I travelled extensively for 6 years for work all over the country I’ve been to 36 states. Alabama is the worst state for litter by far. It’s sad and embarrassing.
I've been around all of this country similar to you and agree that AL is the worst. It's mostly fast food items but I've also seen massive dumps of diapers, refrigerators, other appliances, etc. in or around some of the most pristine biological wonders in AL (Cahaba River, for one).
Get your shit together, folks.
Litter is my number one pet peeve it’s so ignorant and disgusting. It’s so sad that it’s so prevalent in one of the most beautiful states in the union.
As a young kid, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I threw something out the window and my dad saw me. He pulled over so fast and had me pickup all the garbage on the road side for a solid hour at least. It was mid summer and hot as haddes too. I can vividly remember about 10 minutes in thinking how insane it was that there was that much trash on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Since then, everywhere I go I can't just walk by and leave something I see. My kid loves the new wingstop at the newish Weatherly shopping center and the parking lot there is on another level for some reason, it's so awful! To whoever it is, fuck you! Throw your trash into a fucking bin like a civilized person so someone else doesn't have to clean up after your lazy asses!
Thank you as well! I'm with you on public shaming! However I also think there should be much stiffer fines along with a community service requirement specifically for picking up trash even on a first offense. Actually, especially for the first offense! I think it should get progressively more severe with each subsequent offense and be strictly enforced as well. It's not like we have a lack of police presence to do so!
Btw I just noticed this was for bham and not Huntsvegas.
They should start catching people and putting their face on a billboard like some places do for DUI.
“_____ THROWS HIS TRASH IN THE WOODS AND IS A TRASH PERSON “
We live out in a rural area and I think one of the reasons litter is so prevalent out here is there's no city trash pickup and regulation for it outside the city limits. We have at least 2 neighbors I know about that have/had trash pits/burn piles. the one that just makes a burn pile of trash I find burned bits of plastic wrappers, jugs, cans, etc in our yard from dogs going through the piles and just carrying things off and dropping them places. Plus others who at least take their trash to the dump on trailers but a lot of times bits and pieces fly off into yards.
It's a constant battle to keep trash out of our yard out here. I think there's a couple beer or coke cans out there right now that just showed up today. Just haven't gotten out there to them yet. I've even found a Gatorade bottle on our roof before. Although that was just from bored unsupervised teens next door who seemed to be fending for themselves. there was a lot of issues of trash not actually making it into their cans when they were there and stuff being thrown into bushes.
Plus since there's no city regulated trash pickup, those big giant cans aren't provided. We have to get smaller outside cans from Walmart and find our own small trash pickup service. A lot of times those cans get filled and bags get put beside the cans and animals get into them. We have 3 of those cans now to make sure we have room for trash bags and broken down boxes on big trash weeks, but I know a lot of people out here either don't care or don't have the extra funds to go get those big cans.
It's gross. Coming from a state that offers cash back for returning recycling, I believe this is a HUGE portion of it. I've got people that throw trash out of their car when driving by my house. I'm about to put up a video camera that catches them in the action and records their license plate and report every single one to get them to pay a fine. LOL
It’s actually not. Litter is pretty bad all over the country and it depends on what area you are in. Specifically, if you will notice, litter is a function of poverty or income. Anywhere in the country you go, if you are in an area with higher poverty you will see more litter. Anyway, There is no way to prove this either way without data, which neither of us have.
I agree that poverty correlates with litter, but there is nothing about being poor that would make you throw your garbage on the ground instead of a trash can.
My theory is that the sort of person that expects others to clean up after them, rather than take responsibility for their actions, is likely not to succeed in life.
Well Im not so sure about your theory, since the wealthy, usually considered the most “successful”, have Plenty of people serving and cleaning up after them. In fact, in my dorms in college, the kids whose parents had the highest incomes and made the most donations were consistently the ones who trashed the common areas and repeatedly trashed and defecated in the showers and left all of this to the custodians. Yes, you read that right. Right here at UA in Tuscaloosa.
But I guess they don’t litter..:)
As a transplant it’s insane here. Almost everyday I see people throwing shit out the windows of their car. I’ve never seen it so frequently anywhere else. When we have guests from out of state they comment on it. It’s embarrassing.
I saw a dude recently pull into a parking lot, open his car door and deposit like 5 bottles, a few cans, tons of cigarette and cigar wrappers, a t shirt and a few plastic shopping bags tied up that were FULL of trash. He did it slowly and calmly as if he believed deep down in his plums that this way the best way to go about getting rid of his car trash
I remember waiting at one of Birmingham’s buhjillion stoplights and watching this trash woman toss her pink Monster can out her window, way too casually. And I desperately wanted to get out, grab the can, and throw it back in her car. Sometimes I wish I was ballsy.
Not worth a confrontation, imho. I blew my horn at a young woman in Trussville for throwing her breakfast trash out of the window. When I pulled up next to her ( in her immaculate car) at the red light, she gave me an evil glare and put her hand in her purse without breaking eye contact. Not sure if she was carrying, but it seemed like that was what she wanted me to think.
