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Littering Facts and Statistics

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Metal debris from uncovered truck punching into passenger side

I haven’t done a post on litter for quite awhile. But I received an email from a guy who wanted to report a Litterer in San Jose, CA.

I just Gotta Tell Ya: Who Litters

  • 75% of Americans Admit to Littering within the last 5 years.
  • Most common litter offenders- Men between 18-34 years
  • Smokers
  • People who eat at Fast Food places at least 2x per week
  • Drives more than 50 miles/day
  • People who go out for entertainment at least 1x per week

Where does Litter Come From?

  • Household trash leftover or spillover over from garbage collection
  • Dumpsters used by business
  • Loading docks
  • Construction and demolition sites
  • Trucks with uncovered loads- that we know, it’s all over the freeway (40%)
  • Pedestrians
  • People in Cars.
Why People Litter

  • Lazy
  • Don’t Care
  • Litter begets Litter
  • Ignorance
  • No sense of pride
  • Lack of Consequence for their actions

From American The Beautiful:

Litter is also expensive. Houses for sale in littered neighborhoods usually don’t get the best prices and owners lose money. Fires started by dropped or dumped litter cause millions of dollars of damage every year.

Litter is illegal. Most people are unaware of littering fines. Most localities also have fines for businesses or pedestrians caught littering. Many people are unaware that the person opening a package of gum and dropping the wrapper on the sidewalk is doing an illegal act and, if caught, could face charges. Littering is against the law.

Litter cost communities. Clean communities have a better chance of attracting new business and residents and tourists. Long term less revenue to city, county and state coffers, meaning higher taxes.

Litter hurts people. Every year there are numerous vehicle accidents caused by litter. People in these accidents are injured and sometimes even killed in their attempts to avoid litter in the roadways. Young children fall on litter in playgrounds, get cut and need medical attention.

Litter also harms plants and degrades natural areas. When garbage is dumped, it can kill or stunt plant growth. Few people think about the harm to natural areas from litter.

Litter kills or injures animals. Many small animals crawl into bottles or jars and get stuck and slowly starve to death. Animals get caught in plastic six pack rings, plastic bags, fishing line and a multitude of throwaways. Birds that are stuck, can’t fly away from danger. Sometimes animals caught in six pack rings are strangled as they grow too big for the opening. Animals get cut, infected and die. Every year, millions of birds, fish and animals die from litter.

Litter is a problem that can be controlled. Education is an important tool. People who are aware of the dangers of litter often make more of an effort to always put their trash the correct place. They also spread the word to others they see littering and teach them to dispose of garbage the right way. Community clean ups encourage people to take pride in their community and keep it clean. Quick removal of litter keeps it from growing into an unmanageable dump site. People can make a difference. Litter can be conquered.

Litter carries Germs: Scavengers, such as rats are drawn to lots of litter. Rats are carriers of many types of diseases that make people ill.

Litter is a problem with Farmers and Ranchers; Cattle and other animals can die from ingesting metal and other substances such as ground up glass. Repairs to machinery jammed by trash, tires damaged by broken bottles. means downtime and lost crops.

Litter harms water quality : Careless dumping of hazardous waste seeps into surrounding soil and cause ground water pollution.

Litter is Expensive: The amount of money being spent picking up litter could be used in repairing roads, hiring more fireman and police/

Economic Value of wasted used containers

In 2005, the forgone scrap value of 135 billion wasted beverage bottles and cans exceeded $2.1 billion. This means that had these containers been recycled instead of trashed, they would have been worth over $2.1 billion on the market.

