As we walk around outdoors, take notice of all the garbage you see along your way. I bet that it won’t surprise you to see you find a lot. In fact, many of us may not have even paid attention to it until it was pointed out to us as it has become “normal” to see trash laying around. That being said, if we see an abundance of trash somewhere we will almost always comment on it. But why are we just tossing garbage on the ground?
The total generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) in 2018 was 292.4 million tons (U.S. short tons, unless specified) or 4.9 pounds per person per day. (Facts and Figures about Materials, Waste and Recycling 2022) This is only considering the trash properly disposed of. Can you imagine how much larger this number is?
Let’s make this a little more personal. Have you taken a walk around Penn State campus after a football game? If you did you may notice a big problem that the Penn States environmental program is working hard to correct this issue. There is garbage everywhere you look. “Penn State is encouraging all football fans to be environmentally responsible and participate in the University’s recycling and sustainability initiatives before, during and after every game.” They have places trash and recycling bags in every parking lot for game days. You would think this would correct the littering problem, but does it?
So why do we do it? According to research done by the Allegheny Front, people litter simply because there isn’t a trash can nearby. Rather than uncomfortably carry trash away with them, people decide it’s easier to leave it behind. As we see in the case of Penn States efforts in adding trash bags, we see that people still continue to litter. Why? According to Cialdini, it all comes down to the norms and that is dictated by our environment. This means the decision to litter has a lot to do with the actions of other people. If an area is already highly littered (Penn state parking lots on games day), people are more likely to add more litter, while the cleaner an area already is, the less likely people are to disrupt the scene by littering. (The real reason people litter – and how you can help 2022)
How can we fix this? I believe we can add to the Penn States environmental project by leading by example. If we start to clean up our area and encourage our neighbors to clean up theirs, it may change the “norm” and potentially lead to more tailgaters properly disposing their trash.
Environmental Protection Agency. (2022, July 31). Facts and Figures about Materials, Waste and Recycling. EPA. Retrieved September 13, 2022, from https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/national-overview-facts-and-figures-materials
User, G. (2022, May 5). The real reason people litter – and how you can help. Potomac Conservancy. Retrieved September 14, 2022, from https://potomac.org/blog/2020/2/1/why-people-litter
Hello, I enjoyed reading your post! As sad as it is, I agree with you that garbage laying around has become “white noise” so to speak as we are so accustomed to seeing litter around us in public places. As a World Campus student I, unfortunately, have not been to any Penn State football games however I can certainly relate this to hometown games and events I have attended. While placing additional trash cans/ garbage bags around the stadium was a sound idea, making it more convenient for visitors to throw away their waste, it would appear that the impact was less than influential.
I think you are definitely on to something with your idea of leading by example and thus changing the norm, however, I would like to take this idea a step further. As we read in our chapter reading, activating norms by providing feedback, as was concluded by Schultz’s experiment, can be very effective in changing behavior (Gruman, Schneider, & Coutts, 2017, pg. 461). So, for Penn State to influence an actual change in the amount of litter that is being left after football games, I would suggest that Penn State students are provided with feedback regarding the waste after each game. The amount of waste that is collected after each game can be collected and weighed in pounds and the results can be sent out in a flyer to the students. As the weeks progress, we would be able to track the (hopefully) increase in waste that is being put into the garbage, rather than being left on the grounds.
Reference
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications, Incorporated.