Everyone litters. According to the research, there is not one type of person that litters, but instead people of every age, gender, race, social-economic status and geographic location produce a fair share of litter.
Litter, also known as trash incorrectly disposed of, is a bigger deal than many might assume. Different trash has a different place it needs to end up, including a recycling bin, reuse facility, sanitary landfill, or a waste-to-energy plant. The last place trash belongs is on the ground, where it gets into rivers and oceans and impacts entire ecosystems. In fact, entire species of animals have nearly gone extinct due to littering, and that’s only the start of the problem.
Littering also costs businesses money in cleanup fees, as well as lost customers. If a city is overrun with litter, home values drop and residents lose money. The issues associated with littering are endless.
Even the very best trashcans can’t stop everyone from littering, at least not alone. Knowing how litter impacts our world, and what you can do to reduce litter is key to a greener planet, beautiful communities, and prosperous businesses.
How Can Litter Harm Your Community Or Business?
Littering presents economic, legal and environmental issues, and yet still people toss their trash on the ground and assume someone else will pick it up. If your business or community is experiencing high levels of litter, this can impact so many things.
- When people see trash here and there, it makes others more prone to littering as well.
- A business that is covered in litter appears less professional and may quickly loss faith of potential costumers. Productivity is proven to decrease if a business regularly has litter on site.
- Litter is harmful to plant life, destroying landscaping efforts by seeping into the soil and stumping plant growth.
- Litter causes injuries due to accidents out on the road as well as when walking pedestrians trip over it. This might seem dramatic, but litter is actually a mitigating factor for car insurance, as it contributes to so many auto accidents every year.
- Litter kills innocent wild animals; every year, millions of animals die due to litter. Litter causes horrific deaths, for instance many animals get caught in 6-pack rings, and as they grow they become strangled by the packaging.
5 Ways How To Reduce Community Littering
Controlling litter is the leading way to maintain and preserve our environment.
If you live on planet Earth and enjoy all of the splendors it has to offer, it is your responsibility to reduce litter. Here are some ways to clean up your own business or community:
1. Hold Community Clean Up Efforts
Involving the community can promote feelings of higher moral, so that residents want to keep their spaces clean because they worked hard to clean it up.
2. Identify Where The Problem Is Worst
Where is the litter problem the worst? Finding the largest problem areas is key to making the right changes for improvement. Assess the most impacted areas to identify potential reasons why littering is so bad here, as well as what groups are producing the litter? This will help you correctly target the culprit litterers in a relatable way that gets their attention and changes their actions. This can be as easy as putting up posters that explain the harm in littering, or installing more trashcans.
3. Install Plenty Of Trashcans
Depending on the type of business you operate, litter may be worse. For instance, if you sell food items you need plenty of trashcans that are easily accessible in order to deter patrons from dumping packaging on the ground in or near your establishment.
4. Be Proactive With Anti-Littering Education
No matter how many trashcans you offer, if your business sells food it is going to produce litter. You can help reduce litter by spreading awareness. Print labels on packaging that are interesting, easy to see and explain the negative repercussions of littering a bag, food container, etc. Use as little words as possible while leaving a big impact, forcing people to be more accountable for their actions.
There are other ways you can educate the public besides adding labels to all of your packaging. You can add signs around your establishment that deter people from littering. Anti-littering signs are best placed near or on trash bins, as well as at all exits, including the drive-through. Scare tactics don’t hurt; so don’t be shy about sharing local littering fines, which can be as much as a few hundred dollars.
Contribute to anti-littering fundraisers, and/or hold a community event in honor of spreading awareness about littering. Most people naturally want to do good by planet Earth; the problem is that many people still don’t understand the repercussions of littering. Anything you can do to help spread the word is beneficial to reducing litter.
5. Offer A Variety Of Bins At Every Trash Station
Cigarettes might be terrible for you, but that hasn’t stopped people from smoking them. The best thing you can do is offer proper places to dispose of cigarettes so that they don’t end up polluting your business or community.
Having a bin for recycling, trash and cigarettes at every trash station is important to keep trash properly sorted. If people have to walk around the building in search of the recycling bin when they have already found the trash bin, chances are they won’t.
The Right Trashcan For The Job
A key importance to keeping the world litter free is to install the right types of trashcans. Trashcans should be easy to see and identify, as well as easy to use. If trashcans look icky and must be touched in order to be used, this may deter people from using them. Trashcans also need to be durable so that they do not become damaged and faulty.
Together, we can make this world a better, cleaner, greener place! TerraCast Products offers a wide variety of superior landscape products built to endure all types of weather, graffiti, impact damage and more.