Litterbugs really piss me off.

[twinjet]

I don't get it.

Someone help me understand.

I just bought a home in a good part of town. Well-kept, mostly, except for trash in the middle of the roads. Trash on the grass, in our park, in yards. What for? Do the people who do this have a motive? Is it done in spite, or is it a laziness thing? What is so daunting about being a responsible citizen that these people can't take care of their own trash? My mortgage is too shaging high to be okay with this poopie.

It's gotten to a point where I've had to do something about it. I go on litter walks to help combat the problem, but it seems more people are intent on contributing to than controlling the problem. There has been exactly one person who supported my actions, with an "awesome, man!" as I worked. I said nothing, only thought "don't thank me, help me out", but I'm already used to the idea of this being a one-man operation.

It's infuriating. I can walk a thousand feet from my place and have a Home Depot bucket filled before reaching our park. Thankfully, a trash can allows me to empty and continue work. Today I managed three buckets. One of bigger debris, the other two of small poopie.

We are not in the slums. The people doing this should be ashamed of themselves, and yet they're not. Worst part is, no one can really do anything about it. Confront them and they'll keep doing it. Staying passive and continuing to pick it up enables them ("someone else will get it"). I saw the latter happen in as little as three days.

Someone please tell me there's a way to win this. I'm already thinking of moving again.

 

[Stumbo]

Contact City Hall. Start a neighborhood group.

What type of trash is it? Fast food wrappers? See if there is a connection to local stores. Talk to your council person.

Don't you have any street cleaners cover your area? Are come every two weeks.

While we don't have trash on our block, if anything else happens like a cover off of an electrical box or a dead animal or graffitti or whatever, only we report it.

This has been consistent for over 40 years we've lived here.

I keep city hall on my speed dial.

After much effort, we got a couple of speed limit signs and a yield signs installed to help slow down traffic.

 

[Gorn]

People are disgusting.

 

[Oddly]

Sorry to hear that, Twinjet.

I'll agree with Gorn, and Sartre, who said 'Hell Is Other People'.

Fair play to you for trying to do something about this, but unless the community around you kicks in to help, maybe shamed by your actions, I doubt the problem will go away.
Are people dumping stuff to avoid paying bin collection charges, is it thoughtless dog owners not cleaning up, is there a local fast-food joint that a lot of the rubbish belongs to?

Here in Dublin there's fines and a extensive campaign that pretty effectively dealt with the dog problem, our local McDonalds and KFC actually have a litter patrol that do a pretty great job of policing around their areas, and our city council does regular street-cleaning and actively pursues serial litterers (A friend of mine works as a litter warden and part of his job is tracing litterers through receipts in dumped rubbish....apparently they've had quite a lot of successful prosecutions).
Maybe contact your local council or health & safety department...I assume you pay local property taxes or equivalent..they're supposed to finance this sort of thing.

 

[Gorn]

It's the selfishness of it. They wouldn't want trash in front of their houses. A bunch of pigs that don't respect the concept of shared space.

 

[two fingers]

Some people are just sorry.

You can't fix sorry.

You can admonish them. You can fine them. You can throw them in jail. You can help them. You can love on them. It won't work.

It's like trying to wash the red out of a beet.

Some people are just permanently sorry.

 

[mellowinman]

When I lived in Boulder, CO in the 80s, I had a roommate we called "Tarzan," because he had long blonde hair, and wore shorts, no shirt and no shoes most of the time. He worked as a construction laborer, and had a very imposing physique. If he actually witnessed someone discarding trash on the ground he would walk over to them and say something like, "you dropped something," or "pick that up."

He was a nice enough guy too, but when he would do that, the person always picked up their trash.

I'm not saying to do that; just sharing an anecdote.

 

[Stumbo]

Any way to set up a video cam?

 

[buldog5151bass]

Some people just don't care. Others almost seem to take pride in their ability to do this.

 

[ituobrey]

Some people are just sorry.

You can't fix sorry.

You can admonish them. You can fine them. You can throw them in jail. You can help them. You can love on them. It won't work.

It's like trying to wash the red out of a beet.

Some people are just permanently sorry.

Usually I hear "sorry" after attempting to find out why my staff did something face palmingly stupid. I respond thusly:
"Sorry means two things to me. Sorry I'm right, or sorry you got caught; both of which I already know. In the future, take the few nanoseconds you use to say "sorry" and think about what you say or do before you say or do it, and you won't need to say "sorry".



God, do they hate me.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Sounds like a lot of trash for a nice neighborhood. While it may be simple litterbugs, consider other sources. How is your trash collected? Is it possible that this trash is unbagged and escaping the garbage truck? Do you have any commercial businesses nearby that may have trash blowing out of their bins?

