to not understand why people leave litter?

[HaveringWavering]

Pretty much every toddler is taught to put rubbish in the bin and that it is bad to drop it. They usually love doing it and are the first to tell off adults who don’t.

So where does it all go wrong? At what point in life do people forget or decide to ignore this and become the sort of disgusting pigs who leave their litter in parks, on road verges and on beaches?

If you have left your litter behind in the park, why? What goes through your head? If a bin is full, why do you dump your shit in the floor instead of taking it home?

(The only exception is festivals which have paid litter picking included in the ticket price).

I have no idea. I don't understand how anyone can just stand up and walk away leaving their rubbish. I can't even bring myself to throw things in bins whilst out, I always bring what I can bring home for recycling.

I don’t know, but it drives me insane. I just don’t get the mentality where it is ok to sit in your car to eat your takeaway - then just chuck the rubbish out of the car window and drive off. Or sit and eat your takeaway on the front wall of my garden and throw your rubbish in my garden.

Teens, in my experience. Witnessed a few the other day, using a half-empty lucozade can as a football in the kiddie play area, then left it lying on the floor when they moved on. I imagine it starts there and never stops.

I should clarify, they did actually have a proper football with them so the issue was not lack of play equipment.

@HamFisted

Teens, in my experience. Witnessed a few the other day, using a half-empty lucozade can as a football in the kiddie play area, then left it lying on the floor when they moved on. I imagine it starts there and never stops.

But teens are also, as a group, the most vocal and idealistic about things like climate change. Those teens won’t be dropping litter. It can’t just be the fact of being a teen that makes you behave that way because many do not.

Well teens don’t drive & given a lot of litter is along roadsides teens can’t be responsible for it all.

I don't know.
Took DD and pal to the park. Pal dumped her bottle on the grass. Daughter asked if she's putting it in the bin. Pal just shrugged 🙄
Took a group to mcdonald's after bday party. The were walking off leaving all their crap on table. I asked them to bin it. Some did, some just shrugged. Ghastly. Thankfully, rarely had to bother with them or their parents. Now she's a teen I never have to see them.
The playground attached to the nursery is a fly blown cesspit of litter.

@Eve

Well teens don’t drive & given a lot of litter is along roadsides teens can’t be responsible for it all.

Teens grow up.

IMO too many toddlers are not taught that littering is bad. They see their stupid, anti-social parents doing it and naturally think it’s what you do.

But I dare say there are older kids/teens who’ve been taught not to, who do it just out of a rebellious urge to stick two fingers up at ‘nice people’s’ rules. Because they’re so unboringly cool and edgy innit.

I don't get it either. Why dont people stick it in a carrier until they come across a bin, put it in their boot of their car if driving or even just take it home or even in a pocket if not large. I walked behind someone once in a city who threw kfc bag on floor full of rubbish. I said ohh you dropped something knowing what she done but sort of making out I was telling her she dropped something by mistake. . She was making out could not understand me and left it. Dont get why people throw rubbish in car parks too of fast food restaurants.

But teens are also, as a group, the most vocal and idealistic about things like climate change. Those teens won’t be dropping litter. It can’t just be the fact of being a teen that makes you behave that way because many do not.

Depends on your peer group, doesn't it? If all your mates are volunteering for Greenpeace you'll do the same. If all your mates think a casual disrespect for the environment is cool, that's what you'll do. Peer pressure is strong at that age, particularly with boys. (I got, 'Who asked you, Karen?' when I spoke to them.)

I don’t get this either. Would love to hear on this thread from anyone who deliberately leaves litter although being MN I can’t imagine anyone here does 🙊
Having said that it’s probably the same posters who admitted to not washing their hands after going to the loo on a recent thread

I think some of it comes down to one’s sense of community. Most people wouldn’t drop litter in their own garden, because it is their own area and responsibility.
Decent people see their wider environment as also part of their own community and responsibility. The park is “our” park, and we wouldn’t litter there either.
The problem with roadside verges is that drivers are literally passing through. They feel no sense of responsibility to the area outside their window, but they do to their car’s interior. So they throw their rubbish out to keep their car clean, not caring that they are littering someone else’s verge.
I don’t know how we get people to realise that you can never throw rubbish “away”. There is no “away”. It is all one planet and your own environment.