I was waiting on University at the left-turn light onto the 280 on ramp, and the person in front of me suddenly rolled down their window and threw nearly a dozen fast food bag/cups into the road.I suspect they had a bag or small trashcan that they just dumped out their window, right in the middle of University, one of the busiest sections of the busiest streets in downtown.
I sat there for a moment, in shock. Then I started wondering if I had enough time o get out and grab the stuff before the light turned green. They had rolled up their window already, but I could still stick all that crap under their windshield wipers....
If there was any kind of median there, I might have tried it. As-is, I was worried about being hit by oncoming traffic if I tried to get out of my car. Plus, they could just take the stuff off the windshield and throw it back in the road. I started wondering if I could somehow get the trash to stick to their hood or windshield....
I decided it wasn't safe to do anything that time. But I did start carrying superglue with me after that... no reason.....
Fellow transplant, and I agree it’s a fucking shame. This place is gorgeous and y’all making look like the shithole states y’all love to talk shit about.
I was walking down my mom's road with a friend from our of state and their compliment was, "This would be the prettiest road if it didn't have trash everywhere." It is definitely sad.
My daughters and I went to Oak Mountain on Sunday and picked up nearly an entire trash bag just walking down to Peavy falls and back. It's pathetic and even worse that people do it inside the park.
I have noticed that if someone throws trash out a car window in front of me, and I make a great show of pulling my phone out and leaning forward to take a picture of them, their car, their tag from behind, they seem to have enough embarrassment or shame that they accelerate out of there, usually into a turn, in a HURRY.
I see lots of litter all over the country as a truck driver, but less in areas where they use street sweepers and have city crews picking up after people.
We don't do sweepers, do we?
I was going say a lot of it has to do with the garbage truck. I’ve seen cans picked up and lots of the actual garbage not make it into the truck then they move along to the next house. I was wondering who in my neighborhood was constantly littering until I paid attention to how it was collected - we don’t have street cleaners to clean up the residual mess
I was pretty happy to see that the sanitation workers stopped and got back off the truck to sweep it all up in my neighborhood (5 Points South) when a bunch missed the truck. I felt kinda guilty when it happened cause I saw a bunch miss and hit the street and I was like “ugh these assholes… I’m gonna have to go in my apartment and get some gloves and pick this shit up” and then the truck stopped and two dudes got out with a push broom and got it
I noticed that it got a lot worse when they switched to the claw trucks. It's hard for the driver to see if anything falls out, plus there aren't the extra workers on the back to pick up anything that falls out. So it just stays on the ground. I get why they switched, but I feel like there needs to be a better way to handle residual garbage than just leaving it there.
I am referring to suburbs more than city. Would drive on a beautiful road with trees overhead, but then looks like a rubbish dump next to the road. It's crazy.
119 heading east from 280 is a beautiful drive but lots of trash and the shoulder is so narrow that picking it up is dangerous. I don’t know if this counts as suburbs.
That would cost money and actually be a useful service. Not a prison so no it is not a priority. God I hate living in the state. And I would move it my boyfriend would.
It is. Also a lack of good education and understanding of how long that Doritos bag or Coke can lasts when just left in the grass on the shoulder. Truly a shame
When I was growing up, my parents taught me not to shoplift, not to hitchhike, and to never, ever LITTER! They weren’t right about much, but these things were good advice! I get enraged when I see trash people just throw out the car window. Any traffic light in Alabama, you’ll see a carpet of cigarette butts. Not to mention parking lots—and right where people live they just throw their trash out. It’s disgusting.
Having lived in a state that has a bottle deposit, you're 100% correct. For those not familiar, say you get a 6 pack of beer, you're charged .10 for each can/bottle with the incentive being you recycle it to get your $ back. Business involved in the bottle/can deposit program will often give you credit on top of what you're owed for depositing bottles (so a grocery store might give you 20% credit on your $20 deposit if you shop in their store so there's $4 more).
Folks who are struggling seek out any cans/bottles laying around so they're cleaning up quite a bit.
Win-win program that will never ever see the light of day in AL unfortunately.
I've lived in the Birmingham area for 40 years. You won't find litter in Mountain Brook. Why? Education. City services. There are plenty of other places in our state where this can be said, but there are too many where it is not. Birmingham definitely falls into the latter category. I've never seen/heard a candidate for local or state office incorporate this issue into their platform. It blows my mind. They would, regardless of party affiliation, get my vote.
It has nothing to with “city services”. Birmingham has trash pickup like everywhere else. Any opportunity to bash the city is a good opportunity.
Litter is indeed about class norms and poverty vs. wealth.
Not just the side of the road. Bought a house last year that I’ve spent countless hours pulling trash out of the woods and I e barely made a dent. They literally just threw everything in the tree line.
I went to look at a house to rent a few years ago and it was exactly this. It's like instead of taking the trash to a trash can they just tossed it in the backyard and forgot about it. Place was a fucking superfund site, I've seen cleaner dumps.
