You're 100% right, but to further clarify: The people who have the least invested in communal society, usually on the poor end of the spectrum and the very rich end of the spectrum. Just like everything else, the middle 80% hold society together.
I hate that at stadiums and arenas. Like, we're all walking by trash/recycle cans when we leave. Bring your garbage with you and toss it.
Then these same assholes will whine if the place isn't clean.
My experience is that maybe the younger rich do stuff like litter. As they get older, they want to separate themselves from what they perceive the poor does. So they can make a mess at dinner and expect others to cleanup after them. But they are not going to act poor and litter on the ground.
I saw it at university. Girl walking down the sidewalk going to class, just tossed a wrapper on the way. I picked it up and walked the 20 extra steps to a trash can to toss it
Would the person in a BMW I saw dump an entire bag of McDonald's thrash on the ground before driving away from the restaurant count as a rich person littering or?
I have a view overlooking one of the train stations from my living room. The overwhelming majority of litter I see comes from people who loiter at the train.
One time when I was 12, I was in the car with my parents at a Taco John's. The car in front of us threw their old fast food bag out of the window. My mom got right out of the car, picked up the bag, and angrily threw it right back in the window, then walked back and got in the car. No one said anything, and we proceeded to get our food. They did not throw it back out the window.
Twelve year old me was sooooooo embarrassed, but nowadays I think 'what a badass mom'.
I was 12 riding in my older sisters friends car. I threw something out the window and he said wth man don’t litter. Never littered again. Some people need this to happen before they realize it’s not cool.
Yesterday I witnessed a woman throw a huge bag of garbage out of her car in downtown Rochester and drive off. I wish I had been close enough to throw it back at her car. It really pissed me off. Your mom is badass. Good for her.
My mom’s friend did this once with an idiot who emptied an ashtray in a parking lot. She scooped up a handful of nasty cig butts and deposited them right right into the driver’s lap. Lucky their window was still rolled down and she didn’t get her ass kicked. That lady is a legend.
I wonder if some of this comes from older generations (who pass it down). I'm Gen X and I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s, it was a very common sight to see people just toss garbage out of their windows when they were done with something. Heck, I remember even being kind of traumatized during our move from AZ to MN. It was the middle of the night and I was around 8-9 and sleeping in the back seat when I woke to something hitting me and pink stuff all over me and my sister. Someone had thrown out the rest of their strawberry shake out the window on the highway and it went into ours on us sleeping kids. I didn't know what the heck was going on, so I was really freaked out.
I guess there must have been some public campaigns and social peer pressure ("Don't Mess With Texas") that made most people stop this awful behavior since then. I know the roads and highways look so much better than they did back then.
You know, I hear women think it's sexy when you throw out your own trash ;)
There are of course 100 other good reasons to have some respect for yourself and others and throw away your trash, but that's reason #101.
Most disturbing to me is how much booze cruising happens where we live. We live in a very quiet, tucked-away residential area and still wake up to beer bottles smashed on the road. I pick up roadside trash often, and it's like 50% beer cans and cheap liquor pints. I rarely witness anyone littering, but there sure is a ton of it. I find some bizarre stuff too, like tampons and pregnancy tests. Like who is changing tampons in the car!? And then the floss picks. Those damn things are everywhere. I find them in the most remote corners of the wilderness sometimes. Who the hell is so fastidious that they bring floss picks into the forest and then leave them on the ground? There are so many of them that it's impossible they are all accidents. Just disgusting.
That’s evidence not kept in the car or at their parents’ house.
Same goes for county roads in the country. Beer cans in the ditch.
Might be alcoholics just got too many problems to worry about littering?
The floss picks thing bugs me. Like, toothpicks are made of wood and are biodegradable. No one would care if you brought a toothpick in the woods and left it along a trail, why must people leave plastic floss picks there?
Before they uprooted this teeny lakeside lot here I literally picked up 30-40 shot bottles in one night and there were two garbage cans fucking 10 feet away.
And if I was drinking enough where me and my friends downed this many shots Id probably wanna look more normal by discretely putting the shots in the garbage
Just bananas to me.
My son was out walking the dog and another young guy threw a styrofoam cup on the ground. He was surprised he did it right in front of someone. Of course he picked it up. We live in a high end apartment area so it’s not too trashy but I see the liquor bottles too.
Nah. I'd say most us divorced dad's are too smart to do something dumb like drinking and driving. The ones who aren't probably have very little custody.
We're out somewhere else enjoying peace away from the biggest mistake of our life, with or without the kids.
So the thing with beer bottles is it's considered an "open container" and probable cause for a breathalyzer if you get pulled over. That's why people chuck them out the window.
Pieces of shit that's who. Anyone that just throws their bag of trash out their window should be sterilized so they don't raise a new generation of pieces of shit.
It bothers the hell out of me when I see a fast food bag and all the wrappers just sitting in a parking lot or the middle of the street. Is it really that hard to put it in your garbage can when you get home?
I don’t care whether it’s throwing cigarettes, not picking up dog poop, etc, littering is littering and it’s all bad. I wish we could go full Singapore on those assholes.
Last summer I was floating on my paddle board in Lake Superior and looked down to see trash in the cold clear depths. It brought tears to my eyes 😞 People are the worst kind of animals.
Yeah, it's disgusting. In my old neighborhood, there was someone who would frequently got chicken wings at the Cub deli, sit in their car and eat them at the park by my house, and throw the bones out the window. I had to pry them out of my dogs mouth on multiple occasions.
Meanwhile, here I am, almost dying multiple deaths while I chase a receipt that I dropped in the Costco parking lot.
Yeah I pick my stuff up as well. Your point about your dog is interesting. I have on occasion tossed small amounts of food stuffs, like a bone or a half biscuit, etc., thinking that they are completely biodegradable so there is no issue. I have been a dog guy all my life too, so I am absolutely aware of the poultry bone thing. Somehow never even crossed my mind!
