# Are You a Litter Lout? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 14, 2017, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823 "2017-02-14T15:55:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/21 "2017-02-14T21:15:11Z")
> [@Jefferson](#): > > One socialist line they came out with was the: it keeps someone in a job (picking it up). > [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I can’t say I’ve ever known or seen anyone being gainfully employed as a litter picker-upper. > [@Kimballkid](#): > > Around here it’s mostly volunteers and civic groups that do it. Whether litter picker-uppers are paid or volunteer, I think it’s a nasty attitude to throw your trash on the ground “to give them something to do”. It’s like asshats who refuse to clear their table after a fast food meal, or don’t clean up after their kids\* because it gives the restaurant workers “something to do”. It’s a very arrogant attitude, implying that they don’t have enough work to do so you might as well give them something. It’s their boss’s job to give them work, not yours. - This one is a particular peeve of mine, starting when I was a fast food worker in college and persists to this day almost 30 years later. Whenever someone with a toddler or baby comes to a restaurant, even nicer places, they invariably leave the place looking like a tornado’s run through. It looks like they packed a box full of cracker packages and sugar packets and then blew it up for lulz and then walked out. Yes, it’s the server’s job to clean the dining room, but it’s not their job to clean up after complete PIGS. The least you can do is pick up the bigger pieces, if you can’t teach the kid not to make such a huge mess to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/22 "2017-02-14T21:40:34Z")
Absolutely not. I carry a tote bag everywhere, and will put litter in it until I find a garbage can. One of my problems with smokers is the massive amount of litter they create with empty packs and butts. It is disgusting! ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/23 "2017-02-14T21:41:45Z")
Out in the country, where I live, I will through apple cores out the window into the woods. But never anything unbiodegradable. My house may be dirty, my car have trash in the well of the passenger-side seat, but I refuse to throw trash out,and I pick it up as I see it. I think it used to be much worse before the anti-littering campaigns in the '60’s. [We had a thread about it a while back.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=482646&highlight=littering) StG ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/24 "2017-02-14T21:57:30Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > - This one is a particular peeve of mine, starting when I was a fast food worker in college and persists to this day almost 30 years later. Whenever someone with a toddler or baby comes to a restaurant, even nicer places, they invariably leave the place looking like a tornado’s run through. It looks like they packed a box full of cracker packages and sugar packets and then blew it up for lulz and then walked out. Yes, it’s the server’s job to clean the dining room, but it’s not their job to clean up after complete PIGS. The least you can do is pick up the bigger pieces, if you can’t teach the kid not to make such a huge mess to begin with. In recognition of this, when I had two very small children who did make a complete mess, I tried to eat at establishments that were family restaurants and I tipped VERY well. 30-50% depending on the mess. I placed a much higher premium on keeping my children quiet and entertained, so that everyone in the restaurant was able to enjoy their meal in relative peace. As the kids grew older, we worked on making sure most of the rice made it into their mouths instead of onto the table. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/25 "2017-02-15T11:59:18Z")
> [@Jefferson](#): > > One socialist line they came out with was the: it keeps someone in a job (picking it up). Punch them in the face, then calmly explain that you’re creating employment opportunities for doctors and nurses to stitch them up. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/26 "2017-02-15T12:13:12Z")
The only types of littering I am ever guilty of are: [ul] [li]Biodegradeable stuff in locations where it truly isn’t a nuisance (e.g. if I toss an apple core into a bramble clump out in the country, the worst that happens is: a mouse gets a free meal and, maybe, a(nother) feral apple tree grows)[/li][li]Accidental loss. On a couple of occasions, strong winds have whipped a plastic bag or a sales receipt out of my hand and far away with no realistic hope of me recovering them. I feel bad about it, but it does happen, rarely.[/li][/ul] I worked with a person who considered it OK to drop litter in any place where disposal facilities had not been provided - for example, she thought it was fine to drop a plastic bag containing an empty plastic sandwich container, a plastic bottle and some wrappers on a train station platform, because there was no litter bin provided nearby (there was one on the opposite platform, and several on every train, and of course, you can take it home). When I asked her about it, she said “if they wanted me to dispose of it properly, they should have put a bin here”. This was only one of the ways in which this person was a self-centred, antisocial fuckwit, however. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/27 "2017-02-15T12:25:53Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I try hard to not litter… If ever a Yoda quote was fitting, it is here. I am another apple-core-in-the-woods litterer, but never anything more. I loathe litterers. I’ve swallowed hunks of gum where there was no tidy way to dispose of them. The world is not a garbage can, people. Nobody in this thread yet has admitted to being a (current) litterer. I would love to have a discussion with an offender and hear their perspective. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/28 "2017-02-15T12:42:31Z")
I really don’t like litter-bugs. I make every effort to not litter. If I have fast-food, hot-n-ready convenience store food, or other such stuff, I will drop the packaging in my truck - to be cleaned up later - but will never throw it out the window. There is a serial litterbug who occasionally drives through my neighborhood and throws out yellow plastic bags full of microwave store-bought food containers. If I ever find out who it is and where he/she lives, I will gleefully pay to have farmers release the contents of their honey-wagons on his/her yard. ---