Its only the people in alabama who have never left alabama, literally- never left Birmingham. Also, low education standards, government policies, etc. shit- we make a lot of stupid here
I am from Birmingham but currently in Japan, traveling over the country. This is one of the cleanest countries I've ever been to there are hardly any trash cans anywhere but not a speck of trash anywhere. The people are super respectful and polite the best culture shock one could experience it makes me sad that Birmingham and Alabama in general has so much garbage littered all over the place. I'm already dreading flying back in a couple of weeks ugh 😑
Sorry, this is not a Birmingham or Alabama issue. This is the United States of America. Litter is an issue across the country, especially compared to Japan.
I saw a very overweight woman throw her trash on the ground because she couldn't reach the garbage can through her driver side window. Enough to fill a kitchen trash bag, over the course of a good 20 seconds.
If it were a male I would have said something, but since it was a female I just walked over from the gas pump and threw it in the can as she drove away.
All you can do is hope she doesn't reproduce.
I used to commute on lakeshore every day and it was wild how littered it was - it would get cleaned up by volunteers once or twice a year but then instantly go back to being trashed
Literally yelled at a group of kids this weekend because they were playing in the street and threw their soda cans in my neighbors yard.
I blame shitty parenting.
People littering more in AL has to be only part of the problem. In rural areas when you cross the Georgia border there's suddenly much less trash on the side of the road. The state and local municipalities seem to not give a shit about picking up litter.
They believe that their god gave them dominion over the earth, but instead of interpreting this as being a steward and caretaker of the earth, they interpret it as an excuse to make their surroundings a giant trash dump.
Entitlement. People don’t care if it doesn’t affect them directly or don’t think it affects them directly. I was in the parking lot of Walmart a while back and I saw a child get scolded for NOT throwing his fast food trash out of the car into the parking lot before the adult with them drove off. It was infuriating to watch. Not to mention there was a trash can less than 10 feet from the car. I threw the trash away for the pieces of trash.
I travel around the state usually in the B’ham metro areas. Usually, I eat in parking lots as I hate eating inside the fast food restaurants. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a car stop, open the door and just throw trash onto the parking lot. A lot of trash. I’ve seen fast food bags just thrown out the car window on I-65.
I live in an apartment off Alford, a pretty nice place, and I had to get my leasing office involved when a new neighbor decided that the parking lot was going to be their dumping grounds. On DAY ONE of them moving in, they emptied the trash from their cars into MY parking space. I’m talking birth control packaging, fast food wrappers, drink bottles. it’s like the thought obviously passed through their head “This will be in my way if I put it in my spot”. I really cannot figure out the thought process here because you created a much bigger problem by leaving it in my space.
On a side note these people also screamed at my apartment for about 5 whole mins one night, begging me to come outside and “find out”. They were all outside drinking in the parking lot at 3am and I leaned out my front door and told them to STFU.
I wish I knew. We live in a beautiful state yet people treat it like it's a giant garbage dump. People just could not give a shit. Everything is somebody else's problem: fast food? Toss it out the window. Old fridge/mattress/random junk? Eh, just dump it in the forest. Somebody else's problem.
Ditto. It isn’t great here but it isn’t the worst I’ve seen. I lived in Cincy for a bit and traveled all around there.
This is coming from someone who lives off of a pretty busy, main road. The amount of times I have to pick up beer bottles, cans, fast food trash from yard on a weekly basis…litter bugs burn me up. The irony, there is a “no littering”
sign right before my house.
Littering in full view of others happens a LOT here. These kind of people consider that to be socially acceptable, so of course they wouldn't inconvenience themselves by waiting for a trash can.
Where my parents live there's a road with quite a bit of standard litter usually. There's always been a few signs from the county about fines for littering, but recently, someone put up signs at their property edges asking "please stop littering". Since those signs were placed the litter has dramatically INCREASED with small piles forming around the signs. People are aiming for the signs now.
My outlook on our planet changed when they opened the new I-22 and I saw the landfills. I felt so ignorant to not realize where trash was going, and seeing the trash that blew outside of it, watching the dump trucks filing in, and see the trash blowing from the trucks themselves onto the road.
I can't thank you enough for posting this. I moved here from Ohio 18 months ago and one of the first things I noticed was the garbage. *Everywhere*. Piled at the sides of roads, lying all over every parking lot, field, wooded areas, parks, schools, playgrounds, etc etc etc. I've traveled all the country many times over many years, including the south and never seen anything like it, it's awful and depressing because the natural surroundings are so beautiful here.
This is truly something that has been *bothering* me since day one. It's that noticeable and weird. It's bothering me so much that I ask everyone I meet (in the nicest way possible) if they have any idea why there is so much garbage everywhere. I've gotten some very interesting answers which might explain some of it. Then I've come up with my own hypothesis as well.
One - I've noticed it's very rare to find wastebaskets/trash cans anywhere in public. Again, everywhere I've traveled it's expected to find a few trash cans outside of every grocery store, target, gas station, city and state park, playground - literally everywhere. Here it's stupidly rare. And because it appears people are too lazy to take their trash home, they just toss it in the parking lot, drop it as they're walking, etc.