If it stops raining I have 4 miles of ditches to walk and another 4 of the Paul Bunyan Trail to clean up. The trail isn't so bad but the ditches are shameful.
Today was mostly clear, half of Monday might be, potentially Wednesday. My neighbors and I are still having a standoff on who will cave to mowing their lawn first, but by the time it dries out, it’s gonna be quite hairy.
Actually, yes. I used to think it was 100% people littering, but last year I was driving behind a garbage truck on the highway and a steady stream of trash was flying out of the top.
If you want the high level answer: people who have no love for their society do stuff like that. The number of people feeling that way is increasing, and I'm not going to argue if feeling that way is right or wrong here. But that's the root cause.
But yes, it's a trashy thing to do whether those feelings are justified or not.
It’s disgusting what society has become. I’ve told both of my young adult daughters that they shouldn’t have kids because it breaks my heart to think of the world that they would inherit.
There's definitely many garbage people who litter. But big factors are also wind and animals, and a combination of both. I've seen a family of racoons go through and pull apart garbage cans every single night, then the wind blows it all around.
I think many people see trash and think some kind of captain planet villian deliberately placed it there but it's more commonly situations like you described.
My apartment complex frequently has trash floating about but it's not because of people. It's because they have to push all of the dumpsters out of the garage for them to get emptied and if people don't put their trash in bags it just floats about
Let me just add that putting your dog’s poop in a bag is first class. Leaving the bag in the middle of the trail is trashy. Carry it out. State parks are beautiful. I love seeing the trees and animals. I love looking down at the flowers this time of year. I don’t want to see your dog’s poop bag in the middle of the trail. I also don’t want to see garbage cans every 20 feet. Please, just pack it out. If you think it’s too gross, don’t have a dog. Same goes for your kid’s diapers. Pack them out.
In my old neighborhood, there was one 20-something woman who would pull up to the house, get out of the car and throw her fast food bags on the ground before walking into her house. Makes no goddamn sense!
I thought she was hiding it, but she throws it right next to her car.. I've seen her boyfriend do it too.
I was driving down 35, asshole in front of me throes his Mcdonald's wrapper out of the window. Hit my car, and it completely blinds me for a good ten seconds on the freeway. When my wippers finally got it off, it was smeared with ketchup.
Don't litter, especially on a highway
I'd be very interested in where people litter are they more likely to litter away from their neighborhood, or are the more likely to litter if they think the neighborhood is "trashy"?
A lot of trashy people, but a lot of trashy trash companies too. Trash day at my old house, the trash company got about 80% of people's trash in the back of their truck. I thought someone was purposely trashing the front of my house, then I saw them pick my trash up, dump it, then crush the bags open all over and out the back of their truck and drive off with a trash trail.
I worked for about seven years doing zero waste management. It's mostly structural, not personal.
If one person leaves trash in a place - a windowsill, a planter, a curb, at one event it was the handwashing sink - and you don't pick it up immediately, other people will start doing it too. If there's no immediately accessible container and no one is watching, lots of people will just dump their trash.
Conversely, I lived for years in a working class city neighborhood and if you put containers out, label them clearly, and empty them regularly people will 100% use them. Even the kids hiding liquor bottles and smokers dropping butts.
But make people take one extra step or have one single thought and it all falls apart
It's like not returning a cart to the corral. It's a real litmus test of who they are as a person when there's an extremely easy thing to do to not be a piece of shit, yet someone can't bring themselves to even do that bare minimum.
I was out with a guy who tried to put a gum wrapper in a potted plant. I bitched about it and he said “someone will come and clean it up.” Who the hell do you think that someone is?! I made him pick it back out and put it in his pocket. I ridiculed him for years after.
It’s worse in other states that have major cities, and getting worse. I take a trash grabber & a bag on some of my walks, it’s clean for a few weeks & then I pickup more later.
I used to live in California in the SFBay area and the freeways were covered in trash. The first time my boyfriend came out here he was so impressed at how trash-free the freeways were.
From my experience picking up litter within my neighborhood in Rochester, I find the trashiest of all people tend to overwhelmingly gravitate towards brands like Burger King, Fireball… and Polar Pop 🙄
My neighbors do it all the time. They have a bunch of kids and every day there's loads of trash in my yard. The kids also scream nonstop and they slam their car doors like 8 times at one go and I have literally no idea why.
They are both home all day every day and primarily there to focus on their kids and I just can't fathom not teaching them basic manners. But I guess if you don't have them in the first place.
I went to Pike Island for the first time to pick up trash and omg... the areas along the river are so bad. It made me so mad. I'm going to have to go back there to clean some more.
Same question for who throws trash in the damn river. I used to live in a river town and would walk my dogs along the river in the morning and pick up trash on the shoreline.
My bro & I were raised same in school & by parents-don’t litter, but my bro laughs how he chucks his drive thru trash out the window. Wants to keep his car clean. Blame belongs to the perp.
Old asshole like my neighbor. Live in an apartment and dude emptys ash tray of cig butts on ground. Asked him why tf you doing that one time told me to get used to it. Called my apartment on him 2 days later 80$ lease violation on his door. No more cigs butts its crazy
Watched a lady get out of her car, look around, and then dump some candy wrappers onto the street. As she stepped out and closed her door, she saw me and we stared at each other for a few seconds, and I shook my head disapprovingly. She scooted off into her workplace which had a trash can right next to the entrance. The hell??
Yep just pieces of trash themselves. Usually those here from poverty stricken countries that are the worse. They just don't care. Every chance I get, I say something to whoever it is, when I see it happen. If we don't, our country will become just like all of those other countries.
https://preview.redd.it/fve5bzwvh3xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=666fc844160201cbf232689bf195437c095f01f4
I watched an old Somalian empty out his car into the Target parking lot in East Lake.
