Stop Littering People! ~ Mom Blog ~

Okay, when I say, "Stop Littering" you very well may not be the one doing it. I surely hope not. After all, my blog readers consist mostly of (clearing throat here) sophisticated, classy, educated, litter hating, law abiding citizens, right?

So I'm sure that my frustrations are not directed to you personally.  Actually, I am hoping that when you read this posting, you will be the one that agrees that the littering madness has to stop. I mean, what normal person does this:

 
That's right!  This is what I saw today as I pulled into a fast food restaurant to grab a coffee. Keep in mind that although this area looks like it is out in the middle of nowhere, (the picture is deceiving) there is a main road to the right that I just pulled off of. To the left is a a Chick-fil-A restaurant, a Chili's, Wal-mart, etc. It is a very high traffic area.  My point being.....whoever dumped this crap here had to be a pretty brazen person.

When I first saw it, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of low class person would simply load up a sofa (that actually looked pretty decent I might add) with the intent to take it to Goodwill (I'm speculating this because there is a Goodwill less than 100 yards from here), and then when they find out the store is closed and it would be too much damn trouble to take it home and come back tomorrow, they just say, "Hey... how about we just break the law and dump our trash here on this property that doesn't even belong to us in hopes that maybe someone will drive by and think they have hit the jackpot when they find our reject furniture?" 

Come on people, grab a clue! I just don't get it.  let me continue with my litter rant here for a moment.

Littering is everywhere. What right do people think they have to throw their wrapper out the window? I've seen it done. What is a smoker thinking when they drop their cigarette butt out the window.  Have you seen the number of butts that accumulate at traffic lights? It's nuts.  I read a statistic that 13% of litter is from cigarettes. Check out these funny cartoons on cigarette littering. It's not a funny topic, but the artist makes the point clear through humor.

There are lots of littering statistics available, but a few interesting ones I found on Knowledge Galaxy are:

1. Over 75 percent of Americans have admitted to littering over the past five years.
2. Litter clean up costs local and state governments billions of dollars.
3. Men litter much more than women, even if there are garbage bins available.
4. Every cigarette butt takes at least 12 years to finally break down while it pollutes waterways and soil with lead, arsenic and cadmium.
5. One out of four adults that litter will deny their actions when confronted.
6. Nearly 10 percent of men say that they litter everyday.
7. 81 percent of litterers admit that higher fines and stricter laws would stop them from littering.


Many websites cite statistics and promote clean-up efforts, but when it boils right down to it, people need to simply STOP LITTERING!  Hence the website stoplittering.com  They have created a cute, yet thought provoking character to encourage people to not litter. Check it out, as you can buy a window decal, among other items, that gives the simple reminder to not litter.

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