You have that problem in town, and a friend has it in the country from people tossing all manner of things from their cars. She's even seen people stop their cars, lean out and dump their ash trays. I wish they could catch and enforce littering fines.

Shirley

I'd call the school and suggest to them that they have someone come in and talk to the students about it next year. I couldn't force myself to throw out something, from a car window (unless it was organic and even then, I wouldn't like doing it) or just dropping it. Ever! I hate litterbugs.

We've picked up hundreds of pounds of litter from the highway that is near our house. Bags and bags and bags of it, we walk a stretch that is about a mile long. And I've confronted people who park up at the field on the corner and empty ashtrays and leave dirty diapers. I report them to the 800 number that our state set up for anti-littering. I wish I could hurt them, frankly. LOL

Some of the worst litter I've seen was on the grounds of one of the nation's top-ranked high schools. What amazing brats! What overly tolerant schools!

Lucille, I would be bagging all that junk and bringing it to the school superintendent's office, demanding the school 'adopt' the street to keep it clean.

NYC had great success lowering crime by *immediately* attacking graffiti, broken windows or signs, etc. Schools are having to do a lot more to raise unparented kids.

We were vlisiting our son last week in Florida. Last day of school in that area a couple of girls came to the house to visit a friend who lived there. Its the grandma's house. She had left with her mom, so the girls had to wait for a ride home. We were going to a graduation in another city. So my husband went out to see if they needed a ride somewhere. They were gone but he found a composition book and a piece of paper that were both thrown in the street along with various candy wrappers. Now who did they think would pick it up? My husband did clean up their mess. I wondered what the girls had planned for the afternoon. I also wondered who picks up after them at home.
Mary

I live in California where there are trash receptacles in front of every public building. I noticed when I was visiting another state that there were no convenient public trash receptacles to be found. As a result, there was much more litter.

Lucille, I have sympathy for you living near a school. I decided not to bid on a house that I loved because it was across the street from a high school.

Maybe they could have students keep the neighborhood clean with community service hours!

Our high school area is the same, litter and mess. Whats worse, it's a block from a lovely stone church with a garden style breezeway to the building that houses the reception area, kitchen, meeting rooms - many wedding receptions and funeral lunches take place there.

The grounds are constantly littered with fast food wrappers, cigarette butts, and can you believe, even condoms. Our BIL has taken on much of the maintenance, years ago his mother funded the breezeway garden - he doesn't do his own yard work, but has now bought a pressure washer, hoses, gloves and the reach style picker uppers, calls in his friends to help him with cleanup and especially mornings before there may be a main event there like a large wedding or funeral. We don't belong to that church, DH goes to help and is appalled over and over again. It's better since they made the school closed campus, the kids aren't allowed to leave during their lunches, but still not acceptable.

My mother always taught us to put any litter in trash barrels or, if none were around, in our pockets.

Doesn't seem that that lesson is being taught that much these days.

Thank you for your posts, I love Chisue's idea of bagging the trash and bringing it to the Superintendent (and I'm going to do it) and also Lisa's idea of making those who are sentenced to community service keep the area clean.

People throw things out of their car on my dirt road too. It's usually beer cans, soda cans, or candy wrappers. I have yet to see a tofu package.

Lucille, how frustrating for you! Please do follow through with the superintendent, as Chisue suggested, and/or school board. I like Lisa's idea of a community service group or after school club too. If you have a suggestion on how things could be made better, I think your issue will be taken more seriously. Good luck!

lol lol I got tired of the brats on the fence we put up to keep them from cutting the corner...so 3-4pm became watering the lawn hour...and gee they didn't stay long on the fence!

now I must admit for being on a 40mpr street we're on now just have small trash problems....

I had a fantasy about catching the miscreants on videotape and sending the tape to prospective employers years later. It was a satisfying fantasy until I remembered while I was never a litterer, neither was I a complete angel in my younger years.
lol.

I was working at a grocery store when I was 18. A guy complained that he had to leave trash in a cart because the store didn't have a trash can next to the cart stall. I didn't know what to say to him so I didn't say anything. I remember thinking he was an idiot. It was his trash from pulling stuff out of sacks and packages and putting it in his vehicle. He must have been one of those people who dump their trash in public bins so he didn't have to pay for trash service.

i like the idea of making the student accountable. Could you also speak to your local legislator?
Most kids would not volunteer to do clean up( it would seem like punishment. But, maybe if they have an ecology or environmental club?

LOL Alisande!

This post was edited by ellendi on Wed, Jun 11, 14 at 16:05

Community service is a form of punishment for juveniles. A judge can give a certain number of community service hours as a sentence, as opposed to having the juvenile go to jail or pay a large fine. The service is pre approved and must be signed off to make sure it is appropriate, but this certainly seems appropriate to me.

