Why do people litter?

Because people are idiots.

I litter because I know my BK bag is biodegradable and I justify my litter by saying to myself "it will turn into compost and fertilize that grass I just threw it in."

Better to let it compost and heal the earth or get locked frozen in time in a dump?

As long as it's not plastic, litter away, folks!

Bullseye. People who take pride in their neighborhood and community keep it free from litter and hold others accountable to do the same.

People who litter are either selfish or they come from cultures where the value of their environment is not held in high regard. Where I run in Los Angeles there is a corner where there are three public trash bins and still there is litter everywhere. This isn't an amenity issue and it isn't because we don't spend enough money to clean it up. It is because we have failed at creating a culture of responsibility. Not the case at Burning Man, for example. Half of those folks high as kites and there is still basically no litter to speak of. But they invest in creating a culture of participation and self-reliance, not a culture that tolerates incompetence and bad behavior.

Too lazy to clean there car out.

VroomVroom wrote:

Too lazy to clean there car out.

I was behind an azshole at a stoplight once who nonchalantly placed and entire fast food orders worth of waste (4x drink carrier and bag stuffed with garbage) on the ground next to/under his car while waiting for the light. Its the only time I've gone "road rage" on someone. He ran the next light to avoid me. I also learned my horn automatically stops making noise after 1 minute or so of constantly being held down ;-)

King Tiger wrote:

Littering is the highest crime as you do it intentionally. Even murder can be accidental. If i was world leader - instant death sentence .

Murder (the criminal charge) can't be accidental. It requires premeditation. The murderer has to have known the victim and thought about it beforehand. You might be thinking about manslaughter or 2nd degree murder.

Star wrote:

There are some woods across from my house that people have used as a dump for years.

My row of houses was built recently and think most of it was from when it was a pass through road without many houses.

It looks pretty bad. A lot of it is drive by toss their meal trash but some of the items are big and took effort and thought to dispose of it there.

There is an official county dump less than three miles form my house.

Are you my neighbor? Same, same, same. I scratch my head. I guess dumping is free?

Here's the crying Indian commercial. I remember it very, very, very well. Effective. Why don't they do that again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7OHG7tHrNM

I have a very vivid memory of driving through a crappy part of town and seeing a woman on her front steps eating a bag of chips. She takes the empty chip bag and just throws it off the steps into her own yard. The woman was littering up her own property.

The mind reels.

Does it count as litter if it falls out of my ass in my progressive city?

They're low quality people. I've nearly given up going to my local state park on Sundays because it's too sad. Huge amounts of litter from Friday and Saturday hikers.

I went backpacking in Eastern Kentucky a few months ago. There was a stretch of the trail that went by a couple popular waterfalls. I counted 10 water bottles in 8 miles and several campsites where people literally left all of their garbage. Wrappers, cans, bottles, everything.

TAA wrote:

They're low quality people. I've nearly given up going to my local state park on Sundays because it's too sad. Huge amounts of litter from Friday and Saturday hikers.

I went backpacking in Eastern Kentucky a few months ago. There was a stretch of the trail that went by a couple popular waterfalls. I counted 10 water bottles in 8 miles and several campsites where people literally left all of their garbage. Wrappers, cans, bottles, everything.

Do you ever think that you walking by all that trash might be part of the problem?

If we're really honest with ourselves the biggest environmental problem facing planet earth isn't the burning of fossil fuels, hunting of whales, littering, nuclear radiation, etc. It's us. We are the root of all these problems. And in the end, it won't really help to just moderate our behaviors. There will simply be too many of us. There are about 8 billion of us... up from 0.5 billion 200 years ago... for a planet that's 6,000,000,000 years old, for that kind of population growth to occur in just the last 200 years means that the once healthy earth is now infested with a parasite that consumes everything in its path, and we can't help ourselves. We can still pretend like transitioning to renewables will help stave off the inevitable, but imagine in another 200 years... or 2,000 years... how many of us will there be if we continue to grow at this rate? Something will break. It makes you wonder if COVID is actually Earth's immune response to the virus that is making it sick. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for mother Earth, COVID won't cure the Earth... it's too weak. But maybe earth has something more in store for us down the road.

It's a painful reality for us to face because we've convinced ourselves that we are good and righteous. But deep down we all know this to be true.

Lack of care. But keep in mind there is a reason for their lack of care. Perhaps they had poor parenting or have been screwed over by others so they don't care about what others would prefer them to do. Littering seems stupid and terrible but everything happens for a reason.

Thanks, there were a few thoughtful replies here. I do actually participate in a local effort to clean up trash. A friend of mine organizes a group

in the east SF Bay Area and he's looking to expand it into a general franchise. We have work parties every week and they supply all the stuff we need. It seems to be funded somewhat by the city of Oakland since some of our materials have Oakland city logos on them.

Still, sometimes the volume of trash we see is overwhelming, especially around the growing homeless encampments. And that's another issue. The homelessness epidemic in the Bay Area. I can understand why these people flock here. The weather is pretty good year round and social programs are favorable. This is something the political right-wing seems to enjoy fixating on, as if homelessness is a problem because of democrat policies in these cities. Whenever I hear these people talk about that however, I never hear any solutions. If we had right-wing leadership, would homelessness in our society magically disappear? Why?

tds wrote:

TAA wrote:

They're low quality people. I've nearly given up going to my local state park on Sundays because it's too sad. Huge amounts of litter from Friday and Saturday hikers.

I went backpacking in Eastern Kentucky a few months ago. There was a stretch of the trail that went by a couple popular waterfalls. I counted 10 water bottles in 8 miles and several campsites where people literally left all of their garbage. Wrappers, cans, bottles, everything.

Do you ever think that you walking by all that trash might be part of the problem?

I do pick some of it up. No I don't think it's partially my fault people fill the park with trash every weekend.

The Ice Age and the melting that followed disagrees.

Why do people loot cities and burn innocent people of colors businesses down. Neither makes sense.