  • The most valuable component of un-recycled beverage containers was the 55 billion discarded used aluminum beverage cans (UBCs), weighing in at about 810,000 tons. The scrap value for UBCs averaged about 75¢ per pound in 2005, and has already broken the $1/lb mark in 2006. Had these 55 billion cans been recycled, they could have generated as much as $1.2 billion in revenue. By comparison, Quebec’s Alouette group recently spent US$1.23 billion to increase the annual capacity of the Sept-Iles aluminum smelter from 245,000 to 550,000 tons.
  • Three billion pounds of #1 PET plastic bottles were also land filled, littered, or incinerated. At an average market value of almost 22¢, this would have fetched $675 million had it been recycled. There is a strong market demand for reclaimed PET, since PET imports by Chinese and Asian buyers continue to grow. Domestic PET re-claimers would also benefit from an increased supply of plastic bottles, because for the last two years, they have been having increasing difficulty meeting their feedstock needs due to constricted supplies and high prices. Were the amount of PET collected in the U.S. to increase dramatically, new business opportunities and jobs could be created for American industry.
  • #2 HDPE bottles–used for natural juices, water and milk jugs, and for detergent and other personal care items—are even more valuable than PET, averaging 31.2¢ per pound in 2005. Fewer of them are purchased and discarded, however, so the total wasted market value was $259 last year.
  • Glass bottles. About 7 million tons of glass bottles are wasted in the U.S. annually.  Scrap prices vary tremendously depending on collection and processing methods, and on proximity to market. Bottle and fiberglass manufacturers value quality, so uncontaminated color-sorted amber or flint  bottles from a deposit state, for example, might command as much as $65 per ton from a processor in the midwest, California, or the Northeast. Green glass is generally less valuable because green bottles are only produced in a couple of locations in North America. Color-sorted glass from dual-stream curbside programs might fetch $25 per ton, while mixed-color glass from dual or single stream programs may only be worth $5 per ton. If the curbside mix is highly contaminated, or if there is no glass plant close by, it may be worth nothing at all–leading to its use as an “alternative daily landfill cover.” With these variations in mind, the value of glass that is currently being wasted nationwide ranges from about $30 to $400 million per year.

Gardeners Who Litter
Trash Trivia Games and Stats

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. heyy!
    i love the fact that you care about the environment so i have decided to tell all of my friends to…. visit this website!!!!!!!!!

  3. Hi, great post, but where can one report a litter bug in San Jose? The 800-tell-chp number is for hwy only, I just saw some Lexus driver toss out his cigarette on a city street – how disrespectful! Took down his license plate number, but can’t find where to report him.

  4. Just found this on the City of San Jose website – maybe most cities allow you to do this:

    How do I report littering from a vehicle?

    To report litter coming from a vehicle in the city of San Jose, you may call the Vehicle Littering Hotline, 408-277-4111. Please be prepared to provide the following: license plate number, make of vehicle, type of vehicle – such as sedan, convertible, pick-up, and vehicle color. Also, specify if it is litter being thrown from a vehicle or blowing out of a vehicle. An advisory letter will be sent to the registered owner of the vehicle.

  5. Hey everybody! I just want to say GO GREEN! Im a big tree hugger and LOVE the environment! Its unfair to all the animals that people go and litter! How horrible! They are innocent creatures. Im just glad that we have such a touching and factual website to rescue this world from all the tyrants! GO GREEN!!!!!!!

  6. poopie is good for the earth because it breaks down into dirt……I use my poopie to plant flowers and other things…thats one way to help the environment…..ALSO PEE! you can drink it because its sterilized!….GO GREEN! ….but im Mexican so im use to that type of stuff

  11. littering is bad!!!!! and this site helps people understand this a awsome site. GO GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  12. This is certainly a wonderful page to find information/know more about littering. It has really helped me gather information for my persuasive essay which is going to be on why littering is harmful.

  17. I am writting a report on littering what can you help me get the answers to how much people litter in the world to how much people litter in the us if you have this answer can you please email me at brookeschuelke@gmail.com

  18. YIKES!!! I hope nobody was hurt while that happened. People really should cover their trucks!

  20. hey im a student , can you plz plz give me more info about how bad it is to litter,and more stats. but anyways nice artical. best on iv found

  22. i hate littering it is horribal we need to stop it and make a change i may just be 12 but we can still make a change coment to this comment on my facebook ashley mariea

  27. Shocking statistics! I think you would appreciate this one. I came across this statistical finding in an article. It says: If every person picked up just one piece of litter today, there would be over 300 million fewer pieces of litter. And if every person picked up 10 pieces of litter, there would be 3 billion fewer pieces damaging our environment. Imagine the difference it would make if every person takes an initiative to make a change!