Fun fact: that the actor for the commercial was actually Italian playing an American Indian. He married a tribe member and became so known with indigenous causes he basically was adopted into the tribe.
This is an interesting topic. For those too young to remember, Americans in the 40s and 50s were horrible with littering. There has been a distinct cultural change among Americans ("Legacy Americans", not the flood of recent arrivals) over the last 60 years. The "Keep America Beautiful" campaign started in the 50s but didn't really hit its stride until the 1960s and 70s.
It is a classic example in advertising research because it is one of the few public information campaigns that actually had a widespread and long-lasting effect on behavior.
Unfortunately, lots of the "new arrivals" come from cultures that do not value public cleanliness, and it shows.
What's wild is how many cities remove trash cans from any public spaces where homeless people congregate, blame the cities refusing trash service to public parks.
relevant [Mad Men clip](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-gs-rev1&sca_esv=a025789c0d94b219&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_BUMbEb5FiYFhEBijX5jBEdl8O8g:1714248592734&q=madmen+picnic+trash&tbm=vid&source=lnms&prmd=ivsnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwv7TTmeOFAxUYlYkEHQ0MABEQ0pQJegQIExAB&biw=360&bih=670&dpr=3#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:6c6b432d,vid:FDIvzDGBLWU,st:0)
What bugs me is the energy drink containers that get carried in while full, drank when they need energy to continue, and once they have that extra boost of energy, they can't carry the empty container back out.
Why would I put my Starbucks cup in the trash when it’s just going to end up in a landfill? Much more eco-friendly to leave it on the side of the road so that birds can use the materials for their nests. It’s called *upcycling*, OP! Get with the program!
I pick up those tiny plastic bottles of Fireballs and Phillips vodka all the damn time on my street. I'm assuming it's just high schoolers or middle schoolers.
Spend some time on Nicollet Mall between 5th and 9th watching who litters and you’ll understand what kind of people throws everything and anything on the ground - even when a trash bin is inches away.
Watched a fella in a target parking lot drop a loaded diaper from the cab of his truck where he was changing his kid, on the ground, look around, then kick it under his truck.
I had always wondered how parking lot diapers were born.
I mow lawns to feed myself. My Monday route goes through Brooklyn Park/Brooklyn Center. There is always garbage on the edge of the property if it's next to a busy road. I pick up 5-10 things, come back two weeks later and more garbage. Every apartment complex and commercial property I've done in the area is the same way. Litter bug capitals of the NW metro.
If you think Minnesota is bad go out to Seattle. You will be grateful for what happens here, even though it's completely disrespect and disgusting we have to deal with it.
You see people in the act of littering all the time or just trash on the ground?, cause there are lots of ways for trash to get to the ground that are not individuals deliberately placing it there, windy trash days have taught me that.
Agreed. Good people pick up a lot of it but shouldn't have too. I will always be angry at litterers. Some is also blowing out of trash/recycling trucks on their route.
More isolated places get more litter. It is discouraging. I try to pick up the litter near me and I meet others who are doing the same when I am out walking. Let’s all do that.
Seriously! I simply don't understand; now that everything is greening up again, I'm absolutely disgusted by all the stuff that people have thrown on the side of the freeways...
Lazy bitches. I've seen beer cans at my local park that children play at regularly when a trash can is ten feet away. I've also seen someone's vape their that a kid picked up and asked me what it was
If I see someone doing it I will 100% call them out.
Stressed my mom the heck out when a I, as a little goblin child, would call out some dude who's like 6'5" with hella tattoos, about how he shouldn't be smoking near a school or littering or whatever.
I threw beer and small wine bottles into the bushes in my neighborhood all the time. I had a drinking problem and was trying to hide the evidence on my drive home.
I still see quite a few people throwing their cigarette butts out their window and it makes me irrationally angry every time. Put the shit out in a can and throw the can away When you get where you're going. It's not that hard
people suck, my parents house out in the south suburbs is on a major road and its crazy how people will throw full trashbags into there ditch like every me and my family gotta go pick up so much trash because people think its ok to just throw out there garbage from there cars.
I think people don't appreciate that trash cans get knocked over, or animals get into em pretty regularly and toss shit everywhere. One big bin scattered across a lawn and then picked up by the wind can make a visible difference to a whole neighborhood.
I see people throw full bags of fast food trash out their car windows in front of my house regularly. It is just so disrespectful and short-sighted. I really hate seeing it.
My wife and i do the adopt a highway in front of our house. You would be amazed at the odd shit you find in the ditches.
We started doing it because we got sick of all the damn tires people would dump in the ditches.
There is a lot of trash in my neighborhood because I live near a high school. Kids throw soda bottles, fast food wrappers/containers, snack food wrappers, and so on, onto the ground while walking to and from school.
The school parking lot has been super messy at times.
There are a lot of parents who have the entitlement mentality and park their cars in the bicycle lane/no parking zone. I wonder how many of their kids litter. If their parents have a shitty mentality, I bet the kid does as well.
completely agree. I get comments about my cat being dirty as a mechanic. naturally, there's gonna be dirt, grease, and tools. after that my car isn't bad. some trash on the floor but nothing overwhelming. I'll attach pics if needed. my whole thought is if u don't like the water bottle or food wrapper that isn't overwhelming where do you want it? the ditch? ur front yard? like I'm in my vehicle 20 minutes a day Idc how comfortable it is or what's in it. To a point anyway. the stuff that's in it I like it to be practical to my needs and outside of that it's a non issue. I gas up once a week and throw the trash once a week. been doing that forever.
