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What is Litter?
Litter is simply waste not in its proper place.
The Seven Primary Sources of Litter
• Pedestrians or cyclists who do not use receptacles.
• Motorists who do not use car ashtrays or litterbags.
• Business dumpsters that are improperly covered.
• Loading docks with inadequate waste receptacles.
• Construction and demolition sites without tarps and receptacles
to contain debris and waste.
• Trucks with uncovered or improperly covered loads on local
roads and highways.
• Household trash scattered before or during collection.
Why Do People Litter?
They feel no sense of ownership, even though areas such as parks and beaches are public property.
They believe someone else will pick up after them.
Litter has already accumulated.
Litter Statistics
2003 Top Ten Items Found in Land and Underwater Cleanup
Cigarette butts
Bags/food wrappers
Caps/lids
Beverage bottles (plastic)
Beverage bottles (glass)
Beverage cans
Plastic/Styrofoam cups/
plates/plastic silverware
Straws/stirrers
Bags
Cigar tips |
34.5%
10.1%
8.6%
5.5%
5.1%
5.0%
4.9%
4.3%
4.1%
1.5% |
Let’s Start with … The Facts About Litter
Litter attracts the eye and, at times, litter attracts MORE litter.
A clean community discourages littering and illegal dumping.
Litter is blown about by wind and traffic or carried by water. It moves until trapped by a curb, building or fence.
Material Breakdown Times
Cotton
Paper
Unpackaged food
Wool
Plastic
Leather
Metal containers
Handled plastic bags
|
1-5 months
2-5 months
6 months
1-5 years
10-20 years
25-40 years
50-100 years
Up to 1000 years |
What's in our trash
Paper Products
Yard Wastes
Food Wastes
Plastics
Metal
Wood
Glass
Textiles
Rubber and leather
Aluminum
Other misc. wastes |
35.7%
12.2%
11.4%
11.1%
5.9%
5.7%
5.5%
4.3%
2.8%
1.4%
3.9% |
Where Do People Litter
High Traffic and Everyday Locations are fast food businesses, convenience stores, bus stops, park benches and other high pedestrian traffic areas.
Transition Points are the places where someone stops eating, drinking or smoking before they proceed such as entrances to public buildings, an office, a retail establishment, a bus stop or between your office and car or between your car and your front door.
Special Event Venues that attract a large number of people who will generate waste such as concerts, sporting events, or fairs.
Roadways and Highways as well as highway on/off ramps and roadway median strips have increasingly become targets of litterers.
What Can You Do?
Litter is an individual behavioral problem or a business problem that can become a problem for our community.
Changing a habit like littering begins with each of us, one at a time.
Each of us must accept responsibility for our own actions and influence the actions of others around us in our businesses, homes, schools and neighborhoods.
By modeling proper trash and waste disposal, we will cause others to consider their actions.
Taken from Keep Genesee County Beautiful’s Litter Presentation
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