Littering

The Family of No has an "Adopt a Spot" near our house. If you're not familiar with the program, you "adopt" a roadside median or other small area, and agree to pick up trash from time to time. The spot originally belonged to my daughter's Girl Scout troop, but after the troop went defunct we decided to keep it as a family project because my son loves the Lorax, it's not a huge time commitment, and I think it's important to be good citizens and to contribute to society.  The fact that the spot is very near a donut shop may or may not have had something to do with my offspring being enthusiastic about picking up trash.

When we go out to our Adopt a Spot, my son usually engages in a running commentary about the trash that people leave there- mostly cigarette butts thrown from car windows and water/soft drink bottles. Once we found some cabbages and another time, some underwear. That find was the cause of much mirth; apparently 12 year old boys find the thought of someone tossing underwear out of a car to be hilarious.  For about 15 minutes he was gasping with laughter about someone driving down the road with no underwear on. The teenager just rolled her eyes.

My son, who can be very rule-oriented, (if my head even turns toward my cell phone while in the car, I get a lecture about texting while driving) has particular disdain for cigarette butts- he'll stand near the offending butts, hands on his hips, and proclaim, "Smoking is bad! People should not smoke! And they should NOT put their butts on the ground!" but he isn't a fan of plastic water bottles either.  Beer bottles infuriate him (people should NOT be drinking beer in their cars!) although from a picking up trash point of view, glass bottles weigh the bag down and make it easier to put trash in.  Heavier trash bags also makes it easier for the Mom of No to justify the trash cleanup as her workout for the day.

Invariably, the conversation comes around to this question: Mom, why do people litter? Don't they know this hurts the Earth?  I think that is a good question.  Why do people litter? We live in a place where trash cans are not hard to find.  I don't understand why people feel the need to toss their beer bottles/water bottles/soft drink cups/cabbages/underwear out of their car windows or on the ground.  Why can't you wait until you get to wherever you are going and then throw your trash away?

The Mom of No is admittedly a bit of a treehugger, so from my point of view trash is bad for the environment. It ends up in the lakes and rivers, and it can hurt wildlife.  Even if you don't care about the Earth, though, I can't think of any good reasons to litter.  Often, when I'm out hiking on the trails near my house, I see water or sports drink bottles tossed down on the ground.  I don't get that- if you brought it in, how hard can it be to carry it out?  It even weighs less because now it's empty!

As long as people litter, there will probably be people like me picking it up.  Just be aware that if you're the one tossing underwear out of your car (and I don't want to know who you are, or why your underwear ended up on the ground), you are possibly providing much amusement to certain Adopt-a-Spot volunteers.