Why The Litter? (Pittsburgh, Liberty: buy, maintenance, to live)

[Craziaskowboi]

I did litter pick-up as a Boy Scout, and a week later the roadsides looked just as trashy as ever.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

In 2007 Forbes ranked Pittsburgh the 10th cleanest city in the world.

In 2010 Forbes ranked Pittsburgh the 10th dirtiest in the U.S.

Pittsburgh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

We have made a lot of "Cleanest Cities" lists in recent years.

A classic example of why those Forbes lists are worthless.

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by pittsburgheer

in my travels, for a city of similar size, pittsburgh definitely has an above average litter problem. the problem of hillside/valley dumping is evident and prevalent as well. perhaps the hilly topography helps people dilute themselves into the "out of sight, out of mind" thinking....along with a medium to large subset of just trashy people.

I think the hills are a factor. Lots of people litter accidentally. For example, you might have a crumpled up piece of paper in your pocket that accidentally falls out while you're walking. Most people will stop to pick it up if it's easy to do so. However, if a wind is blowing and you're walking up a hill and the paper blows down the hill side, you're likely to just shrug it off.

What I really noticed when I was up there was the amount of broken glass, especially in parking lots and some sidewalks. Maybe I just happened to park in a bad place, but there seem to be a lot of it. I find it hard to believe that broken glass is "accidental" littering. Why do people do that?

[gg]

I have studied this issue quite a bit and have discovered from being on my bike all the time that litter comes from three main sources and I will list them in order of most litter offenders.

1. The pickup truck driver that throws trash in his bed and pretends that it is okay, even though it always blows out of his bed when he drives.
2. Many inner-city people (section 8 types) just throw trash around because they have no pride in themselves let alone anyone else.
3. Poorly loaded tri-axles that don't have covers on the loads have things blowing out of them.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

I did litter pick-up as a Boy Scout, and a week later the roadsides looked just as trashy as ever.

You cannot keep up with it. This is Appalachia after all.

If you drive from Pittsburgh to 7 Springs it is as bad as the suburbs in Pittsburgh. The 7 Springs area is so beautiful and the people there just throw trash around like it is okay. Uniontown is another area that is amazingly filled with trash. This will always be that way in all of Western PA. I clean the Highland Park Bridge walkway every year and it lasts for a while, but there was glass on it a week later. Drive on Allegheny River Blvd. from the zoo to Verona. That is one of the worst places. If 100 people cleaned it, the place would look the same in a couple of weeks due to pickup traffic. There are more pickups in our area than any place I have ever been and they all put trash in the back of them thinking that is fine, it isn't littering. Yeah right.

[Johnny C]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

You cannot keep up with it. This is Appalachia after all.

If you drive from Pittsburgh to 7 Springs it is as bad as the suburbs in Pittsburgh. The 7 Springs area is so beautiful and the people there just throw trash around like it is okay. Uniontown is another area that is amazingly filled with trash. This will always be that way in all of Western PA. I clean the Highland Park Bridge walkway every year and it lasts for a while, but there was glass on it a week later. Drive on Allegheny River Blvd. from the zoo to Verona. That is one of the worst places. If 100 people cleaned it, the place would look the same in a couple of weeks due to pickup traffic. There are more pickups in our area than any place I have ever been and they allput trash in the back of them thinking that is fine, it isn't littering. Yeah right.

All pickup truck owners are obviously hard core litter bugs, so perhaps we should ban pickup trucks in the city...

At some point this thread has turned into wild generalizations....

[ex-burgher]

Here's an interesting article on the subject:
Litter Bugged - News - Pittsburgh City Paper

[gg]

Originally Posted by Johnny C

All pickup truck owners are obviously hard core litter bugs, so perhaps we should ban pickup trucks in the city...

At some point this thread has turned into wild generalizations....

There is a difference in "generalizations" and observations. I have always wondered why there is so much litter and have focused on the reasons for years. My observations are facts. I never said "all" pickup truck drivers. I said there are lots of them. That IS a fact.

[hornet67]

I drove south on I-79 recently, and the litter on the sides of the road was atrocious. Some of it may have blown off overfilled garbage trucks, but that's no excuse.
Low lifes who litter are scum, and, as stated previously, smokers are big contributors with their nasty butts spread everywhere. When I worked downtown, I always noticed excessive litter around the fast food joints, and, especially , bus stops. I imagine that hasn't changed.
Prisoners should be used to clean up, at least on the major highways. It's not exactly the chain gang, fer chrissakes !

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Well since we incarcerate more of our population than any other country on the planet and corporations make money off of private prisons, you'd think they'd be putting that label to good use.

I'd much rather have prisoners cleaning up highways then building Patriot missiles.