Littering Throwing Garbage Out Of Cars

[musicman]

Examples?

some cities in mexico come to mind. last time i went it surprised me how dirty some are.

[editor]

some cities in mexico come to mind. last time i went it surprised me how dirty some are.

But no place in the United States. You can't think of an American city that's dirtier than Houston?

[musicman]

But no place in the United States. You can't think of an American city that's dirtier than Houston?

i can think of several that have issues with litter. st louis and new orleans i don't think of as clean cities.

[editor]

i can think of several that have issues with litter. st louis and new orleans i don't think of as clean cities.

I can't speak to New Orleans post-Katrina, but the eight or ten times I was there before it looked pretty clean compared to Houston. Sure, there were lots of odd smells and stains, but it didn't have burger wrappers blowing down the streets and piles of cigarette butts.

Saint Louis is very clean compared to Houston and many other cities.

[sevfiv]

Unfortunately, I can't think of a city off the top of my head that has a litter problem like us (metro area).

I was in Memphis a while back and I thought it was really clean and well-kept (maybe I was there on a good day? Only have been there once).

St. Louis never struck me as dirty, either..

[KinkaidAlum]

^I kind of gathered you were here now, but welcome back to Houston!

Thanks. I am psyched to be back. I am loving the California weather we've been having lately. I had forgotten just how nice Houston can be in late winter/early spring.

The problem I see in Houston is that littering seems ok regardless of class or ethnicity. You are just as likely to see someone dump their fast food bag out of a truck as you are some country club mom dump the contents of her purse out of her mercedes coupe.

One thing that crosses my mind is maybe it's a part of our car culture? When you don't interact with people in public spaces (sidewalks, transit, parks, etc...) you're probably less likely to care about your consequences on said spaces. Plus, there's a lot more anonymity in personal cars. We all know we do stuff in private that we'd never do in public so why not just toss it out if you think you can get away with it?

[rsb320]

I'm with Red, in that it used to be much worse.

I've always said it was the "Redneck Mentality". Now, that's not name-calling, because most rednecks proudly proclaim themselves as rednecks.

Edit: Granted, people from all walks of life litter; some just more than others (IMO).

I can't recall the city ever having an anti-littering campaign. I think it's high time we do this. Education is probably the only was to get the message to the litter-bugs.

[Subdude]

I don't think you can blame it just on teens; there aren't enough around to account for the scope of the problem. Isn't it just that there are too many people who are - shall we say - 'less than gentlemen' who don't care about the rest of the world beyond their own nose? In my mind this is the precisely the same sort that cuts up to the front of back-up freeway turn lanes.

[Vertigo58]

One great idea several fast food chain drive thru's have started doing is having a trash receptacle in place as you exit the drive thru window.

Human nature for many to remove paper wrapper from the straw and quickly chunk out the window. This deters or rather encourages such mindless notions with this somewhat high trash can with extended door.

Now how can we discourage people from pouring soft drinks onto the parking lot so when you exit or enter your auto you dont step into it? Asking too much I suppose. Ants love it but we dont!

[Montrose1100]

Las Vegas & New Orleans are way dirty, more so then Houston. Las Vegas (the strip) was floored with hand flyers for strippers & whore houses. Althought they do get cleaned up, if you catch it inbetween... not to mention the barf. But atleast the police force is on almost every corner.

New Orleans (Bourbon) is buck nasty. Almost as bad as Dublin. But I think it has more to do with all the Drunks. Except the smell never seems to go away.

If you want to see a dirty city, go to London. They don't have public (and sometimes no commercial) trash cans. I believe its a terrorist/bomb thing... which stretches all through the British Isles.

And not to mention New Jersey. Houston is spotless compared to Newark.

[rsb320]

There is more to Las Vegas than the strip. There is more to NOLA than the Quarter. Generally, in Houston, we have litter throughout the city. It washes down the gutters and into our bayous.

I remember way back when windows on cars were manual, they made a small garbage receptical that hung from the window knob. Now, I just use those plastic grocery bags over my gear shifter on the floor and empty it when it's full. I never put anything in there that might stank!

[RedScare]

Several years ago, I became friends with an engineer from Singapore...you know, the place where it is illegal to chew gum. He had lived in several US cities prior to moving to Houston. When the discussion turned to clean cities, he said that Houston was by far the cleanest city he had been in, much more so than Cincinatti, Cleveland and Chicago. He surmised that his opinion was partly based on the fact that Houston is a newer city, similar to Singapore, but I could not shake him from the belief that Houston was much cleaner.

While I agree with many that our litter is worse than some places, I tend to disagree that Houston overall is a dirtier city.

[Montrose1100]

There is more to Las Vegas than the strip. There is more to NOLA than the Quarter. Generally, in Houston, we have litter throughout the city. It washes down the gutters and into our bayous.