I'd like to see the school, or a club within the school, 'adopt' the campus and surrounding streets. I'm always seeing signs lauding the Such-and-Such Group or Company for volunteering to keep a section of a highway clean. If it's not a 'punishment', more kids might realize they are creating a problem for other students and for the school.

The community south of mine actively promotes community pride, and I see very little litter around their schools or in that town. They have signs in various places around town affirming the community. I see them on the backs of stop signs, etc.

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3045403/a-hong-kong-clean-up-campaign-identifies-litterbugs-through-dna

It would help if the school could sell it to the kids as a matter of building pride in their school and community, plus self-satisfaction in terms of growing into being a responsible citizen, rather than as a punishment.

ole joyful

I agree with your perspective, and the habit of picking up litter would certainly last longer if done as you say.

Schools here require seniors to perform community service. That's what I was referring to. Student council or Key Club could do it

We do have the 'Don't mess with Texas' program to report littering but you need to actually see it taking place. Apparently, if you can provide a license plate number and other information, the owner of the vehicle gets a card it the mail telling them that the vehicle was reported for throwing XXX out the windows at (insert the time of day), basically the information provided by the person reporting the littering. I've used it a few times.

My area also has a pledge program called Ten on Tuesday where you pledge to pick up 10 pieces of litter every Tuesday.

When hubby and I take nature walks we always carry 3 or 4 plastic grocery bags and fill them up. It's a self- imposed penance for littering when we were kids.

I made my kids pick up every piece of litter when they decided to pitch stuff out of the car windows or throw something on the ground. Very embarrassing for them, I hope. They still don't litter in front of me.

I have the same problem. I'm on a corner, and on the side street, where the H.S. kids walk to and from the bus, my property gets loaded with trash, Big Gulp type cups, beer cans, etc. The other street I am constantly picking up those liquor nip bottles, larger liquor bottle, beer cans…al alcohol, and this stuff is thrown out of car windows as people drive by!!! It's sickening and disturbing. I've noticed a huge increase in trash along the highways here and other roads. Seems we are returning to the 1970s, when the trash on roads thing was such a big problem, the Fed Gov started that ad campaign with the Indian with the tear streaming down his cheek.

Since our country's demographics have significantly changed since those anti-littering campaigns originally ran, it's time the concept was revived.

I recall reading an article a couple years ago about how one town dealt with a littering issue that stemmed from their newest residents not understanding the concept of proper waste disposal as there wasn't any such thing in their (3rd world) home countries. What is "common sense" to people who have lived in this country a few years was a totally foreign concept to them. They were dumping household trash out their 2nd story windows onto their own lawns, including soiled diapers and food scraps. When the trash trucks came by once a week, there was nothing to pick up because the residents didn't know to bag their trash, put it in the can, and take the can to the curb once a week.

I believe the situation was solved when the townsfolk put together a trash clean-up crew from people that lived in the rest of the town and invited the leaders of the immigrant community to participate. They made a festival of it with a BBQ afterwards. I believe it took a couple times until the immigrant families developed a sense of pride about their keeping their neighborhood clean and the situation was resolved.

While not quite the same thing, if our youngest generations aren't being taught at home to properly dispose of their trash, a campaign directed at them using their preferred forms of media would be helpful.

We have renters moved in next door. They have two teenage boys. Those kids get out of their cars and dump McDonalds bags, water bottles, cigarette butts, whatever trash they have in the street. We have talked to them and their parents. That did no good. It was a little less for awhile as one of the boys went in the service. Lasted 8 whole days and he was dishonorably discharged.
It goes without saying that their house is the worst one on the street. They just don't care.

Have you reported the situation to their landlord, wolfie? If they're doing that in public, it's probable that the inside of the house isn't being cared for properly either.

We have spoken with the property manager. She did not like the call. The house was very hard to rent and she is just glad to have someone in there. The owners are an Asian couple that reside in Bejing. The house is falling apart, gutters hanging off, paint peeling, landscape a mess. They have a dog they are not supposed to have.
They do not take care of the place and the property manager doesn't seem to care as long as the rent check comes in.
I do not have contact information for the owners or I would alert them.

Wolfie,

You should be able to go to the county property tax site and get info on the owner.

Not in our county Lucille. They list everything except the owners name. And there is a notice that property owner information is not listed on the website. I will have to go to the county offices to look that information up.

It's always soda cans, beer cans, fast-food wrappers, candy wrappers, cigarette butts, etc. No one ever litters tofu packaging or organic protein bar wrappers.....

Given the state of the property, maybe the county codes department could help?

At my kids' Catholic high school, they used to (still?) make those with detention pick up trash on the school grounds--love it.