Littering.
Does it drive you crazy too?
“The scale of the mess we leave behind is proportionate to the level of respect we have for others.”
― Stewart Stafford
The other day I picked up enough discarded garbage to fill a large plastic bag. Scoutie and I had just finished a walk at one of our usual spots and the snow had melted enough to show the litter that remained along the edge of the small park-side parking lot. This is a place where dog walkers come to exercise their best friends and I have been coming here since Riley, my very first furry best friend. It is a lovely location that was once owned by the National Capital Commission and was entirely wild, then used as an allotment garden and compost depot, but now is taken up mostly by a new and expensive housing development except for the paths that follow the river’s edge — the fight over this re-zoning and sale by the National Capital Commission to a private developer went all the way to the Senate for debate in 2002, the results of which are very clear for everyone to see - damn you Premier Ford, developers and OMB (Ontario Municipal Board). But thanks to the Rideau River Conservation Authority and concerned residents, this part of the wilderness was at least saved.
Every time we come I notice garbage strewn about from the cars that normally carry young people (and yes, I’ve seen - and heard - them here); they eat fast food and throw their wrappers, plastic bottles, containers and bags onto the grounds surrounding the parking area. On this day, I made a point of cleaning up after them.
Why do people feel it is their right to toss their garbage into natural surroundings? In the case of this particular spot, there is a refuse bin nearby. However, one would have to leave your car and walk to the bin. Much easier to toss everything out the window and then drive away.
What is litter? The Cambridge Dictionary defines it thus: “small pieces of rubbish that have been left lying on the ground in public places” and states that about “two percent of fast-food packaging ends up as litter.” That’s a whole lot. However, I would say this doesn’t mention the litterer - “left lying on the ground” is deceiving. It should say, almost always intentionally dropped or tossed on the ground.
Let’s look at the kind of litter I found. The vast majority, if not all, was indeed food related: plastic bottles, plastic cups with snap on lids, food trays, bags and plastic cutlery. Is there something inherent within the idea of disposable containers that leads its users to believe they can (and should) be disposed of immediately upon their depletion? And if so, that doesn’t explain why they can’t be deposited in a waste bin rather than tossed on the ground. The waste bin in this area is no more than 30-40 feet away from any parked car. Or if you’re a good aim, 10-20 feet away from your passenger car window as you leave.
There seems to be a school of thought that believes spent containers, especially food containers, are yucky and therefore have to be discarded as soon as possible, sort of like cooties. Placing them back into their bag and bringing them home so that they can be tossed into the household garbage is apparently too much work for some. Easier simply to get rid of them right away, so that they’re no longer a concern or represent an extended chore. Easy come, easy go. Not my problem anymore.
One study in a small area in Northeast Texas (this was the subject of a 2014 Masters thesis) indicated that plastic bottles made up 37% of discarded waste (with plastic lids at 29%); plastic straws, 35%; grocery bags, 33%; styrofoam cups, 31%; candy wrappers and chip bags, 25%; and other miscellaneous items at lower rates.
In 2009, Action Research Inc. in the United States performed studies on littering: they discovered that 17% of people disposing of waste did so by littering and 81% of these actions were intentional; cigarette butts were the items most discarded by littering. Plastic litter has increased 165% since 1969 (from 2009 - likely more than that now).
Other statistics were uncovered:
Older people are less likely to litter;
There is some evidence that men litter more than women but the difference is not substantial;
Littering can be affected by the number and convenience of waste receptacles;
It can also be affected by either positive or negative messaging/signage;
and finally, that the presence of litter predisposes others to litter.
In Oceanside, California, Action Research Inc. came up with a program to help discourage dog walkers from leaving their pets feces on waterfront park trails. It looked like this:
…and resulted in a 23% decrease in pet waste on those trails. So I would say not only can signage be an effective tool to change behaviour, but it makes all the difference if it’s catchy or amusing and uses cartoonish, friendly graphics.
And then there’s this marketing tool that operates on multiple levels - and can be incredibly effective. You might remember this television advertisement from the 1970s:
Is that Charlton Heston’s brother? And do you think the music is a little overly dramatic? A little heavy-handed? Perhaps not. Despite the fact that the “crying Indian” was actually a second generation Italian (read this fascinating article to find out more), this ad, which was launched on Earth Day in 1971 by the non-profit Keep America Beautiful, was believed to have helped reduce litter across 38 states by 88% as it sparked a surge of community involvement around litter clean-up and, I assume, the use of trash bins.
(Ironically, despite acting in a variety of Hollywood films and television as a native American from 1930 to the 1980s, it wasn’t until Jay Silverheels, the Mohawk/Canadian actor who played Tonto in the Lone Ranger, felt there was something fishy about his story that his heritage began to be questioned. But that’s another story.)
But what about closer to home, here in Ottawa? What can we do? Apart from not throwing our waste on the ground, coupled with picking up after others, we can be pro-active…which to me means taking part in community activism AND speaking up when someone throws something on the ground. Yes, I know; I don’t want to be yelled at or threatened either if I put someone on the spot with their littering. But I’m recalling telling my 20-something boyfriend when he tossed a drink bottle from his bike into the river, “WTF are you doing??!!” and I can tell you he never, ever did that again AND pursued a career in environmental management - I’ll take a bow for that one.
You say you’ll pick your battles? I say encouraging people not to litter and cleaning up what’s already been tossed builds a sense of community, respect for others, respect for the environment and the animals that live in it, and shapes generosity of spirit. No small things, any of them.
2023 will be the 30th year of Ottawa’s Cleaning the Capital campaign, which takes place in both spring and fall. Residents volunteer to actively go out and pick up trash that others have left behind, thereby cleaning up their community spaces, roadsides and sidewalks.
I live now in a part of the City where there is mixed housing, both single family homes, duplexes, rental apartments, subsidized housing, a shelter and high priced apartments and condominiums. There are those who have enough and those who do not. I’m hoping to take part in this campaign and do my part to help keep our spaces garbage free and open others eyes as to how it makes a difference in everyone’s life.
