Honolulu Marathon Slobs

The stereotypical litterbug is perceived as disgusting, disrespectful, lazy, ignorant and dirty. In reality, people of all ages and backgrounds have been observed littering. Even though most people want a clean environment, about three quarters admit they have probably littered in the last 5 years. Source – Woodstock Conservation

It’s not just us who’ve noticed the alarming amount of litter thrown out and left along our roads and highways has increased. How and when did we lose “pride” in our surroundings, the type of pride that keeps many of us from throwing our refuse out the windows of our vehicles, left for “someone” else to come along and clean it up. The fact that more and more litter these days, does this denote a rising culture of slobbery?

We were driving from Show Low to Payson via AZ-Highway 260 (rim country) when we encountered a big Please Don’t Litter sign. AzLitter.org is collecting pictures of litter signs so we stopped to take a picture and upon doing so we discovered a litter problem. The litter was so disgusting that AzLitter.org had to do a litter patrol.

Once again AzLitter.org has been able to prove that do not litter signs are ineffective at keeping humans from littering.

Note: AzLitter.org always travels with a litter picker and bags. Source - AZ Litter.Org

Interstate I-15 at 805, San Diego

Michael Stetz from the Union Tribune wrote back in 2005 that the amount of trash thrown out on San Diego County roads has risen 50 percent in the last ten years, an estimated 2500 cubic yards of trash each month.

Stetz found that hiring freezes have left county trash removal sources underfunded and understaffed. He observed that the “easiest solution” would be for people to just stop littering but points out that “given human nature, Caltrans can’t bank on that”.

What kind of “human nature” allows people to throw their own trash out of their cars and trucks? It’s obvious that the act of people throwing out their trash is a “take my trash and shove it” attitude, an attitude perfected by slobs.

In Stetz’s article he cited a SDSU sociologist, Phillip Gay, who said that “People litter because they feel disconnected from the community” and that litter is about “selfishness” and “human apathy”, that motorists stuck in long commutes on jammed freeways are more apt to do something they wouldn’t do at home, throw their fast food trash out on the road.

While we agree that littering is about selfishness and human apathy we disagree about motorists who dump their McDonald’s wrappers onto the highway do not exhibit this type of behavior in their homes. We believe people who throw out their refuse on the streets are Grade-A Slobs who most likely exhibit this behavior at home too. Perhaps their abodes are not as messy but they still carry the Slob gene, the Type-A Trash personality who believes the rest of the world revolves around them and that a few “pieces” of Burger King trash really isn’t “that big of a deal”.

We’ve observed this type of behavior cross every socio-economic background, persons with six figure incomes are not immune from behaving selfishly and exhibiting slob traits.

Litter collected from one block in Woodstock, Connecticut

The website Woodstock Conservation notes that there are three main reasons for littering:

People don’t care, they don’t own the property, or they believe someone “else” will clean their litter up. That litter “accumulates” acting like a magnet and that people are lazy, that the world is their garbage can.

Which brings us back to our original question, why are more people tossing litter out on the roadsides, in essence, treating the world as “their garbage can?”

Have people become less “caring” about litter or do we now have a culture of slobs who have a sense of “trash entitlement” that “someone else” will clean up their mess?

Does tossing three or more Starbucks cups out the Volvo window with the “Fight Global Warming” sticker on the bumper move someone from the “less caring” to the “slob” designation?

The marathoners in Honolulu, people who rigorously train to run long distances, would they be surprised to learn that we could easily slap a slob label on them if they toss their trash along the route?

The Mercedes driver who empties their ash tray on the side of the road or in a parking lot, (yes, some Mercedes drivers still smoke), would they even care if we slapped the slob label on them? Chances are they wouldn’t.

The guy who tosses his empty beer bottles and cans out the window, we know he’s a not only a slob but also an expedient slob. A car or truck full of empty beer cans and bottles doesn’t look good when a trooper pulls you over while you’re drinking and driving.

Those who toss their trash out of the window instead of waiting until they can put it in a can are exhibiting behavior that is not only lazy but also signaling they could care less about the community we all share, that someone else will “take care of it” and that they are Grade-A first class slobs.

The fact that there is more litter means there are more slobs, a cultural slide into slobbery, where my trash is not my problem but “everyone” else’s. We have a message for these types of people:

You can throw your litter out but the real “trash” is still in the car, and it’s you.

By LBG

Image – AZ Litter
Source - Union Tribune – SD takes the low road with highway litter
Image – Honolulu Marathon

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