Gob-smacked! That’s what you’d say about a giddy, star-struck fan. Now the term has a whole new meaning thanks to tortured teen idol Justin Bieber. 

If you happen to be underneath a hotel balcony where Biebs is staying, gob-smacked could mean you just might end up with his yellowed mucous landing on your head. His now-infamous spitting episode the latest in a long line of seeming etiquette gaffes the young singer seems to be having trouble with his meteoric star status.  Spitting from balconies, a bubbling froth of Justin Bieber’s saliva spilling over captured in media for all to, um, what - drool over? 

I tweeted @justinbieber to make the point that spitting is littering.  I told him I need celebrities to work with me, not against me, on litter prevention. Celebrities like Taylor Swift, Michael Sheen in Wales and top model Laura Wells in Australia speak out against littering. The latter two are front-and-centre in their respective national campaigns. Thanks to TMZ we have a forever-image of the singer from Thursday in Toronto - one we would prefer to forget.

Spitting is one in a brotherhood of anti-social behaviors that includes public littering, urinating, graffiti and vandalism.  There are laws against spitting all over the world.  Spitting is a leading cause of spreading  tuberculosis. Countries like India and China are planning to crack down hard.

Lately it’s as though some LA marketing bad boy gave the Biebs a handbook on how to spoil his image to increase his popularity with guys. I would rather think that his out-of-control actions are of the scripted variety rather than conclude that the kid is coming unglued.

Bieber is heading into the dicey 18-35 male demographic that is prone to disrespecting public space.  Litterers leave behind a costly problem, not just gob.

I want to see Justin Bieber promise to not spit and to make the connection between his galactic status and the peer group his actions influence.  Come to think of it, he would be a perfect ambassador for litter prevention around the world.

I wonder if he’ll answer my tweet?

In 2002 Toronto hosted World Youth Day, a mammoth event in the Catholic calendar. In a few short hours, a mass of 1.5 to 2-million youth will begin to descend on Rio de Janeiro for WYD #Rio2013, July 23 – 28.

The difference between then and now? In Rio the pilgrims will be handed plastic bags on arrival and told to use them for litter.  Brazilian zero waste agency Rio Lixo Zero and the city itself have combined forces to beautify their cities and regions with a crackdown on litterbugs, including pilgrims, apparently.

WYD issued a statement July 20th reminding devotees to abide by the strict new laws that are set to come into play on touchdown.

July 1 was the date when strict enforcement was to come of age in Rio.  But the city has extended until August the time at which the real hard line stand will begin in earnest.

Nevertheless, the entourage of WYD pilgrims has been told to not litter or risk paying a fine.  The missive came from the Pontifical Catholic Church of Brazil.

The youth have been instructed to put their trash in a bin, or use the bag until a suitable container can be found.

This is progress. 

I am proud of the Catholic Church for reaching out to parishioners and telling them not to sully the land with their coterie of wrappers, gum, pop cans, water bottles, food bits – you get the picture. You can see that scene any day of the week on the streets of my city, Toronto.  I don’t recall 11 years ago any special effort being launched to tell WYD visitors not to litter Toronto.  In our city, we flush money into cleanups afterwards.

We can learn from Rio and should be watching closely to see the results of its intention to get litter-tough, educate and change the behaviour.

Churches can do more to promote non-littering habits. I covered this topic in a previous blog. I am heartened to know that from The Pope on down to the streets of Copacabana, this litter prevention message seems to be gaining traction.

Over at the building near me where you renew passports they have the coolest outdoor ashtrays.  Made of precast concrete, these four-sided, flat-bottomed, V-shaped tubs stand about three-feet high.  They are filled with black sand-like material, which gives a nice contrast to the grey and brown stone aggregate of the container. 

I see three ashtrays strategically placed between long benches, which sit in front of raised concrete planters.  Seemingly intended as a pleasant place for office workers to sit and eat lunch, read a book or soak in a few rays during a summer smoke break, from a distance the installation was arrestingly impressive to yours truly, litter investigator.

