Why You Shouldn’t LitterWe live in a world where ‘convenience’ is trump. After all, why not? Convenience is good. With all of the major conveniences we see that comes along with advancing technology, we also see a lot of other ‘minor’ conveniences as well. One of these include the increase in public trash cans and dumpsters. They are simply everywhere. Go to the nearest plaza that you’re around and walk down the strip—there will most likely be at least four or five depending on how large the shopping area is. An increase in trashcans should equal out to an increase in people that use them, right? Not necessarily.

More people litter now than ever before. In fact, according to Green Eco Services, 75% of Americans admit to littering within the past 5 years. And that’s just the people that have admitted! Imagine if this percentage included those that lied or weren’t even surveyed to begin with—I would believe it would jump up to at least 90%. People either just don’t care or are too lazy—both of which are horrible excuses.

I used to litter once in a while myself up until two years ago when I made my New Year’s resolution to stop for good. The main things I threw out at that time were gum and straw wrappers. It took some practice but I eventually got it, and it became 2nd nature to save my trash until I arrived at a trash can. If you happen to come into my car, you will probably find a bunch of balled up straw wrappers sitting in the center console.

To stop littering may not seem like a big deal to most of you, which is why I wrote this article—to prove to you otherwise. Here are a few reasons why you should care.

It’s Illegal

Most people aren’t aware that littering is in fact illegal and you can be fined if you are caught. I remember one night I was driving with my friend and he threw a Red Bull can out of the window. Not even two seconds later we were being pulled over. However, we did get lucky and got a nice cop who just told us to get out of the car and pick up the can. Then we were free to go. Now that I look back, I realized it might’ve been better for us to get fined—at least then we would have learned our lesson earlier!

It’s Dangerous

How many of you seen a movie where someone is driving and a piece of newspaper flies over their windshield and causes an accident? Well that stuff doesn’t only happen in movies, it happens in real life quite often; there are many ways that littering can cause a car accident.

Litter can also find its way into parks and school yards and since it creates germs, it poses a threat to the well-being of our children. Not to mention it can slowly (or quickly) destroy natural habitats and homes for a variety of different animals.

It Costs Money

At the end of the day, everything costs money. Many of us criticize our government and how they spend their money, why then do we give them so many unnecessary reasons to spend it for? Lots of cash is spent in order to hire individuals to clean up the streets and other public areas along with picking up litter. If everyone stopped littering and being dirty, there would be a good amount of money left over to go towards other useful things.

Treat This World Like Your Home

Because it is. Whatever you wouldn’t normally do at your house, why do it in public? You wouldn’t throw a bottle onto your carpet and leave it there, so why do it outside of your home? This world belongs to all of us if we would only take the time to realize it. It has been left in our hands to babysit and then we will pass it down to the next generation. No kid wants a dirty hand-me-down blanket—why would they want a dirty hand-me-down earth?

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