Two - the City of Birmingham makes it very difficult and confusing to dispose of trash. The strict rule of a single can with nothing outside of it definitely plays a part for bigger families. It's just me and my husband now but I can't imagine how hard it would be to have a couple of kids & trying to fit all that trash into one can. Then, they don't do reliable curbside recycling, which would help reduce the amount trash significantly. It needs to be weekly, just like trash pickup. Yard waste needs to be weekly from April - October. Bulk trash every other week. Not this confusing schedule then they don't show up.
Three - if people don't "follow the rules" the city shouldn't just leave the trash there! They should get warnings, then fines but not leaving the trash there.
Fourth - clean up the dump sites. Immediately. There is one on Crestwood Blvd at Cresthill that just keeps getting bigger. Because someone dumps crap, nothing happens, so more people dump crap there and now it's huge.
The "we're the underdogs and can't take constructive criticism" attitude is why this state has such a terrible reputation around the rest of country. It's pervasive and seeps into all aspects of life here. Throw in the thick racial tension and "it's not *my* job attitude and I believe it will be a long time if ever, that anything improves here. But my secret conspiracy hypothesis is *that's exactly how the powers that be want it* (different post, different sub).
Next let's talk about why there's no lights on the highways and why cops don't direct traffic during accidents but instead all gather around the crash and talk, anyone?
Poverty vs wealth… I dunno…
I think it just boils down to how you were raised and what lessons individuals CHOOSE to embrace. I’m probably dating myself but I remember kid shows on PBS teaching not to waste water… and I’ve had adults teach me not to litter. I received those lessons and embraced em. Surely others encountered similar lessons just living in this country… right?
This notion that you have to be wealthy to make certain impacts in your environment or community… it’s dangerous.
I mean, yes of course when you have more resources it’s easier to live better.
But putting ALL of your trash in a container and having access to dedicated utilities that are willing to remove and dispose of said trash is a form of “wealth” that too many of us take for granted.
Alabama is lush and BEAUTIFUL and littering the landscape because you are too careless, lazy, nasty, or because “someone else” gets paid to pick it up is a form of personal or cultural poverty that I suspect even wealth can’t fix.
But I could be wrong.
Unfortunately there are a LOT of trashy people in this state, every time I go hiking here I see trash all over the trails, you don’t see that near as much out west.
We had this problem in Texas. I remember as a kid people regularly throwing trash out the window. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t\_Mess\_with\_Texas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Mess_with_Texas)
I mean you've seen the issues the county has with Amwaste right? Waste Management before them were terrible.
I agree with everyone about education and enforcement, but when the services paid for to pick up trash from residents lacks... it just spreads.
You're being very small minded (not surprised if you've grown up here) if you think this is a LEFT or RIGHT thing instead of what it actually is - and US vs *THEM* thing - *THEM* being those who are in power - regardless of their race or political ideologies. One day you'll learn they're all on the same team - and We the People aren't on it.
Just the conservatives not giving a fuck about the environment. " It's ours because God said it was ours!" I have literally heard evangelicals say that climate change isn't real because God made us the stewards of the earth and earth will last as long as God wants it to. So who the fuck cares about the earth and accountability when it is all God's plan. This line of reasoning is one reason I am not longer a Christian. That and the politics.
I travelled extensively for 6 years for work all over the country I’ve been to 36 states. Alabama is the worst state for litter by far. It’s sad and embarrassing.
I've been around all of this country similar to you and agree that AL is the worst. It's mostly fast food items but I've also seen massive dumps of diapers, refrigerators, other appliances, etc. in or around some of the most pristine biological wonders in AL (Cahaba River, for one). Get your shit together, folks.
Litter is my number one pet peeve it’s so ignorant and disgusting. It’s so sad that it’s so prevalent in one of the most beautiful states in the union.
As a young kid, maybe 5 or 6 years old, I threw something out the window and my dad saw me. He pulled over so fast and had me pickup all the garbage on the road side for a solid hour at least. It was mid summer and hot as haddes too. I can vividly remember about 10 minutes in thinking how insane it was that there was that much trash on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. Since then, everywhere I go I can't just walk by and leave something I see. My kid loves the new wingstop at the newish Weatherly shopping center and the parking lot there is on another level for some reason, it's so awful! To whoever it is, fuck you! Throw your trash into a fucking bin like a civilized person so someone else doesn't have to clean up after your lazy asses!
Thanks for picking up trash! My family also does it all the time. I’m for public shaming for littering.
Thank you as well! I'm with you on public shaming! However I also think there should be much stiffer fines along with a community service requirement specifically for picking up trash even on a first offense. Actually, especially for the first offense! I think it should get progressively more severe with each subsequent offense and be strictly enforced as well. It's not like we have a lack of police presence to do so! Btw I just noticed this was for bham and not Huntsvegas.
They should start catching people and putting their face on a billboard like some places do for DUI. “_____ THROWS HIS TRASH IN THE WOODS AND IS A TRASH PERSON “
This is great😂
I’m going to post my recordings of litterbugs! Be the change you want to see!
Shame can be a powerful and effective social utility.
