My corner was hit by an ashtray dumper. Just one street over at the stop sign leading into my neighbourhood, someone thought it an ideal place to empty a messy pile of 80 butts on the road.  Ideal, because no one is likely to see you. It’s near a sewer grate. A perfect chute for rainwater washed cigarette toxins to enter the ecosystem.

Who does this kind of thing? Especially with all that is now known about the fragility of the planet?  Research is sparse, but thanks to studies funded by big tobacco companies we know quite a bit about the nature of the littering smoker.

Smokers do not like to see ashtray dumping any more than I do.  In fact they are appalled by the behavior of these ignorant smokers. Yet they wouldn't think twice about flicking a butt to the curb if an ashtray wasn't in sight. Smokers do not define that act as littering.  To them it's a legitimate means of disposal.  That’s just how it's done, so they think.

When they grind, stomp and mash a lit butt into the pavement or against the side of a building, flick it into a puddle, gulley or snow bank; they believe they are doing a good turn. They are preventing a fire.

Almost double the number of smokers litter than do not: 65/35 out of 100. They give a number of pat excuses for their tobacco littering. No point in repeating their excuses, far more interesting to peer behind the cop-outs to find the real reason why people litter, smokers with even greater proclivity.

Breaking science offers up a few clues. Two telling studies may help unlock the mystery and identify markers of a predisposition to littering.

Ph.D. biz whiz Andy Yap's work on power stances correlates one's physical space and body language to the tendency to break rules. A series of tests proved that one's cortisol and testosterone levels changed with the adoption of Yap's two sets of body configurations. In turn, feelings of power and entitlement grew within the subject’s mind when after sitting or standing in the classic “Type A” personality postures Yap's team developed. Occupying a vast space behind a big desk or in the big front seat of a vehicle, for example, Yap shows, increases the likelihood of that person speeding, pilfering from the office or cheating.

I contacted Andy Yap. He quickly wrote back to validate my hypothesis that his work can aptly be applied to littering.

Sheila, he says, “I think that the psychology of power does have some implications for littering. If littering works the same way as other corrupt and anti-social behaviors, then power would cause people to do whatever they want and disregard the rules and laws there are in place.

“Anything that creates this feeling of power, be it posture, actual rank, or simply recalling a time one felt powerful can create strong feelings of power.”


Also three separate studies, in New Zealand, US and England, are rewriting our understanding of what causes the unruly child as a result of looking into maternal smoking in pregnancy. They conclude mom’s prenatal smoking is related to "conduct disorders" in those children.  Team leader Gordon Harold, PhD, of the University of Leicester in England, reports their independent findings in JAMA Psychiatry 2013.  

What if we could predict and had early detection for litterers?  In my imaginary litter-less world, if your mom stupidly smoked during pregnancy, if you strut your power stances and the interior space around you is oversized, or if you lacked experiences with nature through environmental education, you’d automatically be rolled into the Litter Prevention Program regardless of your age.

Non-littering behaviors can be learned.

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?

Contact the author of this article or email [email protected] with further questions, comments or tips

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.

Yo! You. Ya, you. It’s me, your planet talking.
That’s right. Me, the planet, speaking. Think I don’t see what’s going on?

You think I’m some inert, unfeeling mass with a bit of magic inside it?
First, I’m not an ‘it’.  I’m a one, and I’m your only one.

You’ve been taking advantage.  I can stay silent no longer.

Next time a natural disaster strikes.  Think of me. Then think of you.

Humans – a gaggle of natural disasters – just this planet’s point of view.  What do I know?

Yo, here’s what I know.  Only humans create waste that doesn’t break down naturally.  All the other creatures here have biodegradable waste practices.  People ... Ouch!  Was that a cigarette butt, a plastic bottle or oil down the sewer? In my current state, you know, sometimes it’s hard to tell, what with you humans bearing down on me with your garbage all the time, my scarred areas have lost some sensitivity.

Do I look like I want my skin plastered with every imaginable piece of your garbage?  Would you stick plastic all over your own face to the point of smothering?  That’s what you do to me with chewing gum.  Now I can hardly breathe.

You think I’m pleased about a gyre of trash swirling in my ocean?  Here’s a message for you direct from the sea.  Mother Nature hates you. My waterways and their dwellers loathe you even more.  Can you tell I’m pretty upset myself?

None of my gifts has received respectful treatment.  Air, water, land, icecaps, forests, mountains – you don’t care about them obviously.  Your kind treats them all very badly.

What will it take, humans?  What will it take to have you respect me?  Just be clean around me and we shouldn’t have any problems. Understood?