@Eve

Well teens don’t drive & given a lot of litter is along roadsides teens can’t be responsible for it all.

I think that the op was suggesting that it goes wrong when they are teens and they never get out of the habit. I can certainly see that it may be a form of micro- rebellion/ expression of freedom when kids start to be allowed out without a parent to tell them to bin it.

But on the other hand it is my four year- old who is telling ME loudly that all litter must be binned (I do, he just likes to warn me in advance ) so I find it odd that it isn’t just second nature when ingrained so early on. All teachers will teach this and all kids spend time at school in normal times. So the message must be overridden by parents who model litter- dropping.

Sorry me again. I have a relative who is a cleaner in a shopping centre. She says some people pre covid see her coming and drop rubbish on the floor for her to pick it up, why not just hand it to her. Also some iof the things people leave in the toilets is vile.

Because they are lazy and selfish.

Your notion that most toddlers are taught to use a bin is off - selfish, lazy people have children too unfortunately and pass on their values.

I can only conclude that some people thinks it's someone else's job to pick up after them or they simply don't care about how their local area looks.

It isn't always people leaving litter though. Where I live we have a terrible recycling system which includes kerbside sorting with various bags and boxes for different types of recycling materials, they are not designed to resist windy weather so on bin days our town looks a complete mess. Add in the fact that the flaps on the bin lorry is often left open it means that as soon as the lorry gains any speed rubbish starts flying out like confetti and lands on the grass verges at the side of the road. I wish they'd give us a mixed recycling wheelie bin and do the sorting elsewhere.

PP not OP.

@MuttsNutts

Because they are lazy and selfish.

Your notion that most toddlers are taught to use a bin is off - selfish, lazy people have children too unfortunately and pass on their values.

But the majority go to nursery where it is taught.

A dog walking friend said that he's usually last in the park at night and first in the morning. At night the litter is all bagged up and placed by the very few already completely full bins. By the morning it's scattered round the park - presumably by animals. I live by the beach and it's the same thing. You see the vast majority of people bag up their rubbish and then have to leave it beside full bins - where it is then attacked and scattered by seagulls.

While yes there are people (teens included) who don't care, and really they should take it home if bins are full, I think more bins, emptied more than once in a blue moon, would make a huge difference! The less rubbish there is scattered around, the less people dump there. It's seems people really are sheep - if they see/think that others don't care, neither do they.

I have no idea. And judging by the amount of litter around here it’s not just the odd person but a significant number.

It’s a very very nice middle class area too

I think that a lot of people have this idea that dirty wrappers etc are disgusting and they don’t want to be carrying them around or touching them. I can guarantee that when they arrived at the park or wherever they would not sit near a place with litter in it. But they make no connection between that and leaving their disgusting refuse behind them and spoiling the next person’s enjoyment.

I live in Cornwall and if there's one thing lockdown has brought home is it's not just tourists who leave litter.

Look at Nottingham the other night, teams of litter ticketers are needed who can go out on patrol and give every single person in a group a fine or an alternative of 25 litter clearance days.

@Thingsdogetbetter

A dog walking friend said that he's usually last in the park at night and first in the morning. At night the litter is all bagged up and placed by the very few already completely full bins. By the morning it's scattered round the park - presumably by animals. I live by the beach and it's the same thing. You see the vast majority of people bag up their rubbish and then have to leave it beside full bins - where it is then attacked and scattered by seagulls.

While yes there are people (teens included) who don't care, and really they should take it home if bins are full, I think more bins, emptied more than once in a blue moon, would make a huge difference! The less rubbish there is scattered around, the less people dump there. It's seems people really are sheep - if they see/think that others don't care, neither do they.

I would include leaving a bag next to a full bin as littering, for that very reason. If the bin is full you need to take it home.

I don’t know but it gives me the fucking rage

Just dim entitled twats I suppose.