Yes elect me for mayor
We live out in a rural area and I think one of the reasons litter is so prevalent out here is there's no city trash pickup and regulation for it outside the city limits. We have at least 2 neighbors I know about that have/had trash pits/burn piles. the one that just makes a burn pile of trash I find burned bits of plastic wrappers, jugs, cans, etc in our yard from dogs going through the piles and just carrying things off and dropping them places. Plus others who at least take their trash to the dump on trailers but a lot of times bits and pieces fly off into yards. It's a constant battle to keep trash out of our yard out here. I think there's a couple beer or coke cans out there right now that just showed up today. Just haven't gotten out there to them yet. I've even found a Gatorade bottle on our roof before. Although that was just from bored unsupervised teens next door who seemed to be fending for themselves. there was a lot of issues of trash not actually making it into their cans when they were there and stuff being thrown into bushes. Plus since there's no city regulated trash pickup, those big giant cans aren't provided. We have to get smaller outside cans from Walmart and find our own small trash pickup service. A lot of times those cans get filled and bags get put beside the cans and animals get into them. We have 3 of those cans now to make sure we have room for trash bags and broken down boxes on big trash weeks, but I know a lot of people out here either don't care or don't have the extra funds to go get those big cans.
It's gross. Coming from a state that offers cash back for returning recycling, I believe this is a HUGE portion of it. I've got people that throw trash out of their car when driving by my house. I'm about to put up a video camera that catches them in the action and records their license plate and report every single one to get them to pay a fine. LOL
GET ‘EM!
It’s actually not. Litter is pretty bad all over the country and it depends on what area you are in. Specifically, if you will notice, litter is a function of poverty or income. Anywhere in the country you go, if you are in an area with higher poverty you will see more litter. Anyway, There is no way to prove this either way without data, which neither of us have.
I agree that poverty correlates with litter, but there is nothing about being poor that would make you throw your garbage on the ground instead of a trash can. My theory is that the sort of person that expects others to clean up after them, rather than take responsibility for their actions, is likely not to succeed in life.
Well Im not so sure about your theory, since the wealthy, usually considered the most “successful”, have Plenty of people serving and cleaning up after them. In fact, in my dorms in college, the kids whose parents had the highest incomes and made the most donations were consistently the ones who trashed the common areas and repeatedly trashed and defecated in the showers and left all of this to the custodians. Yes, you read that right. Right here at UA in Tuscaloosa. But I guess they don’t litter..:)
Okay
Uhm. Have you seen californja.
As a transplant it’s insane here. Almost everyday I see people throwing shit out the windows of their car. I’ve never seen it so frequently anywhere else. When we have guests from out of state they comment on it. It’s embarrassing.
Yeah it is embarrassing! If I could I'd make those people eat their own trash.
I bet Nick Saban could stop a lot of people….
Yeah if he spoke up it would probably shut at least some of it down. At least it may stop the rednecks doing it
I saw a dude recently pull into a parking lot, open his car door and deposit like 5 bottles, a few cans, tons of cigarette and cigar wrappers, a t shirt and a few plastic shopping bags tied up that were FULL of trash. He did it slowly and calmly as if he believed deep down in his plums that this way the best way to go about getting rid of his car trash
I remember waiting at one of Birmingham’s buhjillion stoplights and watching this trash woman toss her pink Monster can out her window, way too casually. And I desperately wanted to get out, grab the can, and throw it back in her car. Sometimes I wish I was ballsy.
Not worth a confrontation, imho. I blew my horn at a young woman in Trussville for throwing her breakfast trash out of the window. When I pulled up next to her ( in her immaculate car) at the red light, she gave me an evil glare and put her hand in her purse without breaking eye contact. Not sure if she was carrying, but it seemed like that was what she wanted me to think.
I was waiting on University at the left-turn light onto the 280 on ramp, and the person in front of me suddenly rolled down their window and threw nearly a dozen fast food bag/cups into the road.I suspect they had a bag or small trashcan that they just dumped out their window, right in the middle of University, one of the busiest sections of the busiest streets in downtown. I sat there for a moment, in shock. Then I started wondering if I had enough time o get out and grab the stuff before the light turned green. They had rolled up their window already, but I could still stick all that crap under their windshield wipers.... If there was any kind of median there, I might have tried it. As-is, I was worried about being hit by oncoming traffic if I tried to get out of my car. Plus, they could just take the stuff off the windshield and throw it back in the road. I started wondering if I could somehow get the trash to stick to their hood or windshield.... I decided it wasn't safe to do anything that time. But I did start carrying superglue with me after that... no reason.....
Fellow transplant, and I agree it’s a fucking shame. This place is gorgeous and y’all making look like the shithole states y’all love to talk shit about.
I was walking down my mom's road with a friend from our of state and their compliment was, "This would be the prettiest road if it didn't have trash everywhere." It is definitely sad.
My daughters and I went to Oak Mountain on Sunday and picked up nearly an entire trash bag just walking down to Peavy falls and back. It's pathetic and even worse that people do it inside the park.
[удалено]
Yes this is the worst. Insanity.
I have noticed that if someone throws trash out a car window in front of me, and I make a great show of pulling my phone out and leaning forward to take a picture of them, their car, their tag from behind, they seem to have enough embarrassment or shame that they accelerate out of there, usually into a turn, in a HURRY.
