Our Pledge:

Littering has been an element of society for as long as anyone can remember. And for quite some time society has tried to eliminate, or at least minimize, the cause and effects of littering. But, alas, to no avail: littering persists and society is resigned to accept that we have “no choice” but to settle for a world overflowing with litter. Conventional wisdom says that if enough people were to pick up x amount of litter a day, then, before long, it would all be gone. So how come that solution has never been tried?

• According to Wikipedia, cleaning up litter in the U.S. costs hundreds of dollars per ton, about ten times more than the cost of trash disposal, for a cost totaling about $11 billion per year. That’s money which could have gone to building wind turbines, or planting trees and flowers, or greening roof tops.
• The several trillion toxic cigarette butts littered worldwide annually are responsible for fatal fires and the deaths of numerous mammals, birds and reptiles who eat them.
• Litter reduces property value, because it sends a message that people don’t take pride in their community.
• In Georgia it costs $90 million annually to throw away 2.6 million tons of cans, bottles and newspapers that are collected and moved to Georgia landfills. Those items would have an estimated market value of $300 million if they were recycled.
• According to the U.N. Environment Program, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.
• Twenty years ago Burger King did a study which determined that $1 million of unopened ketchup got thrown out each year. Imagine the savings if restaurant goers everywhere only took what they needed.

Finally, littering is symptomatic of apathy, the root of virtually all problems. So, by stigmatizing littering, you don’t merely mitigate the aforementioned problems.