This topic came up today on the radio and had some vocal supporters of both sides. Thinking about my own experience what I do is if I know the seat will be used by someone else immediately I am careful to throw all my trash out on my way out but at a ball game or someplace else where everyone leaves at the same time and no one else is coming in, unless it’s just a cup I will very often leave the cardboard trays etc. under my seat.
At the ballgame (or hockey), I leave it. Unless it’s kind of in my hand and I’m on my way up to get something else.
At the movies, I’ll usually take it. The exit process at the movies is a lot quicker and my waste is a lot less messy and easy to carry than at a sporting event.
I can’t say I’ve ever really bought concessions at a concert.
From my experience of working at the movie theater, I know that someone will come around to my seat to clean up no matter if I take my trash or leave it. Every movie house is cleaned after every show, even the noon on Tuesday showing where there’s just one person in the house.
It’s easier for the workers to just go up and down every row than to guess or look for trash. So really I don’t feel guilty that I’m making extra work for anyone, or leaving an unexpected mess.
I take my trash and toss it, regardless of where I am. I don’t litter.
I attended Jon Stewart’s and Stephen Colbert’s rally in DC in 2010, and at the end, they asked everyone to clean up after themselves. The Mall was almost trash-free despite the thousands of people who were there. I’ve seen photos after other events showing garbage all over the place, and I just don’t understand the mentality.
I was a child in the 1970s when there was a high-profile Keep Britain Tidy campaign. It seems - in my case - to have worked, as I could no more drop or leave a piece of litter than I could soil my own underwear. So I either take it to the nearest waste bin, or home.
I do understand those above who leave stuff when there’s the knowledge that someone is imminently going to clear it up, but I just can’t do it, it’s too ingrained.
I always toss it but then I don’t really have trash at concerts unless it’s a single plastic cup from getting a drink. Even if I was getting a second drink, I’d toss my first cup in the trash on the way.
At movies, I always toss my own trash. You walk right past several bins anyway.
In stadiums and such, I always try to clean up after myself, but I will admit sometimes I stash trash under my seat and forget to grab it before I leave.
In a park, I definitely will clean up after myself.
Same here (except I grew up in the US) regarding the first paragraph. You are much more understanding than I because I can find no excuse to leave one’s trash behind. Of course I know it’s a personal quirk of mine, as I can’t even make myself throw peanut shells on the floor at restaurants where you’re supposed to do just that. It just feels wrong.
But why make their work much harder and longer by stuffing the trash under your seat?
You’re leaving anyway, surely on the way from your seat to the Exit, you’re going to pass some trash cans? Where’s the Problem for you to take your stuff and dump it, instead of fobbing it of on somebody else?
For a ballgame or theatre, I think I generally leave the beer/soda cups in the cup holders (so I leave them behind), but I’m actually not at all sure. Whatever it is, it’s not something I think of as “littering” any more than leaving crap behind at the table in a restaurant.
Yes. I’ll leave cups in the holders, and anything else in a bag or box on the floor, not just strewn about. I was thinking of outdoor football and baseball stadiums too, concrete floors and seats that will get washed down. I wouldn’t leave anything at indoor arenas or even a movie theater.
I’m not talking about littering in a park. That’s always wrong and gross but it is pretty common behavior to leave trash under your seat when at a baseball or football game (or something similar). That’s what I’m talking about.
Movie theaters and sports venues tend to have a couple things working against this:
We know that there are employees who clean the seats after every show/game.
Trash cans are nowhere near the seating areas.
High density crowds (at least in the case of sports venues) which make it very difficult to get anywhere after the game except “out”.
They sell large numbers of concessions.
All those things put together mean that I will not walk a half a mile with armloads of garbage to save someone from having to do the job they were hired to do.
On the other hand, if I only had a cup left over, or a small cracker jack wrapper or something, yes, I’ll take it with me. Something that will fit in my pockets, or a hand. At a concert venue, for example, all I will ever have is an empty cup, because I don’t buy concessions at concerts and honestly, I rarely even buy drinks. Also, most concerts I go to are standing general admission, which means walking over to the trashcan during the show is no big deal.
Throwing trash away in a theater or stadium, on the other hand, takes you away from the show or game. And if you wait until it’s over you have to contend with thousands of tightly packed people trying to leave at once, which is not conducive to carrying armloads of garbage and depositing it in the poorly placed receptacles. And of course, the employees will be cleaning up those seats afterwards whether my trash is there or not. That’s not always the case in smaller venues, auditoriums or parks.
And I have to say, the money I pay plays a role, too. I’ll never leave trash in a lecture hall, for example, not only because there isn’t any trash to buy, but because the talk was most likely free or very cheap, and the only people working are the speaker and any A/V folks. But if I spent $25 on one hamburger and a small soda at a ballgame, I’m not shedding any tears over the poor billionaire owners who have to pay someone minimum wage to pick up those wrappers. Cheap, value oriented stuff like McDonald’s gets a pass.
I’ll keep my trash contained, and dump it after the game/movie/concert. Just because someone is going to clean up doesn’t mean your own trash is your own responsibility. Even in hotels, I’ll try to leave it reasonably neat (except for unmade beds), although their in-room garbage cans are usually so small that to me that means leaving a neat pile on a desk or other surface rather than discarding it all in a receptacle.