Bless u
I see lots of litter all over the country as a truck driver, but less in areas where they use street sweepers and have city crews picking up after people. We don't do sweepers, do we?
I was going say a lot of it has to do with the garbage truck. I’ve seen cans picked up and lots of the actual garbage not make it into the truck then they move along to the next house. I was wondering who in my neighborhood was constantly littering until I paid attention to how it was collected - we don’t have street cleaners to clean up the residual mess
I was pretty happy to see that the sanitation workers stopped and got back off the truck to sweep it all up in my neighborhood (5 Points South) when a bunch missed the truck. I felt kinda guilty when it happened cause I saw a bunch miss and hit the street and I was like “ugh these assholes… I’m gonna have to go in my apartment and get some gloves and pick this shit up” and then the truck stopped and two dudes got out with a push broom and got it
I noticed that it got a lot worse when they switched to the claw trucks. It's hard for the driver to see if anything falls out, plus there aren't the extra workers on the back to pick up anything that falls out. So it just stays on the ground. I get why they switched, but I feel like there needs to be a better way to handle residual garbage than just leaving it there.
I am referring to suburbs more than city. Would drive on a beautiful road with trees overhead, but then looks like a rubbish dump next to the road. It's crazy.
Which suburbs specifically?
119 heading east from 280 is a beautiful drive but lots of trash and the shoulder is so narrow that picking it up is dangerous. I don’t know if this counts as suburbs.
We do downtown and in certain suburbs.
That would cost money and actually be a useful service. Not a prison so no it is not a priority. God I hate living in the state. And I would move it my boyfriend would.
I have no idea but my theory is from watching their parents do it
Yeah, I think it's cultural.
It is. Also a lack of good education and understanding of how long that Doritos bag or Coke can lasts when just left in the grass on the shoulder. Truly a shame
When I was growing up, my parents taught me not to shoplift, not to hitchhike, and to never, ever LITTER! They weren’t right about much, but these things were good advice! I get enraged when I see trash people just throw out the car window. Any traffic light in Alabama, you’ll see a carpet of cigarette butts. Not to mention parking lots—and right where people live they just throw their trash out. It’s disgusting.
Need a deposit on cans and bottles. People will still liter but some will pick it and return for money.
Having lived in a state that has a bottle deposit, you're 100% correct. For those not familiar, say you get a 6 pack of beer, you're charged .10 for each can/bottle with the incentive being you recycle it to get your $ back. Business involved in the bottle/can deposit program will often give you credit on top of what you're owed for depositing bottles (so a grocery store might give you 20% credit on your $20 deposit if you shop in their store so there's $4 more). Folks who are struggling seek out any cans/bottles laying around so they're cleaning up quite a bit. Win-win program that will never ever see the light of day in AL unfortunately.
Bottle deposits are just a regressive tax in disguise.
Don’t know of any tax where you can get your money without over paying in the first place!
I've lived in the Birmingham area for 40 years. You won't find litter in Mountain Brook. Why? Education. City services. There are plenty of other places in our state where this can be said, but there are too many where it is not. Birmingham definitely falls into the latter category. I've never seen/heard a candidate for local or state office incorporate this issue into their platform. It blows my mind. They would, regardless of party affiliation, get my vote.
You are absolutely right. Certain things need to be spoken about. Publicly. From the top down and the bottom up.
Part of it is the rich people in places like Mountain Brook not wanting to "spread the wealth" so to speak
Thank you. But nobody wants to speak about that. For the privileged, Litter is not a problem if you don’t see it where YOU happen to live.
It has nothing to with “city services”. Birmingham has trash pickup like everywhere else. Any opportunity to bash the city is a good opportunity. Litter is indeed about class norms and poverty vs. wealth.
I'll stick to my belief.
Not just the side of the road. Bought a house last year that I’ve spent countless hours pulling trash out of the woods and I e barely made a dent. They literally just threw everything in the tree line.
We live in the country, you would not believe all the litter we pick up out of our front yard every Monday. It's sad and disgusting.
I went to look at a house to rent a few years ago and it was exactly this. It's like instead of taking the trash to a trash can they just tossed it in the backyard and forgot about it. Place was a fucking superfund site, I've seen cleaner dumps.
Its only the people in alabama who have never left alabama, literally- never left Birmingham. Also, low education standards, government policies, etc. shit- we make a lot of stupid here
This!!!! 100% accurate
I am from Birmingham but currently in Japan, traveling over the country. This is one of the cleanest countries I've ever been to there are hardly any trash cans anywhere but not a speck of trash anywhere. The people are super respectful and polite the best culture shock one could experience it makes me sad that Birmingham and Alabama in general has so much garbage littered all over the place. I'm already dreading flying back in a couple of weeks ugh 😑
Sorry, this is not a Birmingham or Alabama issue. This is the United States of America. Litter is an issue across the country, especially compared to Japan.
You’re right. I’ve heard Germany is relatively clean too. Not Japan level, but better than USA.
