Our city council is starting an anti-littering campaign this week. Our school is situated right next to the city center. During their 30-minute-long afternoon break, a lot of our students walk over to the nearest supermarket or fast food chain and buy their lunches. Once their meals are bought, they have just about enough time to walk back to school while they eat. On the way from the city center to the school there are plenty of garbage cans present, unfortunately for a lot of our students it is too much trouble and costs too much energy to hold onto their waste until they meet up with another garbage can. Result: littering.
Truth be told, our students are not the only ones littering. My house is near the city center as well, and on a main route from there to other suburbs. So during the weekend, when people return home from partying, they tend to be careless with their waste as well; sometimes making the lawn in front of my house look like a junk yard.
From this week onwards city workers will pay closer attention to people littering the streets in and near the city center. They will hand out warnings when littering is observed. Soon they will even start handing out fines of €120 to (deliberate) polluters.
I doubt this measure will change people’s attitudes towards littering and the importance of taking care of our environment. Maybe they should put that fine money to good use by (monetarily) rewarding people who pick up litter from the street to throw it in a garbage can… Although this is another extrinsic motivator, and will probably have little to no effect on people’s values.
Last week some students from my school asked me some questions regarding littering. “Do you ever throw garbage on the street?” Well, no. “Do you ever address someone who throws his/her waste on the street?” Yes, and I don’t care how big and mean he/she looks. “Do you ever pick up litter?” Hmm, do I look like everyone’s mother? You can blame me for being an individualist, but I pick up litter in a 25 meter radius from my home, that’s as far as I’ll go. “What punishment do you think people who litter should get?” It might be a good idea to let them clean up their (and everyone else’s mess, wearing a neon pink vest with bold black lettering stating: “I’m learning to keep my city clean.” PIGS! – not the students, but the litterers.