 

[friskinator]

Glad to hear someone post about this. It's one of my biggest pet peeves as well. In our townhouse complex, we have a private dumpster/recycling area, and it's always a disaster. Some people refuse to put their trash in the dumpster; instead, they put it on the ground in front of it. In the recycling area, there are around 10 bins, and when the first one (literally the first one you can access) gets full, stuff goes on the ground after that. The rest stay empty. It's mind blowing.

Regarding trash on the street, it would never occur to me to chuck my fast food bag full of trash out the window. I seriously don't get it.

Are people really that stupid and lazy? Yes, they seem to be.

 

[dwm74]

Let's not forget those smokers who insist on throwing their cigarette butts out the window of their car. For some reason that act infuriates me.

Polluting the air, slowly killing themselves (and making everybody's insurance rates go up), and littering. What a combo.

 

[Thornton Davis]

When I was a teenager I was a litterbug! Back then there was no thought of the environment, so I'd throw litter on the ground when ever I had some to get rid of without thinking of what I was doing. Then one day I did that and my then girl friend saw me and it upset her. We had a good chat about what I was doing and why I was doing it. She told me that if I wanted to continue our relationship that I'd have to stop being a litterbug. I deeply cared for her so I stopped being lazy and became an advocate for putting trash in its proper place whether it was mine or not. As the years when by, I became the environmental enforcer in our house by making sure my family understood the impact of their actions and what I expected of them regarding garbage/trash.

Ultimately, it's simply lazyness that's the root cause of trash being in our parks, roads, waterways, etc. Thank goodness that smoking is going away because I was tired of picking up discarded cigarette packages, wrappings and filthy butts. Perhaps our children should be taught in school that garbage has its place and its up to them to make sure that as they grow up with the right attitude about trash.

TD

 

[Richland123]

I am with you on the littering issue. I have to pick up trash in my front yard along a busy roadway. There is also trash in front of my office building often too in a different town. I see lots of trash along the highways around here too and this is not a big population area. I don't get why it seems so hard for people to wait until they get home or to a trash can to throw something away. It's not hard.

The state of Pennsylvania and the local municipalities have $300 littering fines but they are not enforced much. I told the police chief from the township where I live and a township supervisor near my business that if they want to make lots of money quickly, just have the police sit along some of the roads and hand out $300 littering fines for a day.

 

[twinjet]

Are people dumping stuff to avoid paying bin collection charges, is it thoughtless dog owners not cleaning up, is there a local fast-food joint that a lot of the rubbish belongs to?

Just random trash. Thankfully, there isn't much, or any pet waste. None that I've seen, anyway. There are fast food areas about 3 miles away. Some of those end up on the ground. Picked up several Taco Bell hot sauce packages and a few drink containers. The one that concerned me was seeing two syringes in the same area. They read "insulin", and I'm really hoping the person who disposed of the needles is diabetic, not someone using drugs.

When I lived in Boulder, CO in the 80s, I had a roommate we called "Tarzan," because he had long blonde hair, and wore shorts, no shirt and no shoes most of the time. He worked as a construction laborer, and had a very imposing physique. If he actually witnessed someone discarding trash on the ground he would walk over to them and say something like, "you dropped something," or "pick that up."

He was a nice enough guy too, but when he would do that, the person always picked up their trash.

I'm not saying to do that; just sharing an anecdote.

I can't tell you how much I've wanted to do that. Especially as a bigger dude.

Any way to set up a video cam?

Not sure if I could make that work.

Some people just don't care. Others almost seem to take pride in their ability to do this.

Free country and all.

Sounds like a lot of trash for a nice neighborhood. While it may be simple litterbugs, consider other sources. How is your trash collected? Is it possible that this trash is unbagged and escaping the garbage truck? Do you have any commercial businesses nearby that may have trash blowing out of their bins?

This could be. Trash day was Tuesday, and I noticed all the litter yesterday.

I have ruled out businesses. The nearest store is 1.7 miles away and there is one cafe in between my area and the store. Obviously the store lot is a mess, but due to how things are designed that trash doesn't really blow outside of the boundaries.

Glad to hear someone post about this. It's one of my biggest pet peeves as well. In our townhouse complex, we have a private dumpster/recycling area, and it's always a disaster. Some people refuse to put their trash in the dumpster; instead, they put it on the ground in front of it. In the recycling area, there are around 10 bins, and when the first one (literally the first one you can access) gets full, stuff goes on the ground after that. The rest stay empty. It's mind blowing.

Regarding trash on the street, it would never occur to me to chuck my fast food bag full of trash out the window. I seriously don't get it.

Are people really that stupid and lazy? Yes, they seem to be.

Lots of people doing that here, too. Disposing of large furniture outside of a trash bin, like mattresses and sofas. Or they'll break it down into the bin, leaving no room for bagged trash. It's a pain and an eyesore.