**Author:** ![ChickenLegs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@ChickenLegs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChickenLegs)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/29 "2017-02-15T12:42:59Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > I, too, will not deliberately throw my litter on the ground, out my car window or leave it on a table. It shouldn’t sound so “high horse” to say that my mom raised me better than that. A couple weeks ago I noticed that someone was leaving empty water bottles and soda cans on a conference room table at work. The second day in a row I noticed this, I said “pigs” out loud in front of witnesses. They chuckled sort of uncomfortably like I was being undiplomatic. But the trash can is next to the door and the pigs could have simply dropped their trash in it as they left the room. Heh. I see the same thing. Take a closer look, and I think you’ll find the debris-leavers are disproportionately married men. Their wives pick up after them at home, I guess. This is what I concluded in my several workplaces. ---
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/30 "2017-02-15T14:48:26Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > In recognition of this, when I had two very small children who did make a complete mess, I tried to eat at establishments that were family restaurants and I tipped VERY well. 30-50% depending on the mess. I placed a much higher premium on keeping my children quiet and entertained, so that everyone in the restaurant was able to enjoy their meal in relative peace. As the kids grew older, we worked on making sure most of the rice made it into their mouths instead of onto the table. Thank you for this. When I was doing the fast food gig way back when, the pigs in question (who were clearly not you) never left a tip. Of course it’s not normal to tip in fast food establishments, but I’m of the opinion that if the customer makes an out-of-norms level of mess or trouble for the workers they really should consider tipping. Or apologize at least. But most people have trouble doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/31 "2017-02-15T15:01:22Z")
I am another biodegradable litterer. But I always make sure I leave my apple seeds and the like under a hedge or similar place where it can biodegrade without leaving a mess. Once I was walking behind a woman wearing a fur coat who took a kleenex our of her purse, blew her nose, and, very delicately, dropped it on the sidewalk. I walked past her and, in passing, truned to her and said, “Pig”. She didn’t react. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/32 "2017-02-15T16:37:51Z")
I came from a generation that was taught not to litter. The Native American television commercial where his tear is running his cheek…Give a hoot, dont pollute and all that jazz. Paper does eventually regrades but I dont want to see McDonalds bags, cups and what have you dumped out of cars or on the streets everywhere Now dump some returnable bottles or cans out, then those are picked up by whoever…doesnt bother me one bit! ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/33 "2017-02-15T17:10:11Z")
I have this philosophy about such matters: What if everyone did it? This would be a problem, I guarantee you. So I don’t. One thing that amuses me is when I drop a coin, especially a penny. In terms of value it’s not worth picking up. But it _is_ litter so I pick it up. At that point it stops being litter and I return it to my pocket. Thinking that someone else is going to pick up your trash (of any type) is definitely being self-centered. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/34 "2017-02-15T17:20:39Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > The Native American television commercial Sicilian-American. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/35 "2017-02-15T17:42:58Z")
In high school, a good friend was on a first time date with a girl. Before going to the movies, they bought some fast food to eat on the way. When she was done she rolled down the window and threw her wrappers and fry bag and empty soda cup out. My friend pulled over and simply said “Get out, pig.” At first she refused, trying to justify the toss. He kept saying get out until she finally complied. I still chuckle at the thought. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/36 "2017-02-15T17:49:06Z")
> [@Jefferson](#): > > One socialist line they came out with was the: it keeps someone in a job (picking it up). Sounds like a Capitalist/Conservative line to me. ‘Look at me! I’m a “job creator”! Hur, hur, hur!’ A socialist would understand that it’s up to each member of society to do his or her part to reduce the amount of litter in a community. ---
**Author:** ![Spit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/76d3ee/32.png) [@Spit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spit)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/37 "2017-02-15T17:50:06Z")
I have three hayfields that all run by a highway. For some reason, people think hayfields are THE place to ditch the beer and whiskey bottles before going home. My treeline is clear. Hell, at least they would be out of the way there. But noooooooooo. Gotta throw them where I must pick them up before cutting hay. Go ahead and guess how much fun it is to pick up bottles in a 30 foot-wide swath a 1/4 mile long, in 15 inch grass, in July. In Virginia. When I was living in the city, I had a nice collection of 40 oz bottles, tall boy cans, and candy wrappers (The school was nearby)in my front yard. Every. Single. Day. ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/38 "2017-02-15T18:23:21Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Sounds like a Capitalist/Conservative line to me. ‘Look at me! I’m a “job creator”! Hur, hur, hur!’ > > A socialist would understand that it’s up to each member of society to do his or her part to reduce the amount of litter in a community. Not fair to pin that attitude on either ‘side’ comprehensively, but generally a more likely misuse of generally left leaning than right leaning assumptions and philosophy. You usually are in fact growing public, not private sector, jobs and thus growing the govt by littering in public. There are some exceptions to that in case of private cooperatives cleaning up public areas but in general if nobody littered the govt could be a bit smaller. And it’s also more likely for left leaning people to accept reductions in economic efficiency to employ more people and/or set wages above the market clearing rate (as public sector low skilled jobs usually do). But again it’s not fair to pin the idea of net societal benefit from littering on any thinking person. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/39 "2017-02-16T17:47:59Z")
I used to exercise by walking in my little semi-rural community, picking up litter as I went. The most common litter, by far, was beer cans. I suspect that car drinkers realize the need to quickly get rid of the evidence. If you get pulled over, you don’t want a car full of empty beer cans or the car smelling like beer. Also common: broken pint-sized liquor bottles, empty cigarette packs, and fast food wrappers. There were tons of cigarette butts, which I didn’t pick up because they icked me out. It always seemed to me that litter was mostly a byproduct of other bad habits. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823/40 "2017-02-16T19:06:35Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > My house is on a corner lot; the side yard has a somewhat busy street running alongside it. I have to go out into the yard once or twice a week (particularly along that side), and just pick up trash that has made its way into the yard. The trash items are usually beer cans and beer bottles, empty cigarette packs, and non-winning scratch-off lottery tickets, and I have to assume that most of it is getting tossed out the windows of passing cars, by rude or ignorant people. Grrr. I don’t understand the mindset of people that do this. I also had a house on a relatively busy corner lot, and had to do the same. Go out once a week and clear up all of the cigarette packets and beer cans/bottles that had been tossed into my yard. _Why, people?_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-litter-lout/779823.md?page=3)