Littering needs to be enforced more as a law. amirite?

We need to start publicly shaming people for it regardless.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I think we kinda do? At least everyone knows not to litter when other people are around because of the stigma. But most people aren't confrontational so anything beyond socially stygmatizing it is probably an impractical ask

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Right. It's awkward to call people out and you never know how people are gonna react nowadays. I follow CartNarcs on YouTube (dude politely reminding people to return their shopping cart) and he's gotten some unhinged reactions from people but thankfully has never been attacked.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Definitely Cause people can be so shameless 😩

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Public shaming should be used for quite a lot of things

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Wait this is unpopular opinion?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Need to take the companies to court who produce the litter. Macca's etc..

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Whose going to tell OP that the people who make the laws and would enforce this idea continue to let corporations get away with dumping millions of tons of trash into our oceans and landfills. So these are the ones who should profit off of a piece of trash? Take a look at the bigger picture.. yes people shouldn't litter but that's not what is causing the insane amount to pollution. It's your cruise ships, Amazon's, coke products, logistics companies, etc. that cause the real issues.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

exactly, if the only issue was pedestrian litter, the issue would be minor

by Anonymous 1 year ago

We should make a litter offender registry

by Anonymous 1 year ago

And then notify all the neighbors when the offender moves into, or already exists, in the neighborhood. 😉

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'd rather see it enforced socially. Everyone point and laugh and mock the disgusting person who thinks that throwing a tissue on the ground is acceptable.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Waiting to hear how you're going to enforce it.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Like any other crime. If someone's caught doing it, then a cop should get involved. If you screw up the environment because you can't be assed not to litter, then I think community service would be a fitting punishment.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

As someone who works closely with the police, they will get involved if they see it. The problem with littering is that it occurs when there aren't cops around. Obviously people aren't gonna throw a wrapper on the ground around a cop. Enforcement is fine, but we could definitely go about increasing the amount of enforcement (eg. sting operations in areas known for dumping, undercover cops in areas where littering is common, etc…)

by Anonymous 1 year ago

>As someone who works closely with the police, they will get involved if they see it. Yeah... no they won't. At least not in my area.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Teams of military snipers would be my choice.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

One of them is gonna start shouting over the radio how many people they've shot.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'm ok with this. However.... What do you consider littering? Obviously throwing non-biodegradable trash out in public places would be littering. But, what about an apple core? I've thrown those out my car window, but I make sure to do it into a wooded area or field on my drive. Not into someone's yard. I don't consider that littering. Some animals or bugs will eat it. Would I be shot?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

In the UK it is fined and it is enforced. Any country that doesn't do it is just making excuses

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Your title makes it sound like you're saying there should be laws to mandate people throwing rubbish all over the place. lmao

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It's not people littering that's the big issue. It's definitely an issue. And it's annoying to see some throw a drink cup or cigarette butt or the window but they aren't the problem. It's the people who dump whole truckloads on open areas. And corporations and foreign countries. That's where these trash islands in the ocean come from.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I think you'd like where I live. I think the fine for basic littering is about $250 and it's in the thousands for illegal dumping.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

There's more important laws they should start enforcing before littering.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Like maybe gun laws?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Sure.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I feel like in a country as big as ours we're able to focus on more than one thing at a time.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

As a country we're really on a trend of enforcing less laws, not enforcing more laws.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

There's not much more that can be done to enforce it. They made littering illegal, that is about as much as you can do to prevent it. Almost nobody will report someone else for littering, cops aren't going to take it seriously and the person littering will likely do it when nobody is watching.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah, what I'm saying is that cops (And people in general) should take it more seriously. It's unfortunate that they don't because it's one of those 'Minor issues' that can lead to serious consequences.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Maybe the attitude towards littering needs to change. For example, a local medical marijuana business went to clean up the beach. Needless to say, some lady smelled marijuana and promptly called the police on the team of people cleaning up all the litter that other people left with no police intervention. (The police laughed because it's legal.) It's the attitude … people think it's worse to put stuff in your own body than to leave litter. I am sure she would have turned a blind eye if they would have left some garbage there.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Who made the trash in the first place? While I don't agree with littering it is hardly the main problem here