I’m telling you, it’s only a matter of time before I will not be able to take it anymore.

What if I turn on you and cease to be?  Happy then?

I have too much information about litter in my head that’s screaming to get out.  I can’t fit it all in my weekly newsletter.*  Every day voluminous stories about the filthy habit that plagues the world pass before my eyes and I bank them for future reference.  But I’m finding I can’t turn over the news fast enough. It’s like litter, the more there is the faster it accumulates. 

Let me give you an example of what I had to edit out of the most recent issue of “Litterland”.  Readers, I’m sure, would be interested to know that under the shadow of a potential polystyrene packaging ban one hundred restaurants in New York City took part in a waste reduction challenge last Tuesday.  Let’s hope NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is more successful banning foam than he was with super sized soft drinks.  

The idea of product bans has floated over to Portland, Maine where a city committee will be considering curtailment measures for polystyrene and plastic bags on June 19th.  Portland has a green packaging task force, whose recommendations carried by a vote of xx to 6.  Maybe every city should have a green packaging task force.

In the precious space of my precious newsletter, I wasn’t able to tell you about the mindfulness mindset among the folks of Tipperary, Ireland.  The impact of litter on people with disabilities is the focus of bold, front-running, initiative there called “My Litter, My Responsibility.”

http://www.nationalist.ie/lifestyle/entertainment/my-litter-my-responsibility-campaign-launched-in-tipp-town-1-5051562

And in Louisiana, USA, the state awarded Baton Rouge an honour for having trained the most teachers in the state to take the anti-litter message to their classrooms.  One can never underestimate the importance of the classroom as the place to nip littering in the bud.  Young children are attuned to the idea that littering is wrong, but need education and training to put the information into lifelong practice and influence others.

Environmental educators ask students to make choices that result in no litter like packing lunches in all-reusable containers, eating “in” not “out”, using a personal water bottle, not purchasing as many packaged goods.  These are laudable goals and I live by them.  But consumerism is a potent force that makes it tempting for children and their parents to opt for convenience above all.  Kids are kids, and have you seen any schoolyard lately? 

Yes, to not litter may require an alteration to lifestyle.  Part of the training is simply to not toss or throw waste items.  Brain-to-hand coordination.  Most humans have the skill, but society has failed to instill the will.  A study this year by Barclay’s Living Lands found that 9 out of 10 parents who tell children not to litter forget to mention that littering harms the environment. And half of those moms and dads have littered in the presence of these children despite espousing it’s wrong to do so.  Sounds like an addiction, doesn’t it? Like a smoking parent telling a child never to smoke.

In Worcester, UK they don’t believe in pussyfooting.  If football teams continue to litter city-controlled sports fields they could be nullified from qualifying for team pitch-for-hire agreements if the city's clean/green councillor has his way.  Play by the rules or you don’t play here at all.  Brilliant! 

* Subscribe to This Week In “Litterland” for your weekly, worldly eye-to-the-ground report. www.litterpreventionprogram.com

I have a shameful confession to make.  Not that I pick up litter, or even study litter more than is probably healthy. No, my admission is this: I have a relationship with litter. 

Bernie (www.litterwithastorytotell.blogspot.com) suggested I pick up some litter and write an essay on how I feel about it.  Reflecting on the idea I realized this would be no mere story, but an admission of my deepest rooted feelings.

My mom lives nearby. Her neighbor, Raj, is building a new home next door where a small bungalow used to stand.  I dubbed the new structure his Raj Mahal. 

Construction sites are well-documented litter offenders, always showing up on the list of top eight causes of litter.  Against this backdrop I visit my elderly mother’s pastoral home.  And on this day, as on many others, I am greeted by sightings of coffee cups, lids, empty creamers, polystyrene, some of it disintegrating into miniscule beads to confound even the nimblest of fingers.  I found plastic construction material packaging, soggy paper napkins, newspaper and more food-related wrappings.  Cellophane also reared its transparent head.  Rubber bands, plastic and wire made guest appearances.

I feel wonderfully warm about nestling this waste in a secure bag.  I feel nurturing. I have given this litter a proper home and resting place. My mother’s heritage property is for now restored to its erstwhile nature-respecting grandeur.  My bagged litter and I revel in this moment together knowing it is fleeting because, astonishingly, people keep littering.  They are planet bullies.  What does it take to place a waste bin on site and tell your workers to use it?

My mother is a lifelong environmentalist.  At 88, her awareness has slipped.  She isn’t able to police a neighbor who’s his own contractor and a messy one at that. 

