It’s interesting to me that at the inauguration of Barack Obama, so touted and followed because of his “green” policies, it would take 1,350 people several hours stretching into the night-time to clean up the litter in the National Mall. It’s sad that when so much attention is placed on environmental issues, there would be 50 tons of trash to pick up afterwards.

Perhaps it goes back to another post I made previously about people caring to recycle as long as you make it convenient. Perhaps it is the same way with littering. As long as it’s convenient, I’ll dispose of my trash but make me carry it out with me to dispose of somewhere else, now that’s a different story. At least from the story I read, this must have been the mentality of a large number of people at the National Mall that day. Come on, America, let’s show more pride in our great country.

Litter is a bad thing. I used to not even think about the littering I did when I was younger. I know that many people do it today simply because they don’t think. Littering will continue to happen as long as those who litter don’t stop to think.

For me, it took getting caught and paying a fine, along with a stern rebuke from the officer (who was a friend of the family) who pulled me over. Suddenly, I had a complete change of outlook and that changed my behavior. And yet there are some people who want to place the blame on others, just because trash from their place of business ends up on the street. It’s just another example of shifting the blame onto someone else.

To someone who litters, putting anti-littering messages on the packaging doesn’t mean anything. There needs to be a fundamental shift in the way they think about litter.

Why not concentrate on young school kids – the younger the better. Once you convince youngsters of the importance of not littering, they will carry the message (including enforcement) to the rest of their family, much like seat belt education has greatly increased the use of seat belts. Then, implement a punishment such as spending one hour cleaning up litter for anybody caught littering plus a fine. Getting attention and changing habits is the only way to reduce litter; put total responsibility on the litterer, not the maker of the product.