seriously, i have some understanding of why some people don’t “get” recycling yet–it’s too easy to be lazy, and some towns don’t have recycling programs–but littering? it amazes me that people can be so daft.

when i was a senior in college (not that long ago…), i had a high school-age cousin come to visit, and i took her to school with me one night to check out some local bands playing. we had visited starbucks beforehand, and as we walked through the parking lot to get to the school, she threw her empty plastic cup on the ground. of course, i made her pick it up, and she was a little embarrassed, and mostly she was surprised that i cared. i know teens are supposed to be rebellious, but.. come on!!

it’s bad enough when you see a stranger littering… but what about your very own friends and relatives? :(

Yeah, I’ve pulled the, “I think you dropped something” to strangers before.

This is one of my favorite TV commercials… one of the few that I’ll watch when I’m fast forwarding through all the rest.

There was this lady that walked by our house every day for a year. Finally, Finally! I caught her. She dropped her cigarette pack on our front lawn (one of many) and I raced out to grab it and called to her, “excuse me! I think you dropped this!” And she walked back and told me, “well, I may have dropped this one, but not that one there. That one’s not mine.” (Which was the EXACT same brand and crumpled the same way.) I told her I had a trash can that she was welcome to use.
You know what? She stopped walking past my house after that.
Maybe I made her stop and think just a little bit. Or maybe she just went off to throw her trash in someone else’s yard to clean up.

PS. LOVE the commercial!

when i’m in a good mood, i pull the “oh, i think you dropped this” line. when i’m totally disgusted with humans, i’ve been known to get a bit loud and perhaps rude (albeit, probably not the best way to get the message across).

my soon to be husband is known to come home from walking the dogs with a backpack full of garbage that has been tossed on the side of the road. he sometimes finds so much that he’ll create a pile and will go pick it up later with his truck. one of his many activities that i just love.

and, honda - oh how i love honda. ;)

I love that you picked up the litterbug’s trash and handed it back. GOOD FOR YOU!

I saw a cabdriver litter just yesterday — I only wish I had thought of something so clever!

oh no - this is almost embarassing, but when I was in 5th grade and was playing “four squares” with some friends at recess, a little girl behind me in line littered right on the playground. I went bananas, demanding she pick it up right away and put it in the trash. To no avail, she told me “no”…. and, um, that’s when i took her ass down to the ground and beat her up so bad she had to be sent home for the rest of the day. When teachers came to question why I had hurt the girl so badly i said “she littered” , and they quietly sent me back to class with no punishment.

I remember one time I saw these two young German kids - brother and sister, I believe - blatantly littering. They were dropping bread crumbs everywhere they walked. So…I did the right thing and cleaned up their trail.

I was out changing the garbage bags at the convenience store where I work (there is a whole other story there) when I saw a guy throw his (still burning) cigarette out of his car’s window (at a GAS station! Great idea!) He was parked about four steps away from an ashtray, and most cars still come with ashtrays on the inside of them too, but Noooo; he was too awesome to use ashtrays like lesser mortals.

I didn’t yell, (though I wanted to) I didn’t call him unpleasant names (though I really wanted to), I just walked, slowly and deliberately toward his car, stopped, made eye contact, picked up his cig, walked to the ashtray, snuffed it, and walked inside. I hope he writhed in guilt for hours afterward, but he probably didn’t.

Does nobody else notice that the “Hey, you dropped this” guy in the commercial is drinking out of A DISPOSABLE CUP OF HIS OWN?!! I mean, seriously—if Honda really wanted to challenge us to do better, their do-gooder would have his own reusable cp that he takes everywhere with him.

Oh, and my favorite you dropped this story from my own life: I was at a stop light and the car in front of me chucked a cigarette butt from their sun roof. I put my car in park, grabbed the butt, and pounded on their window to tell them that they dropped it. they refused to take it back, but because I was feeling all stubborn and self-righteous by that point, I carried it home with me and put it in a wastebasket.

I litter all the time. What is the big deal? Tell me what you think of my littering ways.
[[email redacted - Karina]]