  28. wow this is sad people who litter should stop its not hard to hold your garbage in the car for like 5 for mins maybe less!!!!!

  29. Hi, I’m an advertising executive living in Saudi Arabia, and I’m working on an anti-littering campaign for the Kingdom. I found the information you posted very helpful. If there is anything else that you think might be useful for me to know please don’t hesitate to contact me. Thanks

  30. Hey!
    I love this site! I’m doing research for a school project and this realy helps! 😀

  31. The statistics and information were really useful for my community service blog- “Let’s Talk Trash,” for my Environmental Studies course at Pace University in New York.

    Thanks

  32. This is an excellent site. I am doing a persuasive speech and my topic is on littering. I hate to see people littering and it really bothers me. I will be using this site as well as scholarly journals, and also provide the class with the website for littering laws in my own state. This site was VERY useful!! Thanks!

  36. Many people are saying about how this post is great (it is good, don’t get me wrong), and that littering is so bad, but so many of you aren’t DOING anything to reinforce what you’re saying. If you heard that if everyone picked up one piece of litter a day, it would help control litter by alot, don’t wait for other people to start, because they never will. Take initiative yourself and actually do something. I believe I have the right to say this because every soccer season -spring and fall- I go to a lake to pick up trash once a week out of my own time.
    Don’t only say these things, DO them~
    Good article btw(:

  38. Hey thanks for this site! It is inspiring and motivating to see so many others who care about the enviroment. When I see someone litter I take it so personally it makes me sick. Thank you for this!

  39. yo…. u peps need 2 stop littering bcuz it messes up r enviorment and the water we drink…we all need 2 start recyclin more often from now on….if we want 2 live

  40. i read this and am very surprised. i really wish everyone knew what was happening in the world. this is a great website to teach people to make a change in the world!

  42. ok..i hate litering….its bad..im doing a project on this topic forr a area in the world..this helped SO MUCH 🙂

  43. i was at a different website looking for info for an essay I’m doing for school. do you know what it said? it said the same exact things in this website from “littering is expensive” to “littering is a problem that can be controlled”. it was the same words too!!! BTW this is a great website but as some people said YOU need to make a change! if you don’t want to start because you think its not cool or you wanted cool people to do something first odds are they wont!! make a difference and be the first to start it!!!

  44. Hi, I know, this took a lot of time to put together and many people copy and don’t give credit. Thanks for letting me know. Good luck with your essay

  45. thanks. in fact, this website has so much great info that Ive found almost everything i needed from this website and so much more!!! it really is unfair if people take someones hard work. its considered stealing too. i don’t know the website but i wish i did. BTW my teacher loves all the info i showed her all thanks to this website!!! and remember, this is a great website but as some people said YOU need to make a change! if you don’t want to start because you think its not cool or you wanted cool people to do something first odds are they wont!! make a difference and be the first to start it!!!

  46. if you are going to post this kind of information you should cite your sources so that you don’t sound like a biased asshole. I’m on your side but cmon.

Trackbacks

  1. […] First step is easy: being in an environment that encourages education and is open to change. NYC is full of farmers markets and grocery stores that request that you bring your own bags to shop. The streets are sprinkled with sustainability stores and art gurus that make wearable art from discarded soda cans. I’m especially proud that I go to a university that made the Sierra Club’s 2009 list of eco-friendly schools. A final shout out to my friends who were quick to point out exactly why throwing trash onto the streets is a bad idea. […]

  3. […] In 2005 the value of 135 billion beverage bottles and cans exceeded $2.1 billion dollars. Look at all the money that we could save! You’re probably thinking that $2.1 billion is nothing compared to the amount of debt that our government has collected, but it’s something. […]