While I feel happy to clear up the litter, I know my childhood memories are responsible for that.  My mom used to send me out as a kid spring and fall to do a quick tidy-up and beautify her acre of green.

But today my fond memory bubble is being usurped by a creeping feeling of irritation and indignation about the people who create this mess, an abject disappointment in these humans, so-called “fellow men”. Like any close relationship, litter can bring out the best and worst in me.

Years on, when I finally look back on my career of educating about litter, I don’t want to see that litter was there with me through thick and thin.  I want littering to be taboo in my lifetime so I can finally kiss everyone’s litter goodbye.

Can Scotland do it? Can this ambitious country get clean by 2014?

That is the standard laid down by the national government at a private summit in Edinburgh last week. Higher fines. More clean teams. Rigid enforcement. Education. The pillars are set for a nation set on ridding its land of litter in time for a bevy of tourism events in 2014, the Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup and year-long Homecoming among them.

I must say Scotland is doing a lot of things right. A Summit on Litter might inspire other countries to do the same. Although a closed affair, the spotlight was right where it should be and litter interests, from Zero Waste Scotland, the National Trust, private businesses, invited agencies and politicians, were all there in a room dealing with it.

Where I live there exists a certain blindness of convenience, an unwillingness to fully admit to a litter problem. They don’t want to look at the behaviour because they are unsure of how to fix it. The real solution is outside their box.

Conference coordinator Catherine Wilson and her team deserve praise for pulling off such an effort in such a short period of time, five months. However, doubt about the effort’s success cloud what should be an optimistic time for everyone.

'Will their proposed measures work?' is the question some wondered aloud before the summit even closed.

To an extent the efforts are destined to succeed by virtue of the number of people committed to them. But if Scotland is seeking to change littering behaviours, there’s a missing link that represents a new approach to dealing with littering. This is what I am told we have discovered by linking litter themes to memorable, catchy interactive songs. Because what’s missing in all the strategies is the element of music and the power it delivers to motivate, to inspire, to remember. Indeed, our program has been described as the “secret weapon”.

The heavy stick of fines and enforcement comes from the school of last resort. Far more effective is to make someone laugh, make them relaxed and receptive, then make them mindful.

Littering is an act of mindlessness. Until authorities come to better understand this point, the cycle of littering may well continue, even after Scotland pretties itself for an estimated 250,000 visitors next year.  (Statistically, four in ten of them are prone to littering.)

While I was unable to participate in Scotland’s Litter Summit, I hold great hopes that one of the world’s more progressive countries will seek me out and look at what we’re doing. They need our 'weapon' in their toolbox.

They came from all over the Greater Toronto Area to celebrate Earth Hour.  Youth and elders, babies and rambunctious toddlers, they arrived in great numbers to show that Chinese Canadians support the environment.

If you want to get a job done, I would recommend none better than the organizers of the hour of darkness that drew so many participants from far and wide.  They could have stayed home and flicked off a few switches – the easy way to join the 152 countries of the world that mark the Hour on March 23.  But they didn’t do that.

Jenny Zhang is an incredible woman who seems to be able to conjure up crowds with little effort when, in fact, as any organizer knows, it takes months of work to plan.  Even then, a robust crowd is never assured.

The Chinese Canadians for the Environment (CCEA) committee and its youth contingent, “Green Ambassadors”, worked for two months to assemble this night’s hive of attendees for their Earth Hour Concert ‘Unplugged’.

Alex and I arrived to warm greetings and smiles.  Jane Xu, editor of greenlifeweekly.com, welcomes us at the door.  She is typical of the professional people who volunteer with CCEA to make an environmental difference.

At 8:30-ish, they dim the lights to a Cantonese countdown after tiny, single blue and red LED lights had been distributed into all waiting hands.

As the room went dark, a gasp, a thrill, one moment of awe as the coloured lights punctuate the near blackness save for the glow of our faintly lit stage.

The concert programme features a variety of Chinese performers, modern and traditional instruments and styles and is peppered with the talents of young people.   We’re up next. With the aid of a translator our act is explained and introduced.  The moment of truth – is this big Chinese crowd ready to have fun singing about not littering?

There was a palpable elevation of spirits and a total connection with the spectators: curiosity and delight. Yes, they were involved. Yes, they were enlivened.  And while English may not be their first language, or may not be spoken at all, they are happy, they participate and they understand and appreciate.

Apart from ‘gong hay fat choy’, I know two words of Chinese lingo – ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’.

There’s something uniquely special about the power of song and its ability to communicate messages.  Nothing was lost in translation.