Final Research Project

Clean Up Our Act! There Is No Excuse for Littering!
As Minnesotans, we may live a busy lifestyle and forget to notice that the environment we live in is surrounded by litter. When you walk out of your house or go to class, or when you are driving or on the bus on your way to school or work, if you take the time to look at your surroundings, you will notice that litter is almost everywhere. It is in the street, on the highway, on the sidewalk, on the playgrounds, in the lakes and in the rivers, and more! It is everywhere! The world we live in is becoming a landfill right before our eyes. There are environmentalists fighting to decrease the usage of plastic bottles and bags, to have clean drinking water, to preserve our forests and coral reefs, and for many other important issues. However, how can humans even start to fight for our environment when not all humans can even take the first most simple and basic step to throw trash into the correct facilities? Littering is a root of our environmental problems. Once we stop littering, our goals of reducing pollution, obtaining clean water, and etc. can become more attainable. If all humans threw trash into the correct places, our government wouldn’t have to spend millions of dollars to clean roads and public places every year. All the money could be used towards something much more useful like recycling centers or the education system. Littering is something that can we can all do something about and it’s also one of the main contributors of pollution. This study covers the basics of littering (what littering is, why people litter, what the impacts of littering are, and how you can prevent littering), but it also concentrates on Minnesota and how we can deal with our litter.

What is litter?
According to Asimov (1992), "Any item disposed of improperly is called litter” (p. 7). This includes any bottle caps (plastic or aluminum can), gum wrappers, water bottles, napkins, paper cups, plastic lids, plastic bags, cigarette butts that have not been correctly discarded into the trash or recycling bin. It doesn’t matter if the item was accidentally blown away by the wind; it is still considered littering and the item should be chased down and disposed of properly.

"We live in a disposable world. So many things are made to be used only once and then thrown away. Paper cups, plastics silverware, cans, and soft drink bottles are thrown out by the ton everyday” (Asimov, 1992, p. 7). This is why we have so much trash and litter. "Litter lines city streets, floats down rivers, washes up on beaches, and blows through parks. There's even litter in space" (Asimov, 1992, p.5). There’s so much litter that according to the MN Department of Transportation, “Minnesota spends $5 million a year collecting litter – not counting what cities and counties spend.” Keep America Beautiful states that tobacco products, mostly cigarette butts, are the most littered item on U.S. roadways (38%). This is followed by paper (22%) and plastic (19%). According to Spacek (2008), beverage containers account for 40 to 60 percent of most total litter volume” (p. 3).

MN Litter Statistics:
*Adopt-a-Highway volunteers pick up litter on more than 12,000 miles of Minnesota roadways. (MN DOT)
*Adopt-a-Highway volunteers pick up approximately 26,000 tons of litter every year. (MN DOT)
*Researchers calculate that 55% of all littering is done intentionally by people who drop or discard products. (MN DOT)
*45% of roadside litter occurs unintentionally when trash blows out of uncovered trucks or falls off unsecured loads. (MN DOT)
*Experts estimate that approximately 80% of all littering is done by males. (MN DOT)

Why do people litter?
People litter because it is the most convenient way to get rid of trash if correct disposals are not nearby. Keep America Beautiful states:

“Research shows that smokers will litter cigarette butts, lighters, matches and packaging material if an ash receptacle is not readily available. Cigarette litter occurs most often at Transition Points. Transition Points are those places where a person must discontinue smoking before proceeding. A bus stop, a store entrance, building loading docks, walkways leading to government buildings and similar places are the Transition Points in a neighborhood.”

People will toss out cups and cans while driving as well. Some people think that if an area already has litter, it wouldn’t make a difference add some more litter on it. “People appear more self-conscious about littering in non-littered areas” (Spacek, 2008, p. 3). Some people are unwilling to travel to a legal landfill due to cost or distance, so they may take part in littering. Taxpayers may also feel their littering is acceptable, assuming someone is paid to eventually clean litter up (Spacek, 2008, p. 3). They are paying their taxes to have litter cleaned up, so why not take advantage of it? Another reason people may litter is because they are unaware they are littering. Some people think the items they are throwing out are small and will decompose. However, that is not always true. As you will see below, cigarettes do not compose as fast and affects the environment in ways that you wouldn’t expect.

The main reason people litter is because they are lazy. People should know by now that correct disposals will never always be available when they need them. Because of this, people should take responsibility and bring bags or ash trays with them. These items are small and collapsible and can be placed in cars, purses, backpacks, and more. If everyone planned for little moments like these, there would be no litter.

Why should people not litter?
-ugly and uninviting to visitors
-decrease real estate value
-expensive, money could be spent elsewhere
-harmful to the environment and human health
-dangerous to animals and humans

Litter is ugly and uninviting to visitors. According to the MN Dept. of Transportation, “Litter is unsightly. It destroys the natural beauty of Minnesota’s roadsides.” Because of this, parks, businesses, and homes close to or surrounded by litter, become unattractive and don’t draw many buyers or visitors. Not only is it ugly, it is expensive and as indicated above, costs Minnesotans $5 million a year to collect litter and that is not including what cities and counties each spend. This money could be spent on other important issues, such as: creating recycling centers, purification for clean drinking water, and etc. Instead, the money is being used for something that could be well prevented.