Let's not forget those smokers who insist on throwing their cigarette butts out the window of their car. For some reason that act infuriates me.

Polluting the air, slowly killing themselves (and making everybody's insurance rates go up), and littering. What a combo.

Butts are some of the worst. Some days, I see folks toss them out of their car windows. I wish I could walk up with a bucket filled with butts and dump them into their car. But we all know that wouldn't solve anything.

When I was a teenager I was a litterbug! Back then there was no thought of the environment, so I'd throw litter on the ground when ever I had some to get rid of without thinking of what I was doing. Then one day I did that and my then girl friend saw me and it upset her. We had a good chat about what I was doing and why I was doing it. She told me that if I wanted to continue our relationship that I'd have to stop being a litterbug. I deeply cared for her so I stopped being lazy and became an advocate for putting trash in its proper place whether it was mine or not. As the years when by, I became the environmental enforcer in our house by making sure my family understood the impact of their actions and what I expected of them regarding garbage/trash.

Ultimately, it's simply lazyness that's the root cause of trash being in our parks, roads, waterways, etc. Thank goodness that smoking is going away because I was tired of picking up discarded cigarette packages, wrappings and filthy butts. Perhaps our children should be taught in school that garbage has its place and its up to them to make sure that as they grow up with the right attitude about trash.

TD

Interesting story. I was born in '91. Environmental awareness was part of our upbringing in school, but my dad also was keen on good appearances and taking care of where you lived.

My daughter is one year old. She goes on the litter walks with me because I want to set an example for her. It's also fun to get out with her. I feel responsible, as someone bringing more people into the world, to make sure they don't worsen the problem in their older years.

 

[S-Bigbottom]

Post at your window with a BB rifle with scope aimed at the trashiest location and wait.
When something is dropped hit them in the butt.

 

[guy n. cognito]

This could be. Trash day was Tuesday, and I noticed all the litter yesterday.

You might want to explore this further. If the trash ALWAYS seems to show up on Tuesday or Wednesday, I'd start looking at the garbage truck as the source of the problem.

 

[friskinator]

Just random trash. Thankfully, there isn't much, or any pet waste. None that I've seen, anyway. There are fast food areas about 3 miles away. Some of those end up on the ground. Picked up several Taco Bell hot sauce packages and a few drink containers. The one that concerned me was seeing two syringes in the same area. They read "insulin", and I'm really hoping the person who disposed of the needles is diabetic, not someone using drugs.

I can't tell you how much I've wanted to do that. Especially as a bigger dude.

Not sure if I could make that work.

Free country and all.

This could be. Trash day was Tuesday, and I noticed all the litter yesterday.

I have ruled out businesses. The nearest store is 1.7 miles away and there is one cafe in between my area and the store. Obviously the store lot is a mess, but due to how things are designed that trash doesn't really blow outside of the boundaries.

Lots of people doing that here, too. Disposing of large furniture outside of a trash bin, like mattresses and sofas. Or they'll break it down into the bin, leaving no room for bagged trash. It's a pain and an eyesore.

Butts are some of the worst. Some days, I see folks toss them out of their car windows. I wish I could walk up with a bucket filled with butts and dump them into their car. But we all know that wouldn't solve anything.

Interesting story. I was born in '91. Environmental awareness was part of our upbringing in school, but my dad also was keen on good appearances and taking care of where you lived.

My daughter is one year old. She goes on the litter walks with me because I want to set an example for her. It's also fun to get out with her. I feel responsible, as someone bringing more people into the world, to make sure they don't worsen the problem in their older years.

My dad used to do "litter drives" on the street we lived on. That made an impression on me, so hopefully it'll make an impression on your daughter.

Some residents have suggested adding cameras to the garbage/recycling area where we live, but aside from the expense and figuring out who monitors them, what is supposed to be done with the footage? Let's say you film someone disposing of something improperly. How do you figure out their identity and/or what unit they live in? There are over 100 units here with multiple residents in each one. It'd be great to have some sort of accountability, but there's no way for the HOA to monitor it effectively. I've reported people for disposing of junk improperly when I've been able to watch them walk back to their unit, but aside from that, there's nothing else we can do.

 

[bolophonic]

We have this problem out by us. It is awful. Our little road is constantly littered with fast food bags, Mountain Dew bottles, dip cups, and bud lite cans. Occasionally someone will dump a few full household garbage bags and sofa cushions on the side of the main road and then the county will hit it with the industrial mowers and send it everywhere.

Last year, I was asked by the faculty to facilitate the creation of an Environmental Club at my children’s elementary school to help combat the problem. In my opinion, there are too many people who conflate “convenience” with “freedom,” so that generating piles of garbage becomes a god-given right.