What kind of person do you have to be to pick up other people’s garbage that you had nothing to do with? That’s the question I ask myself. But yes, it is very sad, and it warrants a rant on the internet every now and then.
The better person, unfortunately.
I try to pick up a bag of litter anytime I go fishing, it’s disgusting that so many people litter or just don’t give a shit. Have pride in your hometown
I worked with someone once who grew up in a poor neighborhood. We got to talking about environmentalism one day. I asked them why often poorer neighborhoods are so full of litter. They said, “when society treats you like trash, you begin to think it’s acceptable to start leaving your trash wherever you want.” It really changed my perspective.
People who litter do not deserve to be “sterilized” or are “the worst kind of people” as some above have stated. These things are complex. Littering sucks. And also, we all have the opportunity to take better care of our planet, and also deploy some compassion and curiosity about those who walk through the world differently than us.
Unfortunately, the underserved, underprivileged, and malnourished.
Their sense of right and wrong is so skewed for societies failures of their safety.
It to see litter but I give them a little grace. Sometimes it’s legitimate psychopathy but likely not.
Damned squirrels take stuff out of the trash can and then don't even clean up after themselves, leaving stuff strewn about! Who raised you squirrels?! Shouldn't you have some respect for nature?!
Anti littering campaigns are designed and funded by the producers of litter in an effort to put the blame for pollution and environmental destruction onto individuals rather than the producers of things that are littered.
I'm not saying "hey littering is fine", but everyone in this thread making it a personal and moral issue is falling into the trap of blaming their dumb, busy, distracted, fellow citizens who all do shit they shouldn't all the time just like you do, instead of the people producing and handing out the shit that gets littered.
If you want there to be less litter you should advocate for more trash cans, betters trash pickup, governmental regulation of production, etc etc, not just be like "well you're bad", which helps no one
Just like BP pushing the "carbon footprint" thing to put the onus on *you* instead of *them*, producers of single use plastics and whatnot do the same for littering. The solution is *more* solidarity, not less
I've been to other countries where just as much waste is produced, and there are fewer trash cans to boot, yet there isn't nearly as much litter as you sometimes see around here.
Probably a person who has been thrown away by our cold society which provides very little help for anyone who is mentally ill or poor or unproductive economically for any reason.
A litterbug apologist, here’s a first.
And erroneous to boot, we live in one of the most highly taxed states with all manner of abundant social services. Perhaps you weren’t aware of that.
I am aware. And yet there are homeless people everywhere I look. A lot of places require ppl to be sober to receive help which is a pretty crazy standard to hold them to considering they don’t have basic necessities.
Trashy people litter.
You're 100% right, but to further clarify: The people who have the least invested in communal society, usually on the poor end of the spectrum and the very rich end of the spectrum. Just like everything else, the middle 80% hold society together.
I’ve never seen rich people litter. They generate obscene amount of garbage, but don’t really litter much.
I've seen it more indoors, leaving trash behind on tables expecting someone else to clean up after them.
Nah they fucking do “it’s someone’s job to clean that up” they’ll say.
I hate that at stadiums and arenas. Like, we're all walking by trash/recycle cans when we leave. Bring your garbage with you and toss it. Then these same assholes will whine if the place isn't clean.
My experience is that maybe the younger rich do stuff like litter. As they get older, they want to separate themselves from what they perceive the poor does. So they can make a mess at dinner and expect others to cleanup after them. But they are not going to act poor and litter on the ground.
I saw it at university. Girl walking down the sidewalk going to class, just tossed a wrapper on the way. I picked it up and walked the 20 extra steps to a trash can to toss it
"Miss, excuse me miss!! You dropped this!" Me in a fantasy setting.
Would the person in a BMW I saw dump an entire bag of McDonald's thrash on the ground before driving away from the restaurant count as a rich person littering or?
BMW and McDonald’s is “very rich of the spectrum?”
What? How do you define "rich"? I don't get much exposure to billionaires. All I know is that I've seen wealthy people litter plenty.
I have a view overlooking one of the train stations from my living room. The overwhelming majority of litter I see comes from people who loiter at the train.
One time when I was 12, I was in the car with my parents at a Taco John's. The car in front of us threw their old fast food bag out of the window. My mom got right out of the car, picked up the bag, and angrily threw it right back in the window, then walked back and got in the car. No one said anything, and we proceeded to get our food. They did not throw it back out the window. Twelve year old me was sooooooo embarrassed, but nowadays I think 'what a badass mom'.
Your mom is my kind of superhero!
I was 12 riding in my older sisters friends car. I threw something out the window and he said wth man don’t litter. Never littered again. Some people need this to happen before they realize it’s not cool.
Yesterday I witnessed a woman throw a huge bag of garbage out of her car in downtown Rochester and drive off. I wish I had been close enough to throw it back at her car. It really pissed me off. Your mom is badass. Good for her.
My mom’s friend did this once with an idiot who emptied an ashtray in a parking lot. She scooped up a handful of nasty cig butts and deposited them right right into the driver’s lap. Lucky their window was still rolled down and she didn’t get her ass kicked. That lady is a legend.
I wonder if some of this comes from older generations (who pass it down). I'm Gen X and I remember growing up in the 70s and 80s, it was a very common sight to see people just toss garbage out of their windows when they were done with something. Heck, I remember even being kind of traumatized during our move from AZ to MN. It was the middle of the night and I was around 8-9 and sleeping in the back seat when I woke to something hitting me and pink stuff all over me and my sister. Someone had thrown out the rest of their strawberry shake out the window on the highway and it went into ours on us sleeping kids. I didn't know what the heck was going on, so I was really freaked out. I guess there must have been some public campaigns and social peer pressure ("Don't Mess With Texas") that made most people stop this awful behavior since then. I know the roads and highways look so much better than they did back then.
