I hate litter and the damage it does to the environment and wildlife. I don't do it. I reduce the amount of packaging I receive when I shop, recycle where I can and use appropriate bins where I can't. I put my attitude down to the influence of my family. Another strong influence, strange to say, was the regular input from leaders in the Boys' Brigade and Army Cadets. It ranged from 'Good people don't do that' to 'The Japs could track you for miles from just one chewing gum wrapper'. Whatever, it worked. Formal EDUCATION just doesn't.
I've been a teacher right across the range from private, fee paying schools to the real bottom end and residential, behavioural, 'placements of last resort' and it's often the sh*ttiest little sh*t that you get through to best. No-one cares about them and they have no 'agency' in life. Show them that you really care and that they can actually make a difference and they might come on side. I've seen it happen and it's one of the few 'wins' in some schools. At the other end is the 'someone else is paid to clear it up' attitude. Maybe that's the explanation for the 'middle class' (everyone's middle class now) mess left at festivals. After all they've paid.
As a supply teacher one of my 'emergency lessons' was about littering. Teaching materials at different levels for different ages straight out of the bag. I saw lots of different attitudes to littering. Thoughtless I could cope with, that might just need raising awareness. Casual bad habits was where education might cut through by showing the negative outcomes. It was that, 'not my job' attitude that I found difficult to accept calmly. The arrogance of those who said 'someone is paid to clear it up' through to those who seemed to genuinely think they were creating a job for someone else.
Shame that since our local school reopened, the footpath through the adjacent playing field has reverted to its usual state of litter (Haribo, energy drinks cans, crisp packets, chocolate biscuit wrappers, etc) everywhere.
Crisps and a Red Bull on the way too school (even if you've had breakfast) makes you one of the cool kids. After all, you can afford it and conspicuous consumption shows you aren't 'pikey' (ironic eh?). Bag and can in the hedge shows you can't be made to do what you don't want to. The fault lies with a national, cultural attitude and, of course, lifestyle advertising.
I've found that in a festival environment, the only place I've experienced it in, that peer pressure is to trash the place.
Cleaning up after yourself seems to be almost something to fight against. It's an anti authority thing in some way.
What's that anti something that is the fad now ?
'I've paid' and 'sticking it to the man' both play a part but mostly it's peer pressure. I've seen people trashing and leaving £300 expedition tents so they can be like the 'cool kids' leaving their £30 Asda 'festival kits'. Peer pressure is stronger than pretty much any financial penalty. I've politely challenged twenty somethings leaving their trashed tent, sleeping bags etc. surrounded by sh*te, and got the reply 'But they go to charity, don't they'. Mixed messages and attitude again.
Most schools are litter free. They have policies which they enforce, offenders get to do litter picking (in ØA’s school, wearing a high vis jacket with ‘Trash’ stencilled on the back). They know it’s wrong but they don’t care, you can’t educate pork...
Some schools are litter free, most aren't. If it isn't inside the schoolgrounds it will be outside. Punishment litter picking is mostly counter productive. The picker sees themselves as a victim, so goes on to spread litter as an act of rebellion or to rebalance their world. As a Head, I stopped that in my schools and (along with a lot of input) the level of littering went down. Volunteer litter pickers are a different matter but even then the 'swats pick litter' effect had to be managed. Did 'area cleaning' ever stop the smokers throwing cigarette butts in the gravel or grass round the accommodation, or was it vigilance, peer pressure and bins?
I don't have a suggested solution for society in general. Schools and the military are closed environments where measures might work. Shaming is the only thing I can think of. I have often picked up and handed back dropped litter with a smile and 'Oh dear. you seem to have dropped this'. Once I returned the same wrapper to a fat Weeble woman three times before she got the hint. No doubt she dropped it as soon as she was round the corner but her kids were embarrassed on her behalf. From then on she scowled at me whenever we passed in the village, but the kids smiled and were pleasant. Perhaps it takes a generation.
In slow moving traffic, in the Whitechapel Road, heading towards the city, the driver's door of the car in front opened and an ashtray was emptied. I must have been in a bad mood because I got out, tapped on the window and, as he opened the window, I scoop up the butts, wrappers and gum and dropped it in his lap. This time, 'you dropped this' was accompanied by a scowl of my own. I must admit, I did wonder if he'd get out and take the matter up, but he didn't. Maybe he got the hint.
I can be a sh*t too. But a sh*t that doesn't like littering.