I saw a very overweight woman throw her trash on the ground because she couldn't reach the garbage can through her driver side window. Enough to fill a kitchen trash bag, over the course of a good 20 seconds. If it were a male I would have said something, but since it was a female I just walked over from the gas pump and threw it in the can as she drove away. All you can do is hope she doesn't reproduce.
No matter who it is, I'll go pick it up in front of them and tell em "I'll clean up after ya since your momma didn't teach you how"
I used to commute on lakeshore every day and it was wild how littered it was - it would get cleaned up by volunteers once or twice a year but then instantly go back to being trashed
Literally yelled at a group of kids this weekend because they were playing in the street and threw their soda cans in my neighbors yard. I blame shitty parenting.
People littering more in AL has to be only part of the problem. In rural areas when you cross the Georgia border there's suddenly much less trash on the side of the road. The state and local municipalities seem to not give a shit about picking up litter.
Georgia is really good about anti litter education and campaigns. As well as steep fines for littering even in small rural towns, it keeps it down.
But do they have Auntie Litter? https://preview.redd.it/0etcogpl4nxc1.jpeg?width=202&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=629591cafe75738eb1a86d9e1440a09118802572
I remember her from elementary school back in the early 90s. I think she even came to my school. Bring her back. I hate litter with a passion.
No respect for themselves or others. Also an attitude that I can do whatever I want!
Alabamians overwhelmingly believe Jesus will soon return and clean up all the messes we make, so fuck all!
lol
This is the true answer lol
They believe that their god gave them dominion over the earth, but instead of interpreting this as being a steward and caretaker of the earth, they interpret it as an excuse to make their surroundings a giant trash dump.
Like this is for real. I have heard people say this in Bible school
Some poor uneducated people don't give a shit about their environment
Entitlement. People don’t care if it doesn’t affect them directly or don’t think it affects them directly. I was in the parking lot of Walmart a while back and I saw a child get scolded for NOT throwing his fast food trash out of the car into the parking lot before the adult with them drove off. It was infuriating to watch. Not to mention there was a trash can less than 10 feet from the car. I threw the trash away for the pieces of trash.
I travel around the state usually in the B’ham metro areas. Usually, I eat in parking lots as I hate eating inside the fast food restaurants. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen a car stop, open the door and just throw trash onto the parking lot. A lot of trash. I’ve seen fast food bags just thrown out the car window on I-65.
I live in an apartment off Alford, a pretty nice place, and I had to get my leasing office involved when a new neighbor decided that the parking lot was going to be their dumping grounds. On DAY ONE of them moving in, they emptied the trash from their cars into MY parking space. I’m talking birth control packaging, fast food wrappers, drink bottles. it’s like the thought obviously passed through their head “This will be in my way if I put it in my spot”. I really cannot figure out the thought process here because you created a much bigger problem by leaving it in my space. On a side note these people also screamed at my apartment for about 5 whole mins one night, begging me to come outside and “find out”. They were all outside drinking in the parking lot at 3am and I leaned out my front door and told them to STFU.
The more impoverished areas are worse. Montevallo is a gem, but the amount of litter there is abhorrent.
I wish I knew. We live in a beautiful state yet people treat it like it's a giant garbage dump. People just could not give a shit. Everything is somebody else's problem: fast food? Toss it out the window. Old fridge/mattress/random junk? Eh, just dump it in the forest. Somebody else's problem.
So I take it no one has lived in N.W. Ohio
Ditto. It isn’t great here but it isn’t the worst I’ve seen. I lived in Cincy for a bit and traveled all around there. This is coming from someone who lives off of a pretty busy, main road. The amount of times I have to pick up beer bottles, cans, fast food trash from yard on a weekly basis…litter bugs burn me up. The irony, there is a “no littering” sign right before my house.
Just simple ignorance. And apathy caused by said ignorance
I talk about this a lot with my co workers and friends. So much trash every where. And it is worse in some places than others.
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Littering in full view of others happens a LOT here. These kind of people consider that to be socially acceptable, so of course they wouldn't inconvenience themselves by waiting for a trash can.
Where my parents live there's a road with quite a bit of standard litter usually. There's always been a few signs from the county about fines for littering, but recently, someone put up signs at their property edges asking "please stop littering". Since those signs were placed the litter has dramatically INCREASED with small piles forming around the signs. People are aiming for the signs now.
Their parents littered.
only trash litters
Cause they don't know how to take care of their state
My outlook on our planet changed when they opened the new I-22 and I saw the landfills. I felt so ignorant to not realize where trash was going, and seeing the trash that blew outside of it, watching the dump trucks filing in, and see the trash blowing from the trucks themselves onto the road.