I remember way back when windows on cars were manual, they made a small garbage receptical that hung from the window knob. Now, I just use those plastic grocery bags over my gear shifter on the floor and empty it when it's full. I never put anything in there that might stank!

To a vistor, no... there is not much more to Las Vegas then the Strip.

And our Bayous don't generate much tourism, then say the Mississippi in New Orleans, the Thames in London, etc. The Bayou doesn't serve much more then a waterway for rain (and trash). And until it upgrades from anything more then that, then you still won't see anyone treating it less then a garbage dump.

Look at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. It's city pride, and of course people will always be trashy (pun intended), but Houston is so vast, and so auto orientated. Show me the civil pride along our ugly freeways.

And sorry to say this, but until Galveston becomes any less of a dump, then people won't treat it any different.

However, trash exsists on all Beaches... from Spain to Destin, FL. But usually in high-tourist areas, they have city funded programs to handle this sort of thing.

[rsb320]

To a vistor, no... there is not much more to Las Vegas then the Strip.

And our Bayous don't generate much tourism, then say the Mississippi in New Orleans, the Thames in London, etc. The Bayou doesn't serve much more then a waterway for rain (and trash). And until it upgrades from anything more then that, then you still won't see anyone treating it less then a garbage dump.

Look at the Riverwalk in San Antonio. It's city pride, and of course people will always be trashy (pun intended), but Houston is so vast, and so auto orientated. Show me the civil pride along our ugly freeways.

And sorry to say this, but until Galveston becomes any less of a dump, then people won't treat it any different.

However, trash exsists on all Beaches... from Spain to Destin, FL. But usually in high-tourist areas, they have city funded programs to handle this sort of thing.

ThEn, let's start an anti-litter movement because we can be cleaner thAn these other places. We need to make it cool NOT to litter.

[Jax]

And our Bayous don't generate much tourism, then say the Mississippi in New Orleans, the Thames in London, etc. The Bayou doesn't serve much more then a waterway for rain (and trash). And until it upgrades from anything more then that, then you still won't see anyone treating it less then a garbage dump.

I don't think we should be complacent about the state of the bayous just because they are not tourist attractions. They are still natural waterways with animals living in them, and important parts of the Houston ecosystem. Plus all the garbage flows into the gulf which is horrible.

In Canada, where I grew up we have several "creeks" (basically the same as bayous) that run into Lake Ontario. They aren't any more of an attraction than Buffalo Bayou is, but we still don't dump trash into them.

[Montrose1100]

ThEn, let's start an anti-litter movement because we can be cleaner thAn these other places. We need to make it cool NOT to litter.

Go ahead. I guess "Don't mess with Texas" and the "don't dump in the drains" ads don't work.

I don't think we should be complacent about the state of the bayous just because they are not tourist attractions. They are still natural waterways with animals living in them, and important parts of the Houston ecosystem. Plus all the garbage flows into the gulf which is horrible.

In Canada, where I grew up we have several "creeks" (basically the same as bayous) that run into Lake Ontario. They aren't any more of an attraction than Buffalo Bayou is, but we still don't dump trash into them.

Well to be honest, the Thames might not have so much trash in it, it is all over the sidewalks along it.

And along Cypress Creek up here in Spring, there is hardly any trash. I walk along it, I use to 4-wheel along it before the suburbs & police force took over. An empty bottle of water, every 700ft or so. I think I added more trash with the paper boats we use to make as kids. Also the homeless seem to make fires and also ad to the trash.

When Allison came along back in 04', there was only rushing water. Down in Houston, you could see the trash line in the trees along Buffalo Bayou. I think its more with the trash that was in the streets & freeways in the city. I only see trash along the bayou after a hard rain..

Edit:

Jax, I'm guessing the creeks in Canada were not brown like down here. I think there might be a mentality about that & the dumping/littering. Under the 45-10 exchange, there are larger properties with washers & dryers on them. Look shady & angry. The old rail lines next to Downtown (below UHD) look trashy and dumpy. I think there's a mentality to that with the crap that people dump in the Bayou.

But then again, the crap in the Bayou is usually from littering in the streets. So maybe I'm just crazy. But the creeks & rivers north & west of Houston are much more clear, but also around less populations.

[JLWM8609]

What about when the COH or TxDOT mows the grass next to the roadway and leaves the trash there? Cut up garbage makes our roads look festive, NOT!!

[Vertigo58]

I don't think we should be complacent about the state of the bayous just because they are not tourist attractions. They are still natural waterways with animals living in them, and important parts of the Houston ecosystem. Plus all the garbage flows into the gulf which is horrible.

Oh my God, This reminds me of whey they discovered that some (sleazy) nearby apts (behind Sellers on 45 at Wayside exit) were caught running long plastic hoses into the bayou for human waste disposal.

This went on for several months to over a year. The slumlords were either too lazy to fix the sewage in that dump or the renters just took upon themselves. It was very 3rd world. Barf out!

