Running head: Littering

Community Problem Report Littering: How does it affect our community and the
environment?
Amy C. Baylon
Professor Arrieta
04/10/2016
University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

This report will discuss the effects litter has on our community and why it is a problem. It will
also discuss the different types of litter and statistics of the amount of contamination it causes.
There will be examples of the way litter affects our community, the environment, and animals.
There will be studies and observations conducted by researchers on how litter affects the
behaviour of individuals when they are in a place that is not clean. Some references will discuss
cigarette and cigarette butts and how they contribute to the percentage of litter in the world.
Keywords: Litter, environment.

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Littering: How does it affect our community and the environment?

Every community has their own problems. It may differ on race, or geographical reasons.
But one problem all communities have in common is littering. It can be agreed that all around the
world litter will be found. Even when walking through the most touristic areas litter can be found
there. Our community should stay clean, not only for it to look great, but also to prevent
diseases and infections, as well as contamination of the environment. This research will show
percentages of how often people litter around the United States, percentages on how cigarettes
increase litter, types of litter, and an initiative taken to ban plastic bags in El Paso.
Litter in the United States
Litter is any type of trash that was not placed in the place where it belongs. All around the
country people throw trash on the ground instead of searching for a rubbish bin. They will walk
or drive around and if there is no container to throw litter in, they will just leave it anywhere.
Thanks to this, the parks and streets of this country are filled with trash. A study that was
conducted states that littering is more common when individuals are in public spaces that are
already littered, Littering was more common in sites that were already littered and in sites
without trash receptacles. The study also says that, An early study by Finnie (1973) reported
observations of individuals in four outdoor spaces in Philadelphia as they ate hot dogs purchased
from street vendors. Of the 272 observed individuals, 91 littered the wrapper (33%) (Schultz,
Littering in Context). It is a psychological factor that when being around litter an individual will
naturally throw the trash on the ground instead of in the container. This is because since the
setting is dirty, a person subconsciously will not care if more litter is added. An experimental
research was conducted, and they had two different settings. Setting #1 was around a liquor store

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and there was litter all around, while setting #2 scenic vistas, and maintained residences. The
littering rate for setting #1 was higher than for setting #2 (Weaver, Littering in context(s): Using
a quasi-natural experiment to explore geographic influences on antisocial behavior). This is
because, as mentioned before, individuals do not feel the necessity to keep an already littered
place clean, therefore they will keep leaving the trash on the ground.
Cigarettes and Litter
Cigarette butts are a big part of the litter around the world. A person would think that a
cigarette butt is too small to cause any damage to the environment. What harm can it make,
right? Well, a study proves that cigarette butts are the most collected litter around the world. The
study conducted says that cigarette butts are a high percentage of the litter worldwide, First,
with regard to cigarette butt litter, results showed an average national littering rate of 65%. This
is substantially higher than that found for littering in general and corroborates the high number of
cigarette butts collected in cleanups worldwide (Schultz, Littering in Context). This proves that
even something as little as a cigarette butt, has a great impact on the environment. Cigarette butts
also take a long time to decompose, only affecting the world more, Cigarette butts make up over
half of our littered objects, and they take a grand total of ten years to decompose because of a
cellulose acetate, contrary to the popular perception that cigarette butts decompose very quickly
in only a matter of days (Conserve Energy Future: What is Littering?).
Types and Facts about Litter
Some people may think that litter is just candy/food wrappers, bottles, cans, or plastic
bags. Litter is not only small things. It can also be waste form factories, industries, plants, and
construction (Conserve Energy Future: What is Littering?). A fact about littering is that it costs a
great amount of money to clean up, Ever year millions upon millions of dollars are spent

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cleaning up litter. This money should be going to more productive things, but instead, people
dont realize that something as small as littering done on a mass scale does indeed affect them.
Taxpayers dollars are being spent on littering as we speak (Conserve Energy Future: What is
Littering?).

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References

Schultz, P. W., Bator, R. J., Large, L. B., Bruni, C. M., & Tabanico, J. J. (2013). Littering
in Context: Personal and Environmental Predictors of Littering Behavior. Environment &
Behavior, 45(1), 35-59. doi:10.1177/0013916511412179
Weaver, R. (2015). Littering in context(s): Using a quasi-natural experiment to explore
geographic influences on antisocial behavior.Applied Geography, 57142-153.
doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2015.01.001
Patel, V., Thomson, G. W., & Wilson, N. (2013). Cigarette butt littering in city streets: a
new methodology for studying and results. Tobacco Control, 22(1), 59-62.
doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2012-050529
Various Facts of Littering - Conserve Energy Future. (2014). Retrieved March 27, 2016,
from http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/various-littering-facts.php