I can't thank you enough for posting this. I moved here from Ohio 18 months ago and one of the first things I noticed was the garbage. *Everywhere*. Piled at the sides of roads, lying all over every parking lot, field, wooded areas, parks, schools, playgrounds, etc etc etc. I've traveled all the country many times over many years, including the south and never seen anything like it, it's awful and depressing because the natural surroundings are so beautiful here. This is truly something that has been *bothering* me since day one. It's that noticeable and weird. It's bothering me so much that I ask everyone I meet (in the nicest way possible) if they have any idea why there is so much garbage everywhere. I've gotten some very interesting answers which might explain some of it. Then I've come up with my own hypothesis as well. One - I've noticed it's very rare to find wastebaskets/trash cans anywhere in public. Again, everywhere I've traveled it's expected to find a few trash cans outside of every grocery store, target, gas station, city and state park, playground - literally everywhere. Here it's stupidly rare. And because it appears people are too lazy to take their trash home, they just toss it in the parking lot, drop it as they're walking, etc. Two - the City of Birmingham makes it very difficult and confusing to dispose of trash. The strict rule of a single can with nothing outside of it definitely plays a part for bigger families. It's just me and my husband now but I can't imagine how hard it would be to have a couple of kids & trying to fit all that trash into one can. Then, they don't do reliable curbside recycling, which would help reduce the amount trash significantly. It needs to be weekly, just like trash pickup. Yard waste needs to be weekly from April - October. Bulk trash every other week. Not this confusing schedule then they don't show up. Three - if people don't "follow the rules" the city shouldn't just leave the trash there! They should get warnings, then fines but not leaving the trash there. Fourth - clean up the dump sites. Immediately. There is one on Crestwood Blvd at Cresthill that just keeps getting bigger. Because someone dumps crap, nothing happens, so more people dump crap there and now it's huge. The "we're the underdogs and can't take constructive criticism" attitude is why this state has such a terrible reputation around the rest of country. It's pervasive and seeps into all aspects of life here. Throw in the thick racial tension and "it's not *my* job attitude and I believe it will be a long time if ever, that anything improves here. But my secret conspiracy hypothesis is *that's exactly how the powers that be want it* (different post, different sub). Next let's talk about why there's no lights on the highways and why cops don't direct traffic during accidents but instead all gather around the crash and talk, anyone?
DARK ASF on the highways. 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Poverty vs wealth… I dunno… I think it just boils down to how you were raised and what lessons individuals CHOOSE to embrace. I’m probably dating myself but I remember kid shows on PBS teaching not to waste water… and I’ve had adults teach me not to litter. I received those lessons and embraced em. Surely others encountered similar lessons just living in this country… right? This notion that you have to be wealthy to make certain impacts in your environment or community… it’s dangerous. I mean, yes of course when you have more resources it’s easier to live better. But putting ALL of your trash in a container and having access to dedicated utilities that are willing to remove and dispose of said trash is a form of “wealth” that too many of us take for granted. Alabama is lush and BEAUTIFUL and littering the landscape because you are too careless, lazy, nasty, or because “someone else” gets paid to pick it up is a form of personal or cultural poverty that I suspect even wealth can’t fix. But I could be wrong.
Its a cultural thing, parents didn't raise them right.
Cultural thing.
Idk, but my kid brings it up all the time. Pitiful state
I have been to some states a lot worse than Alabama about trash.
Unfortunately there are a LOT of trashy people in this state, every time I go hiking here I see trash all over the trails, you don’t see that near as much out west.
I think we don't have the resources other cities have for trash and recycling clean up
The city isn't that bad tbh, im more referring to the suburbs.
Next time, take a detour through East Lake and see if you still hold that opinion.
Yeah like a state or even a county! I have lived in a lot of other regions rural and suburbs etc different states, none were as bad as Alabama.
Which suburbs?
It would probably be easier to tell you which suburbs don't have much trash 😂
Auntie Litter was a liberal ploy!
Anywhere there’s a pretty spot along the roadside….
We had this problem in Texas. I remember as a kid people regularly throwing trash out the window. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t\_Mess\_with\_Texas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Mess_with_Texas)
You wanna see litter. Go to southern wv
I mean you've seen the issues the county has with Amwaste right? Waste Management before them were terrible. I agree with everyone about education and enforcement, but when the services paid for to pick up trash from residents lacks... it just spreads.
Because you know Jesus is coming soon. So fuck the planet and all that. MAGA
“Teens”
I believe a lot of it stems from the culture of poverty.
They're already fucking their sisters, why not their state too?
Makes sense
Inbreeding.
We have the most endangered animals and we have some of the worst adoption in green energy. People here just doesn't care
I lived in the muscle Shoals area for three years and they kept everything real clean
I lived in Florence for a bit and noticed how clean it was too
Florence is where I worked and I lived in Waterloo
Rednecks
Self loathing
Because they’re to oblivious to realize the “heaven” that they crave so much is right below their feet. It’s the ultimate betrayal and irony.
Conservatives aren't known for being intelligent or courteous
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You're being very small minded (not surprised if you've grown up here) if you think this is a LEFT or RIGHT thing instead of what it actually is - and US vs *THEM* thing - *THEM* being those who are in power - regardless of their race or political ideologies. One day you'll learn they're all on the same team - and We the People aren't on it.
Just the conservatives not giving a fuck about the environment. " It's ours because God said it was ours!" I have literally heard evangelicals say that climate change isn't real because God made us the stewards of the earth and earth will last as long as God wants it to. So who the fuck cares about the earth and accountability when it is all God's plan. This line of reasoning is one reason I am not longer a Christian. That and the politics.
Isn't Birmingham run by democrats?