According to a study of
littering behavior by the Institute for Applied Research, more than
44% of people aged 15-24 were observed littering take-out food and
beverage containers.
Click here to
learn more.
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Litter Prevention = Proper Disposal
 Litter prevention is the primary goal of Keep
Knoxville Beautiful. Littering is a habit and occurs when people deliberately or
carelessly dispose of solid waste improperly. Litter is caused by
people. While there is a natural reaction to blame the industries
whose products are most often littered, people are responsible for the
proper handling and disposal of these products. Disposing of all waste properly,
recycling everything you can and reducing the amount of waste you create helps.
Litter drives down property values, and is a deterrent to new business and tourism.
There is strong evidence that uncollected trash and other types of physical disorder like
graffiti and abandoned vehicles make people feel unsafe and attracts crime.
Why do people
litter?
Keep America Beautiful has gathered information from numerous studies and
reports about littering behavior. These are the primary reasons
people litter:
- People who litter have no sense of
ownership of the community - they don't care.
- People who litter think it is someone's
job to pick up after them - even though litter cleanup has real costs
in tax dollars, volunteer time, decreased property value and negative
attitudes about littered communities.
- People litter where other litter is
already present - the presence of litter in a community sends the
message that litter is tolerated here. This is why we pick up
litter.
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Read the
original "Broken Windows Theory" article in Atlantic Monthly.
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