Litter is not only ugly and expensive to clean up, it is detrimental to our “environment and health. According to the Great Lakes Water Institute:

"Excessive litter can have damaging effects on wildlife and be harmful to human health. Litter on streets or sidewalks, if not cleaned up, will most likely end up in a river, lake, or ocean. Certain types of litter contain nutrients that may build up in excess in the water and cause algal blooms which deplete oxygen levels (Petrie et al.). This in turn creates a lower quality aquatic habitat where fewer delicate species can survive. Litter can also degrade water quality if there are other harmful chemicals associated with it, which can be harmful to humans if, for example, they eat fish from that body of water. Another way that litter can cause health problems is if it builds up and attracts rats or other pests that may carry disease.”

Depending on what types of litter are thrown, they can create dangerous environments for animals and human beings. Spacek states that “Livestock and wildlife have injured themselves by stepping on or consuming rubbish mistaken for food. Roadway and boating debris cause hundreds of serious injuries and deaths annually nationwide” (2008, p. 3).

Cigarette butts, the most littered item, are dangerous to us in many ways. According to Clean Virginia Waterways, “about 900 people in the United States die each year in fires started by cigarettes, and about 2,500 are injured. About 100 of the fire deaths each year are children and nonsmokers. Nationally, annual human and property costs of fires caused by careless smoking total about $6 billion. In 1997, there were more than 130,000 cigarette related fires.”

As stated by Cigarettelitter.org:

“There is a lot of misinformation out there regarding cigarette butt litter. The biggest myth is that cigarette filters are biodegradable. In fact, cigarette butts are not biodegradable in the sense that most people think of the word. The acetate (plastic) filters can take many years to decompose. Smokers may not realize that their actions have such a lasting, negative impact on the environment. Cigarette filters are made of cellulose acetate tow, NOT COTTON, and they can take decades to degrade. Not only does cigarette litter ruin even the most picturesque setting, but the toxic residue in cigarette filters is damaging to the environment, and littered butts cause numerous fires every year, some of them fatal.”

When a butt becomes litter, wind and rain carry the cigarette into the water supply, where the toxic chemicals the cigarette filter was designed to trap leak out into aquatic ecosystems. This threatens the quality of the water and many aquatic life forms (Cigarettelitter.org).

What can you do to prevent littering?
Being a responsible human being and taking care of our planet means people will dispose of their trash in the proper facilities. This means that people should throw their cigarette butts in ash trays and their pop cans in recycling bins. Always have a bag or mini trash can ready in your car in case you may need to get rid of waste. When you arrive at home, dispose of the trash in your bag properly by locating the recyclables and placing them in your recycling bins and by placing the trash in a garbage can. Most of the items we use are recyclable, so make sure it is before you toss it into a garbage can. If you are a smoker and need an ash tray to carry around, contact Cigarettelitter.org at the address below. “We will mail back the envelope with four free ashtrays as pictured at right. You must include a valid return address and sufficient postage on your envelope in order to get the free ashtrays” (Cigaretterlitter.org).

CigaretteLitter.Org
PO Box 172
Culver City, CA 90232

People can also take action by cleaning up littered areas. If on goers see that an area is clean, they will feel guiltier for littering and may think twice before littering or possibly choose not to litter.

Minnesota is actually doing pretty well with all our trash. According to BioCycle (July 2006), Minnesota ranked in BioCycle “State of Garbage” as the second highest in the nation when it comes to recycling rates. Minnesota has the third largest number of curbside recycling programs and charges a Solid Waste Management Tax on garbage but not on recycling, which makes garbage ore expensive and recycling cheaper. About 75 percent of residents have curbside recycling service (p. 14). Although Minnesota is one of the best, there is always room for improvement.

To further expand on Minnesota and its recycling programs, the Solid Waste Report (April 28, 2010) included some information on Genesis Poly Recycling. “Genesis Poly Recycling Inc. claims by the end of the summer, its facility in Mankato, MN will specialize in handling materials other processors previously thought to be unrecyclable. The facility will process 60 million pounds annually of plastic bags, films, pesticide jugs, plastic pails, and others…. With full capabilities by the end of the summer, company officials said.” (p. 7)

Minnesota is doing very well compared to other states, but like I said, there is always room for improvement. The money Minnesota residents rake out each year for litter clean up can be well spent in other areas of need. In order to improve our environment and health, we need to start from the root of our problems and littering, is one of the roots of our problems. In order to grow and succeed at other things, we must fix the central problem. Once the issue of littering is solved, we can move onto greater goals and projects. Once we can help ourselves, we can help other countries in need as well. Being environmentally friendly means to be responsible- to tackle all problems that could arise from your actions. Help yourself and most importantly, help the world, become the best that we can be!

References:

• Asimov, Isaac. (1992). Why does litter cause problems? Milwaukee, WI: Gareth Stevens Publishing.
• Cigarettelitter.org http://www.cigarettelitter.org/
• Clean Virginia Waterways http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/cigbuttimpacts.htm
• Great Lakes Water Institute http://www.glwi.uwm.edu/
• Keep America Beautiful http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer?pagename=focus_litter_prevention
• MN Department of Transportation http://www.dot.state.mn.us/adopt/litterfacts.html
• (July 2006). Regional Roundup [Electronic version]. BioCycle, 14.
• (April 18, 2010). Solid Waste Report [Electronic version]. Page 7
• Spacek, Steve. (2008). The american state litter scorecard: A sociopolitical inquiry into littering and the response role of 50 american states. The 2008 American Society for Public Administration Conference.