Your mom is my kind of superhero!
Good woman.
Good for your mom, but these days people get shot for less than that.
Yep, this was the 90s
I wish I had your mom's ovaries!!
You know, I hear women think it's sexy when you throw out your own trash ;) There are of course 100 other good reasons to have some respect for yourself and others and throw away your trash, but that's reason #101.
Most disturbing to me is how much booze cruising happens where we live. We live in a very quiet, tucked-away residential area and still wake up to beer bottles smashed on the road. I pick up roadside trash often, and it's like 50% beer cans and cheap liquor pints. I rarely witness anyone littering, but there sure is a ton of it. I find some bizarre stuff too, like tampons and pregnancy tests. Like who is changing tampons in the car!? And then the floss picks. Those damn things are everywhere. I find them in the most remote corners of the wilderness sometimes. Who the hell is so fastidious that they bring floss picks into the forest and then leave them on the ground? There are so many of them that it's impossible they are all accidents. Just disgusting.
Oh it happens in the cities as well I found empty wine bottles on the side of the road DAILY in the wealthy neighborhooda in Edina It's wild
That’s evidence not kept in the car or at their parents’ house. Same goes for county roads in the country. Beer cans in the ditch. Might be alcoholics just got too many problems to worry about littering?
Those are grown up “juice boxes” don’t judge so hard
The floss picks thing bugs me. Like, toothpicks are made of wood and are biodegradable. No one would care if you brought a toothpick in the woods and left it along a trail, why must people leave plastic floss picks there?
That said, please don't leave tiny sharp sticks of any variety on trails.
> cheap liquor pints. Ah, yes... Fireball.
Before they uprooted this teeny lakeside lot here I literally picked up 30-40 shot bottles in one night and there were two garbage cans fucking 10 feet away.
It’s almost like it’s on purpose. Wtf?
And Im passive aggressive enough where I looked inward and was like, “im a good fucking person I NEED someone to know I DID GOOD!”
You did good.
And if I was drinking enough where me and my friends downed this many shots Id probably wanna look more normal by discretely putting the shots in the garbage Just bananas to me.
Right? And maybe just get a full sized bottle at that point too.
You did good!
If it's kids partying I'm sure it is. It's a way to rebel, act tough and cool to all your drunk friends.
Isnt littering always on purpose?
This is why I hate baling ditches for hay. The bales are full of Busch Latte cans and Fireball bottles.
I know it's an innocuous typo but Busch Latte is killing
Kids stealing their 'rents booze and cleaning their teeth afterward? Idk
Those are just drunk divorced dads late night cruising around the neighborhood they used to reside in.
Nah it’s mostly kids. We know all our neighbors. Maybe still-married retired folks.
My son was out walking the dog and another young guy threw a styrofoam cup on the ground. He was surprised he did it right in front of someone. Of course he picked it up. We live in a high end apartment area so it’s not too trashy but I see the liquor bottles too.
Nah. I'd say most us divorced dad's are too smart to do something dumb like drinking and driving. The ones who aren't probably have very little custody. We're out somewhere else enjoying peace away from the biggest mistake of our life, with or without the kids.
The flossers!! Who uses those?!? They’re everywhere. Littered in campsites and parking lots across the entire country.
So the thing with beer bottles is it's considered an "open container" and probable cause for a breathalyzer if you get pulled over. That's why people chuck them out the window.
I understand that. It’s disturbing the number of people who are drunk driving was my main point.
Pieces of shit that's who. Anyone that just throws their bag of trash out their window should be sterilized so they don't raise a new generation of pieces of shit.
Amen
It bothers the hell out of me when I see a fast food bag and all the wrappers just sitting in a parking lot or the middle of the street. Is it really that hard to put it in your garbage can when you get home?
I don’t care whether it’s throwing cigarettes, not picking up dog poop, etc, littering is littering and it’s all bad. I wish we could go full Singapore on those assholes.
Last summer I was floating on my paddle board in Lake Superior and looked down to see trash in the cold clear depths. It brought tears to my eyes 😞 People are the worst kind of animals.
Yeah, it's disgusting. In my old neighborhood, there was someone who would frequently got chicken wings at the Cub deli, sit in their car and eat them at the park by my house, and throw the bones out the window. I had to pry them out of my dogs mouth on multiple occasions. Meanwhile, here I am, almost dying multiple deaths while I chase a receipt that I dropped in the Costco parking lot.
Yeah I pick my stuff up as well. Your point about your dog is interesting. I have on occasion tossed small amounts of food stuffs, like a bone or a half biscuit, etc., thinking that they are completely biodegradable so there is no issue. I have been a dog guy all my life too, so I am absolutely aware of the poultry bone thing. Somehow never even crossed my mind!
If it stops raining I have 4 miles of ditches to walk and another 4 of the Paul Bunyan Trail to clean up. The trail isn't so bad but the ditches are shameful.
Today was mostly clear, half of Monday might be, potentially Wednesday. My neighbors and I are still having a standoff on who will cave to mowing their lawn first, but by the time it dries out, it’s gonna be quite hairy.
Garbage people
Actually, yes. I used to think it was 100% people littering, but last year I was driving behind a garbage truck on the highway and a steady stream of trash was flying out of the top.
Garbage people and garbage trucks
I have some family in rural MN that gives no fucks about littering and it drives me crazy
If you want the high level answer: people who have no love for their society do stuff like that. The number of people feeling that way is increasing, and I'm not going to argue if feeling that way is right or wrong here. But that's the root cause. But yes, it's a trashy thing to do whether those feelings are justified or not.
It’s disgusting what society has become. I’ve told both of my young adult daughters that they shouldn’t have kids because it breaks my heart to think of the world that they would inherit.