[Jax]

Jax, I'm guessing the creeks in Canada were not brown like down here. I think there might be a mentality about that & the dumping/littering. Under the 45-10 exchange, there are larger properties with washers & dryers on them. Look shady & angry. The old rail lines next to Downtown (below UHD) look trashy and dumpy. I think there's a mentality to that with the crap that people dump in the Bayou.

The creeks I am thinking of are generally very silty, so they're similar to the bayous here. They generally aren't used much for recreation either, but I never see garbage floating down them. Maybe the laws are stricter or the enforecement is better in Canada. I know you'd get a pretty steep fine for throwing a bag of trash into the creek.

It sucks if the color of the water leads to a mentality in some people that it is okay to dump trash in it (or throw trash in the streets which will later get washed into it when it rains). Animals still live in silty brown water. If you're right that the mentality is caused by the color of the water, maybe some education would work...

[rsb320]

"To kids of the early 70s, being called a "litterbug" was a mark of shame."

We had more social programs back in Johnson's Great Society era. Smokey Bear was another successful program to educate on the dangers of forest fires, etc.

I guess we could update the Litterbug label to LitterThugs to make it a little more current sounding.

Phrases: LitterThugs are Trash or Those LitterThugs are just Trashy.

[Native Montrosian]

can't recall the city ever having an anti-littering campaign. I think it's high time we do this. Education is probably the only was to get the message to the litter-bugs.

What?? Somebody doesn't have "Brighten the Corner Where You Are" sung by a bunch of 1970's school kids with guitars forever seared into their minds courtesy of a local Woodsy Owl PSA? That not fair! I'm checking YouTube tonight!

Give a hoot - don't pollute!

[EMME]

I thought the "Don't Mess With Texas" campaign had a significant impact on the city. And yes, I remember, Brighten the Corner Where You Live. Makes me madder that a hornet to see people throw trash out their windows. THere used to be a number to call in license plates, date, time and place of littering and they would get a ticket for it. I need to locate that again.

[Croberts]

Littering is more prevalent in Texas but it is also a common element in lesser developed countries, and in areas like Appalachia.

I teach a cultural landscape course in Florida and when I show students slides of the Texas landscape, there are always comments about the litter. In fact, I now tell them that you can always identify a Texas landscape because roadside beer cans are 30 feet apart.

[sevfiv]

THere used to be a number to call in license plates, date, time and place of littering and they would get a ticket for it. I need to locate that again.

I thought there was a number too, but can't find one. There's always the web form, though they get a letter and a trash bag in the mail. Tickets are only issued if an officer witnesses the incident, I think.

[KimberlySayWhat]

We do need some sort of new anti littering campaign for Houston. I don't care about the rest of Texas.

[EMME]

The creeks I am thinking of are generally very silty, so they're similar to the bayous here. They generally aren't used much for recreation either, but I never see garbage floating down them. Maybe the laws are stricter or the enforecement is better in Canada. I know you'd get a pretty steep fine for throwing a bag of trash into the creek.

It sucks if the color of the water leads to a mentality in some people that it is okay to dump trash in it (or throw trash in the streets which will later get washed into it when it rains). Animals still live in silty brown water. If you're right that the mentality is caused by the color of the water, maybe some education would work...

From my experience, Canada takes their landscape very seriously and wouldn't even consider allowing litter to become anybody's habit.

[Subdude]

I thought there was a number too, but can't find one. There's always the web form, though they get a letter and a trash bag in the mail. Tickets are only issued if an officer witnesses the incident, I think.

What they need is a number where you could just text the license number of the car. After a couple of offenses slap them with a serious fine.

[Jax]

I just realized how so many people throw their cigarettes on the ground around here. While waiting for the Metro Rail home from the Medical Center the other day, I saw like 5 people throw cigarettes onto the street/tracks. If you look closely at most metro rail stations there's a large collection of butts under the rails. At least they are small, but the idea of throwing anything type of garbage the street still makes me mad.

The smokers definitely know people are watching because they were doing it at the crowded metro station, but somehow it seems to be accepted because nobody complained (including me). I probably should have though.

[sevfiv]

It's almost like cigarette butts aren't litter to some smokers. I used to have a neighbor that would leave his near his door, and of course they would float over to me all the time. Sweeping them up and putting them in a nice pile in front of the door works sometimes. Some people just don't care, though.

[EMME]

I just realized how so many people throw their cigarettes on the ground around here. While waiting for the Metro Rail home from the Medical Center the other day, I saw like 5 people throw cigarettes onto the street/tracks. If you look closely at most metro rail stations there's a large collection of butts under the rails. At least they are small, but the idea of throwing anything type of garbage the street still makes me mad.

The smokers definitely know people are watching because they were doing it at the crowded metro station, but somehow it seems to be accepted because nobody complained (including me). I probably should have though.

I wouldn't recommend the confrontation. Smokers can get pretty frisky about their butts. (OMG, it sounded like I was making a pun, and I wasn't...HA!)