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'm not sure what you're suggesting exactly. Are you suggesting companies get punished for making paper cups and plastic bags? Because I wouldn't say they're at fault at that. It's the people who throw them on the ground instead of spending 5 seconds to find a trash can.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Littering is an example of a problem that was created by big business then forced onto us, like jaywalking.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It'll just be a waste of everyone's time. Nobody is going to enforce it unless it's large amounts, and people already take that pretty seriously. But a few wrappers, some cigarette butts, or other small pieces of trash simply isn't worth enforcing. All we can do is make it more shameful to litter and call each other out when it happens.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

So all homeless people would be in prison forever. Also how?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I agree completely, you'd like Singapore. Rules are enforced with heavy fines and jail time if you don't pay them, that's what kept the city clean. Littering offenders are also forces to perform community service as garbage collectors.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I agree about punishment being a way to enforce the rule of not littering. However it won't address the root of the problem which is 1) the citizens don't take pride and love the environment that they're in enough to want it to be clean 2) a lack of public education and awareness

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I wish more could be done about the first issue but you can't force somebody to care about something. Some people just let their laziness take priority over anything else.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Monetize litter policing. Got that cell phone camera? Catch them doing it. Report it. They get convicted? Reporting person gets part of the fine.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Wind

by Anonymous 1 year ago

100% agree. People who litter are automatically scum to me and I have no interest in even bringing myself low enough to interact with them.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'm sick of seeing cigarette butts being thrown out of people car windows.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Your point about the ants is duly conceded, but it still presents that grey area. Also, why can't you just hang on to it until you're near a trash can? I guarantee those ants will be just fine without your apple core. Re: Deer. Note I said *natural* diet. They may well love a banana but I wouldn't say it forms part of their everyday dietary routine.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

When I was shopping for a home I walked away from some nice homes because just outside, the road was littered with garbage. It takes a certain kind of people to be okay trashing the same area they live in. Those same people are not worth living near

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Smokers are the worst. They throw or drop their butts everywhere. You wouldn't believe how many I find at the end of my driveway, tossed from cars.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I agree, but let's be realistic here. Who is going to enforce this? Cops? Now days dangerous criminals are running free in our cities looting and killing with hardly any punishment. Murderers are let out of prison early or given easy short sentences to be released in to the general public to commit more crimes again. Unfortunately littering is way down the list on how our justice system needs to change drastically.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I think it should be a preventive approach. The schools in my city are all covered in litter. You can't catch and punish everyone who litters. We're losing sight of the importance of anything not tied to money.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I think you need to go a bit higher my friend. GOVERNMENTS dump waste into the ocean, cruise ships as well. Focusing on individual people gets you nowhere

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I think it should have mandatory community service, depending on the severity of the littering. Smokers to the front of the line. I've had receipts blow away when I open my door in 30mph winds, not catching those, and not intentional though still littering.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Most of the litter I see on highways comes from trucks hauling trash to the incinerator plant. Bags, paper and plastics fly out everywhere. They have to catch the trucks first and go after the companies that are negligent in securing the waste in the trucks.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Unpopularer opinion: corporate pollution has poisoned our land and water way beyond people throwing out their bits of trash. If people got pissed off about corporate pollution more, and less about mostly harmless small time trash offenders (comparatively speaking), it would have a greater positive impact for future generations. Disclaimer: I hate small time polluters as well. It's just the scale of damage to society that I'm addressing.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yawn. Popular opinion.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

My neighbors are always throwing their trash in the street and in their yard and then it comes into my yard. Not cool

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I wholeheartedly agree, but your assertion just is not true. Have you ever opened your car door and a piece of garbage flies out and is hopelessly lost to the wind?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

With all that's going on in the world and this is a thing?

by Anonymous 1 year ago