Litter

Recycling Packaging Litter to Reduce Our Waste Stream

Talking Trash

What causes litter? The more important question to ask is who causes litter? Experts cite thoughtless behavior by individuals as the main cause. According to the Institute for Applied Research (IAR), a California firm that has conducted extensive litter research, 25 percent of the population will always litter, 25 percent will never litter and 50 percent may be persuaded not to litter.

Litter has many more sources than you might think, according to Keep America Beautiful, Inc. (KAB). KAB is a national organization dedicated to empowering individuals to take greater responsibility for enhancing their community environment. The organization identifies seven primary sources of litter:

• Pedestrians
• Motorists
• Uncovered trucks
• Loading docks
• Construction sites
• Improper residential refuse
• Improper commercial refuse

Beverages and Litter

Beverage containers of all types account for less than nine percent of littered items, based on an average of surveys across the country. Some more significant components of litter include snack and candy wrappers, fast food packaging and miscellaneous pieces of paper or plastic found along roadsides and in parks and other public spaces. It is essential that litter control efforts focus on the whole litter problem. Addressing a single component, like beverage containers, would still leave a lot of litter on the ground.

Education is Key

Reaching those who can be persuaded is pivotal to litter prevention. And the key to reaching them is education: changing their attitudes and actions through volunteer-based community education programs, and targeted media campaigns.

Model programs can achieve dramatic reductions in overall litter – as much as 75 percent or greater for roadside litter. Many states that have followed these practices have seen real and permanent improvements in their litter problems.

However, enforcement follows education. Specifically, the enforcement of existing ordinances is essential for effective litter prevention and control. Enforcement measures include proper refuse set-out requirements, tarp ordinances for commercial vehicles, and ordinances prohibiting intentional litter.

Cleanup and volunteer involvement also plays a critical role in litter prevention. Local governments can contribute with mechanical streetsweepers, while retailers and other businesses should keep their adjacent sidewalks regularly cleaned. Volunteers can pitch in via Adopt-A-Highway (AAH) programs, which have proliferated rapidly since their start in Texas in 1984.

Plus, making recycling as easy as possible is one way to help shrink our nation’s waste stream. Comprehensive recycling, or curbside recycling is an effective way to encourage consumers to recycle appropriate materials.

Concerned with Cleanliness

The American Beverage Association and its members have been involved in litter prevention and cleanup programs for years. We have adopted highways, provided financial support to beach cleanups, sponsored litter prevention workshops and research and contributed to the success of national clean up days. America’s beverage producers, marketers, bottlers and distributors will continue to do their share in communities across the country.

What Doesn’t Work?

Litter control programs that fail to address the entire litter stream, or programs that don’t address the behavioral aspects of littering, are destined to fail. Beverage container deposits, for example, are sometimes held up as examples of litter control programs because the deposit creates an incentive to pick up littered containers. Unfortunately, these programs don’t have any impact on the remaining 91 percent of the litter stream. Deposits also are an extremely costly way to control litter.

Research has shown that states that adopt and sustain comprehensive litter control programs have significantly less litter than states that have forced deposit programs in place. Litter is a complex problem and an overly simple solution aimed at only beverage containers will not be successful.

Beverages and Litter

The beverage industry’s containers account for less than 2 percent of the nation’s waste stream.  Furthermore, there is no evidence that providing a financial incentive to pick up a particular segment of the litter stream will prevent litter or motivate people to pick up other types of litter. And, according to the Institute for Applied Research, deposit systems are among the most expensive to administer. Instead, comprehensive recycling provides an effective way for consumers to reduce our nation’s litter and contribute to a cleaner environment.