My partner and I approached to take a closer look.  There were browning cigarette filters protruding cleanly out of the sand.  Butts were concentrated in the centre, but the numbers seemed sparse.  The receptacles provided quite a wide circular area of sand as a target for the ends of cigarettes.  These impressive bins can handle thousands upon thousands of properly discarded butts.  Why do we see only 50 or so per bin?  Why more sand than butts?

Detectives need to study everything. We were asking all the right questions even though we already knew the answers.

Sure enough, despite hosting the Shwarzenegger of all ashtrays, being head and shoulders above most and having one of the best set-ups we have seen, the smoking area was littered with castaway cigarette ends, on the ground, in the cracks, under the benches, in nooks and corners, blowing down sewer grates, sullying the planter boxes.  Not the image the landscaper had in mind when designing the space and caring for the butt-invaded greenery.

To a smoker those ashtrays should be alluring. Clean? Yes. Attractive? Yes. Easy? Accessible? Yes and yes!  Yet thousands of butts pockmarked the vicinity. It happens everywhere because smokers are blind to their littering.  While some nations attempt to educate, Ontario, Canada, for one, is notoriously silent about telling smokers that butt throwing is littering, an unlawful deed.

Who can design the sexiest ashtray, one all smokers will use? My partner thinks he has an answer. 

It would be shaped like a concrete trough, the kind of vessel used to hold pig slop.  It would run along the sides of areas where people smoke and where smokers walk.  It would be a can’t-miss contraption filled with extinguishing sand.  Wherever they were, smokers could flip smoldering butts in the endless troughs, facilitating collections and keeping them out of the general environment.

Some people don’t know the butts are worth money in the recycling trade.  Imagine the troughs full of money we’d make if smokers used ashtrays like they’re supposed to.  Then smokers would be the good guys.  What about it, smokers? Can I count you in?

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My friend told me a litter tale last night.

Her home is situated behind an apartment building.  Not a high-rise, an older six-storey building.  An eight-foot fence in Marilyn’s backyard separates her property from the apartment building’s parking lot.  Looking to the back of her yard she spied some colored objects and went to investigate.  A number of small plastic toys lay scattered at the fence line.

Marilyn’s first instinct was to check with her next-door neighbor to see if the items belonged to the children living there.  Neighbor John, who happens to be a litter-loather, disavowed any ownership of the playthings.

“Then it hit me,” Marilyn said. “Someone in the parking lot had cleaned out their car and had thrown the stuff over the fence into my yard.”

“So I gathered it up and threw it back.”

There was a pause.  I knew my friend had more to say by the reflective tilt to her head and her slight nod.

“I know I should not have littered even in that situation,” she acknowledged, “but by my clearing it away, nobody would learn anything. “

My friend raises a valid point.  Picking up after someone who litters does not teach that person anything.  But neither does heaving kids’ toys back over the fence.

I’ve had others tell me that they refuse to pick-up litter because they think the litterer should do it. That’s a fair comment. The tidy person who joins clean-up brigades does double-duty, first by not littering and then by picking up after others. Someone who litters gets the picture of a society devoted to the task of cleaning up his or her mess and so continues tossing/dropping/ flicking and leaving trash behind.

Yet littering begets more littering.  Undoing it takes time and a little bit of effort, but is satisfying.  If the goal is to teach someone about not littering one can take another tack.  

The next time I talk to my friend, I will tell her I have reflected on her predicament and have suggestions what might work to solve her problem. 

A meaningful lesson would be delivered in collecting the materials in a bag and taking them to the building’s property manager. Explain the problem, or drop it off with a note. Suggest that no littering signs be installed or perhaps a few inexpensive planter boxes filled with colourful annuals.  People tend to litter less in well-kept areas. 

Write a letter asking for the parking lot to be kept clean. Maybe there is a tenant’s group established there who would want to help.  While all this takes time and energy, it can lead to rewards.

But, in Marilyn’s shoes, I would have bagged the little toys and put them in my garbage bin.