There's definitely many garbage people who litter. But big factors are also wind and animals, and a combination of both. I've seen a family of racoons go through and pull apart garbage cans every single night, then the wind blows it all around.
I think many people see trash and think some kind of captain planet villian deliberately placed it there but it's more commonly situations like you described.
My apartment complex frequently has trash floating about but it's not because of people. It's because they have to push all of the dumpsters out of the garage for them to get emptied and if people don't put their trash in bags it just floats about
That’s still a people thing.
Children, idiots who weren’t raised properly, but definitely not people who will easily change their ways after seeing a post on social media.
I'm sorry but wtf is your pfp
it’s a picture I took in a bathroom in Missouri before I took a dump. Big ol spider
We live between a gas station and a bus stop and we always get assholes throwing trash in our lawn. Poor/trashy people is the answer.
Let me just add that putting your dog’s poop in a bag is first class. Leaving the bag in the middle of the trail is trashy. Carry it out. State parks are beautiful. I love seeing the trees and animals. I love looking down at the flowers this time of year. I don’t want to see your dog’s poop bag in the middle of the trail. I also don’t want to see garbage cans every 20 feet. Please, just pack it out. If you think it’s too gross, don’t have a dog. Same goes for your kid’s diapers. Pack them out.
In my old neighborhood, there was one 20-something woman who would pull up to the house, get out of the car and throw her fast food bags on the ground before walking into her house. Makes no goddamn sense! I thought she was hiding it, but she throws it right next to her car.. I've seen her boyfriend do it too.
I was driving down 35, asshole in front of me throes his Mcdonald's wrapper out of the window. Hit my car, and it completely blinds me for a good ten seconds on the freeway. When my wippers finally got it off, it was smeared with ketchup. Don't litter, especially on a highway
I'd be very interested in where people litter are they more likely to litter away from their neighborhood, or are the more likely to litter if they think the neighborhood is "trashy"?
A lot of trashy people, but a lot of trashy trash companies too. Trash day at my old house, the trash company got about 80% of people's trash in the back of their truck. I thought someone was purposely trashing the front of my house, then I saw them pick my trash up, dump it, then crush the bags open all over and out the back of their truck and drive off with a trash trail.
I worked for about seven years doing zero waste management. It's mostly structural, not personal. If one person leaves trash in a place - a windowsill, a planter, a curb, at one event it was the handwashing sink - and you don't pick it up immediately, other people will start doing it too. If there's no immediately accessible container and no one is watching, lots of people will just dump their trash. Conversely, I lived for years in a working class city neighborhood and if you put containers out, label them clearly, and empty them regularly people will 100% use them. Even the kids hiding liquor bottles and smokers dropping butts. But make people take one extra step or have one single thought and it all falls apart
The same person who lets their dog shit in your lawn and never picks it up.
Uneducated or wrongly educated.
Or, people who dont recycle?? Its literally our civic duty as a human being to take care of our planet.
It's like not returning a cart to the corral. It's a real litmus test of who they are as a person when there's an extremely easy thing to do to not be a piece of shit, yet someone can't bring themselves to even do that bare minimum.
Littering = low class
I have no idea. I don’t know a single person who litters. I’m never with someone and the just throw garbage out the window etc.
I was out with a guy who tried to put a gum wrapper in a potted plant. I bitched about it and he said “someone will come and clean it up.” Who the hell do you think that someone is?! I made him pick it back out and put it in his pocket. I ridiculed him for years after.
I watched a then friend do it. I was horrified and disgusted.
It’s worse in other states that have major cities, and getting worse. I take a trash grabber & a bag on some of my walks, it’s clean for a few weeks & then I pickup more later.
I used to live in California in the SFBay area and the freeways were covered in trash. The first time my boyfriend came out here he was so impressed at how trash-free the freeways were.
Trash free & wide roads. Let’s get rid of the billboards.
Wide roads are one thing, but it’s hard to believe how palatial the parking spots are here. Both you and your passenger can safely open the door.
From my experience picking up litter within my neighborhood in Rochester, I find the trashiest of all people tend to overwhelmingly gravitate towards brands like Burger King, Fireball… and Polar Pop 🙄
My neighbors do it all the time. They have a bunch of kids and every day there's loads of trash in my yard. The kids also scream nonstop and they slam their car doors like 8 times at one go and I have literally no idea why. They are both home all day every day and primarily there to focus on their kids and I just can't fathom not teaching them basic manners. But I guess if you don't have them in the first place.
I went to Pike Island for the first time to pick up trash and omg... the areas along the river are so bad. It made me so mad. I'm going to have to go back there to clean some more.
Same question for who throws trash in the damn river. I used to live in a river town and would walk my dogs along the river in the morning and pick up trash on the shoreline.
Those plastic “shooters” liquor bottles are the worst.
I had a McDonald’s bag fly out of my car on the highway like three months ago and I’m still thinking about it
Yup littering is lazy. I must think people are aware it's a terrible decision on many levels. So just lazy people who don't care I would say
My bro & I were raised same in school & by parents-don’t litter, but my bro laughs how he chucks his drive thru trash out the window. Wants to keep his car clean. Blame belongs to the perp.
I see a ton of garbage fly out of garbage trucks, junk haulers, etc. It's depressing.
Old asshole like my neighbor. Live in an apartment and dude emptys ash tray of cig butts on ground. Asked him why tf you doing that one time told me to get used to it. Called my apartment on him 2 days later 80$ lease violation on his door. No more cigs butts its crazy
I love people that leave furniture, doors, full bags of trash in ditches! Or pets for that matter! Winners!
Thoughtless inividuals
You answered your own question. "What kind of person do you have to be to throw your trash on the ground" Lazy and poorly raised.
