such a conciderate daughter! It's great that they reward that!

 

I don't dig litter...ohhh thats a bad pun....
Anyway, its so ignorant when people litter, and it's great that theres people like you who know enough not to do it, and to help deal with it. Unfortunately, it's a big issue, and hopefully more people will learn quickly...

 

I've taught my children, who've tought their grandchildren, who will teach their children, NEVER to litter. I caught my son once trying to litter in our back yard... Well he learned not to by watching a load of environmental videos that night. This also influenced my other children not to litter. A lesson well learned, in my opinion.

 

Whoa! The enviromental videos thing was AWESOME!!! I hope I can be as cool a parent as some of you when/if I have kids!

 

It's the same thing at school. The garbage can is empty... everything is on the floor. People usually say : ''Who cares? Don't they pay somebody to clean the cash?''