A lot of people don’t think that littering is a serious problem. They casually toss out their garbage when they are driving down the side of the road or even dump off large items in the middle nowhere. As long as they no longer have to worry about it, they don’t see a problem with it.
A lot of cities and states have fines for littering that can be pretty hefty.
The problem is, it’s sometimes hard to catch people in the act. Some cities also don’t enforce these rules. One biker happened to be stuck in traffic when he caught someone carelessly tossing out their trash on the side of the road.
The litterer clearly has no respect for anyone else on the road or the environment. He assumes it won’t be a big deal and that nobody is watching. Little does he know, this biker is recording the entire thing and is also about to give him a lesson in trash disposal.
Once the biker sees the man drop the trash, he stops to pick it up.
He then weaves through the traffic to get in front of the van with the passenger who dropped the trash. He stops the bike right in front of the van, causing it to stop, too. He then picks up the windshield wiper, slides the trash under it, and lets it go.
He doesn’t say a word, but he does get the faces of the people who littered on video.
He gets back on his bike and drives off. The passengers in the van appear to be a little nervous about the biker. They are also probably embarrassed that they were caught.
The least this person could have done was waited to throw the garbage in the trashcan.
It would have been even better if he would have recycled it. Trash is a huge problem in the United States and many other parts of the world.
Johns Refuse shared several horrifying statistics about the amount of trash produced in the United States and where it ends up.
- “Reports show that Americans generate between 250 and 400 million tons of garbage each year – all of which requires landfill space.
- “53.4 (percent) of paper products are recycled in the United States. While this is a huge improvement over years before, there is still big room for improvement!
- “The average office worker uses over 500 paper cups per year. Think of the impact of reducing this by only half!
- “The amount of waste generated has tripled since 1960.
- “The United States has the highest amount of waste generated per person of any country at an average of 4.6 pounds per day.
- “Only around 1/10 of solid garbage in the United States is recycled each year.
- “Despite this seemingly low rate, this is still an increase of around 100% over the last decade – we are making improvements!
- “Each year, around 100.2 billion plastic bags are used by Americans.
- “In the Pacific Ocean, there is a “Plastic Island” twice the size of Texas that was created by dumping waste into the ocean.
- “36% of what is thrown away in the U.S. each year is paper or cardboard – much of which is recyclable.
- “The United States has over 3,000 active landfills and over 10,000 “old” landfills. All of these create hazardous gas and could be a danger to groundwater.”
While it may not be a good idea to do exactly as this biker did and return a person’s trash, it is OK to speak up when you see someone littering.
Some highways and parks have phone numbers and hotlines that you can call to report a person littering. If you can get a description or a license plate number, that person may be brought to justice. Then, they will think twice before dumping their trash all over the place or tossing garbage out the window on the highway.
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