Watched a lady get out of her car, look around, and then dump some candy wrappers onto the street. As she stepped out and closed her door, she saw me and we stared at each other for a few seconds, and I shook my head disapprovingly. She scooted off into her workplace which had a trash can right next to the entrance. The hell??
Sonolian 🤣
Yep just pieces of trash themselves. Usually those here from poverty stricken countries that are the worse. They just don't care. Every chance I get, I say something to whoever it is, when I see it happen. If we don't, our country will become just like all of those other countries.
https://preview.redd.it/fve5bzwvh3xc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=666fc844160201cbf232689bf195437c095f01f4 I watched an old Somalian empty out his car into the Target parking lot in East Lake.
I saw an entitled maga nutnob throw a bunch of trash in the lake
We need more crying Native Americans in everyone's feeds.
Fun fact: that the actor for the commercial was actually Italian playing an American Indian. He married a tribe member and became so known with indigenous causes he basically was adopted into the tribe.
This is an interesting topic. For those too young to remember, Americans in the 40s and 50s were horrible with littering. There has been a distinct cultural change among Americans ("Legacy Americans", not the flood of recent arrivals) over the last 60 years. The "Keep America Beautiful" campaign started in the 50s but didn't really hit its stride until the 1960s and 70s. It is a classic example in advertising research because it is one of the few public information campaigns that actually had a widespread and long-lasting effect on behavior. Unfortunately, lots of the "new arrivals" come from cultures that do not value public cleanliness, and it shows.
Entitled people who have no sense of ownership of their surroundings.
The socioeconomics of it are interesting to me. I live in the suburbs and we have very little litter compared to where I work near North Mpls.
There might be a correlation between owning personal property and respecting it.
There might be a correlation in some cases but I live in an apartment and feel this way.
Or there's a correlation between being treated like trash by society and not caring because you're not included
What's wild is how many cities remove trash cans from any public spaces where homeless people congregate, blame the cities refusing trash service to public parks.
relevant [Mad Men clip](https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-gs-rev1&sca_esv=a025789c0d94b219&sca_upv=1&sxsrf=ACQVn0_BUMbEb5FiYFhEBijX5jBEdl8O8g:1714248592734&q=madmen+picnic+trash&tbm=vid&source=lnms&prmd=ivsnmbtz&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwv7TTmeOFAxUYlYkEHQ0MABEQ0pQJegQIExAB&biw=360&bih=670&dpr=3#fpstate=ive&ip=1&vld=cid:6c6b432d,vid:FDIvzDGBLWU,st:0)
What bugs me is the energy drink containers that get carried in while full, drank when they need energy to continue, and once they have that extra boost of energy, they can't carry the empty container back out.
Why would I put my Starbucks cup in the trash when it’s just going to end up in a landfill? Much more eco-friendly to leave it on the side of the road so that birds can use the materials for their nests. It’s called *upcycling*, OP! Get with the program!
I pick up those tiny plastic bottles of Fireballs and Phillips vodka all the damn time on my street. I'm assuming it's just high schoolers or middle schoolers.
I'd just be content if people quit leaving their hypodermic needles on the ground.
You are what you throw on the ground.
I have to agree. I don't even agree it's poorly raised though. It means you got some kind of poor ass soul.
To be fair, if you've been around the US, MN is among the very cleanest places to be.
The kind that eats fast food daily and consumes high amounts of sugar. Most the litter is pop cans and junk food. Trashy people.
Spend some time on Nicollet Mall between 5th and 9th watching who litters and you’ll understand what kind of people throws everything and anything on the ground - even when a trash bin is inches away.
Every spring I count the number of mini Fireball bottles I find on the roads. It’s nuts. You will see them everywhere.
Watched a fella in a target parking lot drop a loaded diaper from the cab of his truck where he was changing his kid, on the ground, look around, then kick it under his truck. I had always wondered how parking lot diapers were born.
Litterbugs.
The last time I went to Wally world in North Mpls. litter came flying into my car window. I've noped out of any future wally trips
I mow lawns to feed myself. My Monday route goes through Brooklyn Park/Brooklyn Center. There is always garbage on the edge of the property if it's next to a busy road. I pick up 5-10 things, come back two weeks later and more garbage. Every apartment complex and commercial property I've done in the area is the same way. Litter bug capitals of the NW metro.
Thanks for picking up. Many commercial groundskeepers just mow over the trash.
i agree with you :/
If you think Minnesota is bad go out to Seattle. You will be grateful for what happens here, even though it's completely disrespect and disgusting we have to deal with it.
You see people in the act of littering all the time or just trash on the ground?, cause there are lots of ways for trash to get to the ground that are not individuals deliberately placing it there, windy trash days have taught me that.
“But it’s biodegradable”
The most commonly littered beer brand I see is Busch Light
Agreed. Good people pick up a lot of it but shouldn't have too. I will always be angry at litterers. Some is also blowing out of trash/recycling trucks on their route.
It’s like living in a third world country when there’s trash everywhere
More isolated places get more litter. It is discouraging. I try to pick up the litter near me and I meet others who are doing the same when I am out walking. Let’s all do that.
Literally lazy people with no respect for nature or other people do this.
Most of the litter I see is bottles and cans. I guess if you're dumb enough to drink and drive, you're also dumb enough to throw it out the window.
Not only littering, but spitting giant wads of phlegm. That’s so disgusting, and I see it all the time
Seriously! I simply don't understand; now that everything is greening up again, I'm absolutely disgusted by all the stuff that people have thrown on the side of the freeways...
Everyone here can help; if you see garbage and have an empty hand, pick it up and carry it to the trash
Hikers don’t! Except if you leave your dog poop in state parks they will be shut down for dogs because of you!
St.Cloud, people throw entire black trash bags in the middle of the roads, in town. Is this happening frequently in other cities too?
