Do You Litter?

Do You Litter?

Litter is an important environmental issue. It is amazing that 94%of people identify litter as a major environmental problem and yet people still litter. Carelessly discarded garbage affects every member of society: it causes harm to people and animals, damages our waterways, costs us money and suggests that we do not care for our environment. Fortunately, we can all do something to help prevent and reduce litter.

We live in a plastic convenience culture; virtually every human being on this planet uses plastic materials directly and indirectly every single day. Our babies begin life on earth by using some 210 million pounds of plastic diaper liners each year; we give them plastic milk bottles, toys, and buy their food in plastic jars. Every year we eat and drink from some thirty-four billion newly manufactured bottles and containers. We use another fourteen billion pounds of plastics between fast food and other bought products. In total, societies use an average sixty billion tons of plastic a year. Each of us on average use about 190 pounds of plastic annually: bottled water, food packaging, furniture, syringes, computers, and computer disks, packing material, garbage bags, and so much more. When you consider that this plastic does not biodegrade and remains in our ecosystems permanently, we are looking at an incredibly high volume of accumulated plastic trash that has been built up since the midtwentieth century.

Litter can cause a whole range of problems for everyone in the community. Litter discarded in streets and parks can travel through the storm water system to our bays and oceans, where it can cause harm to wildlife. Removing litter from the community costs everyone money. It is a threat to the public's health. It attracts vermin and is a breeding ground for bacteria. Cigarette butts are a potential fire hazard. Litter can harm or kill wildlife; the plastic litter can choke or suffocate birds and marine life.

People litter for numerous reasons. Not everyone agrees on what is litter. Organic items are least likely to be regarded as litter. Over one third of people do not think an apple core is litter, roughly a quarter believe that a dog droppings are not litter either. However, virtually all people regard bottles, cans and food wrappers as litter. More than half of all littering occurs within five meters of a trashcan. Often litter is not simply left behind, but placed carefully in chose locations by people. People are more likely to leave objects in the open beside an overflowing garbage can.

Litter dumped in the street is washed down the storm water drains, which takes it to creeks, lakes and oceans. Very little of litter and pollution on beaches and riversides come from people dropping things in the river or by the lake. Most of the problems originate many kilometers inland and are flushed out to sea when it rains, and through rivers and creeks. Plastic is a major source of garbage. For the past 5 years, it has accounted for 38% of all the garbage. Cigarette butts are most common item counted around the world on clean-up days. A 1997 littering behavior survey found that people are three times as likely to litter a cigarette, as they are to put it in the garbage can. More that four out