Littering

Littering gets under my skin. I hate seeing a paper cup flying out of the car in front of me because the driver can't be bothered with having trash in their car but it's okay for it to be on the road for all of us to see and deal with. I hate seeing trash fly out of the back of a pickup truck because the person couldn't forsee the possibility that their lightweight fast food bag would not stay in the confines of their truck bed while driving on a highway. I even hate seeing a cigarette butt being tossed under the assumption that everyone else does it or eventually it will disentigrate. The key word is eventually.

Use trash recepticles, people. It's not that hard.

But the people who disrespect themselves, everyone else and common property like this are the people who left their lunch trash for the school janitors to pick up in elementary school. They are the ones who pretend not to see that their paper towel missed the trash can in the bathroom and leave it for someone else to pick up.

Fines are certainly a way to deal with this...for those that actually get caught, which I'd imagine is not a very many. But how effective would it be for people caught littering to have to clean up the side of a highway instead of just paying a fine. I've done that (not because I was littering!) and it's not fun. And there's more trash out there than you might think. It takes a while to get it all. I think this could be effective. Maybe. The truth is, there will always be people who think that they are exempt from the sometimes unwritten "rules" of living together on this earth.