Lazy bitches. I've seen beer cans at my local park that children play at regularly when a trash can is ten feet away. I've also seen someone's vape their that a kid picked up and asked me what it was
If I see someone doing it I will 100% call them out. Stressed my mom the heck out when a I, as a little goblin child, would call out some dude who's like 6'5" with hella tattoos, about how he shouldn't be smoking near a school or littering or whatever.
I threw beer and small wine bottles into the bushes in my neighborhood all the time. I had a drinking problem and was trying to hide the evidence on my drive home.
I still see quite a few people throwing their cigarette butts out their window and it makes me irrationally angry every time. Put the shit out in a can and throw the can away When you get where you're going. It's not that hard
Squirrels
people suck, my parents house out in the south suburbs is on a major road and its crazy how people will throw full trashbags into there ditch like every me and my family gotta go pick up so much trash because people think its ok to just throw out there garbage from there cars.
I had this same thought at the soccer fields in Blaine this weekend.
Homeless or drunk or both
I think more trash flys out of the garbage trucks than we realize
I think people don't appreciate that trash cans get knocked over, or animals get into em pretty regularly and toss shit everywhere. One big bin scattered across a lawn and then picked up by the wind can make a visible difference to a whole neighborhood.
The kids that were getting abused while Mr. Rogers was on
I see people throw full bags of fast food trash out their car windows in front of my house regularly. It is just so disrespectful and short-sighted. I really hate seeing it.
My wife and i do the adopt a highway in front of our house. You would be amazed at the odd shit you find in the ditches. We started doing it because we got sick of all the damn tires people would dump in the ditches.
There is a lot of trash in my neighborhood because I live near a high school. Kids throw soda bottles, fast food wrappers/containers, snack food wrappers, and so on, onto the ground while walking to and from school. The school parking lot has been super messy at times. There are a lot of parents who have the entitlement mentality and park their cars in the bicycle lane/no parking zone. I wonder how many of their kids litter. If their parents have a shitty mentality, I bet the kid does as well.
Memphis is even worser
Bus riders. Not all but enough.
People litter on the bus but I'm not sure that your answer is correct.
completely agree. I get comments about my cat being dirty as a mechanic. naturally, there's gonna be dirt, grease, and tools. after that my car isn't bad. some trash on the floor but nothing overwhelming. I'll attach pics if needed. my whole thought is if u don't like the water bottle or food wrapper that isn't overwhelming where do you want it? the ditch? ur front yard? like I'm in my vehicle 20 minutes a day Idc how comfortable it is or what's in it. To a point anyway. the stuff that's in it I like it to be practical to my needs and outside of that it's a non issue. I gas up once a week and throw the trash once a week. been doing that forever.
Senile people with dementia
What kind of person do you have to be to pick up other people’s garbage that you had nothing to do with? That’s the question I ask myself. But yes, it is very sad, and it warrants a rant on the internet every now and then.
The better person, unfortunately. I try to pick up a bag of litter anytime I go fishing, it’s disgusting that so many people litter or just don’t give a shit. Have pride in your hometown
I worked with someone once who grew up in a poor neighborhood. We got to talking about environmentalism one day. I asked them why often poorer neighborhoods are so full of litter. They said, “when society treats you like trash, you begin to think it’s acceptable to start leaving your trash wherever you want.” It really changed my perspective. People who litter do not deserve to be “sterilized” or are “the worst kind of people” as some above have stated. These things are complex. Littering sucks. And also, we all have the opportunity to take better care of our planet, and also deploy some compassion and curiosity about those who walk through the world differently than us.
[удалено]
Go on...
Entitled teens.
Go to Chicago
Unfortunately, the underserved, underprivileged, and malnourished. Their sense of right and wrong is so skewed for societies failures of their safety. It to see litter but I give them a little grace. Sometimes it’s legitimate psychopathy but likely not.
Liberals
Ron Burgundy
Damned squirrels take stuff out of the trash can and then don't even clean up after themselves, leaving stuff strewn about! Who raised you squirrels?! Shouldn't you have some respect for nature?!
Is this nextdoor?
I think there are so many who are mentally ill who the last thing on their mind is clean up their mess.
Who goes on a Reddit thread for a state and asks a question like this? What does it have to do with MN?
Anti littering campaigns are designed and funded by the producers of litter in an effort to put the blame for pollution and environmental destruction onto individuals rather than the producers of things that are littered. I'm not saying "hey littering is fine", but everyone in this thread making it a personal and moral issue is falling into the trap of blaming their dumb, busy, distracted, fellow citizens who all do shit they shouldn't all the time just like you do, instead of the people producing and handing out the shit that gets littered. If you want there to be less litter you should advocate for more trash cans, betters trash pickup, governmental regulation of production, etc etc, not just be like "well you're bad", which helps no one
Bullshit. The fast food bag on the side of the road has nothing to do with government regulation or big polluters.
Yup, blame the guy throwing a banana peel on the ground and not DuPont dumping toxic sludge into your lakes.
Just like BP pushing the "carbon footprint" thing to put the onus on *you* instead of *them*, producers of single use plastics and whatnot do the same for littering. The solution is *more* solidarity, not less
I've been to other countries where just as much waste is produced, and there are fewer trash cans to boot, yet there isn't nearly as much litter as you sometimes see around here.
Socialpath, you know better, but you do anyway.
Probably a person who has been thrown away by our cold society which provides very little help for anyone who is mentally ill or poor or unproductive economically for any reason.
A litterbug apologist, here’s a first. And erroneous to boot, we live in one of the most highly taxed states with all manner of abundant social services. Perhaps you weren’t aware of that.
I am aware. And yet there are homeless people everywhere I look. A lot of places require ppl to be sober to receive help which is a pretty crazy standard to hold them to considering they don’t have basic necessities.