Litter Prevention: You can make a difference!
Littering is not only unsightly, it can cause environmental and health problems. Keep Macon-Bibb Beautiful believes that each of us holds an obligation to protect the environment. We can make a real difference by setting an example for others through our daily actions and choices. Remember to REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE!
Here are some examples of what you and others can do to prevent litter:
- Set an example for others, especially co-workers, friends and children by using trash receptacles and not littering.
- Pick up one piece of litter every day.
- Teach others the proper way to dispose of trash.
- Ask your neighbors to help you clean up a public area.
- Tie newspapers in a bundle before recycling.
- Secure all bags and use twine to secure loose trash for curbside trash collection.
- Civic groups “Adopt-A-Spot” for cleanup.
- Plant and maintain flowers along a curb or sidewalk.
- Always have available a litter bag and portable ashtray in your car.
- If you are a smoker, carry and use a portable or pocket ashtray.
- Make sure your trashcans have lids that can be securely fastened or use bungee cords to hold them in place.
- Assure easy access to dumpsters by employees and contractors. Check dumpsters daily to see that top and side doors are closed. This prevents scavengers from spreading trash on the ground.
- Cover all open loads on trucks leaving your business. Encourage vendors and contractors to do the same.
- Provide ash and trash receptacles at entrances, exits, loading docks, picnic areas as well as in packing lots and along walkways of businesses. Remember, these should be placed where the people generally gather.
- Educate employees about the importance of individual responsibility for a clean and safe working environment.
- STOP POO-LLUTION - Pick up after your dog as you walk through your neighborhood. Use newspaper delivery bags, "scoopers" or other easy-to-use methods to clean up after your pet.
- Keep your pet on a leash to assure it doesn't foul neighbors' yards or public spaces in your neighborhood.
- Take responsibility for your pet and its actions.
Litter Life Spans:
You may be surprised to learn just how longs it takes for litter to decompose and disappear from the environment. For example, it takes approximately 6 months for paper and cardboard to disintegrate.
Decomposition time for other types of litter:
- Glass bottles: 1 million years
- Plastic foam cups: more than 500 years
- Cigarette butts: 1 to 5 years
- Aluminum cans: 200-500 years
- Plastic drink bottles: 450 years
- Monofilament line takes 600 years to decompose...plus it kills thousands of marine animals each day.
- Plastic bags: 10–20 years
- Gum: 20 to 25 years
- Disposable diapers: 550 years
- Six pack bottle wrapping: 100 years
- Banana peels: 3 years
- Wool sock: 1 year
- Orange peel: 6 months
Smokers and littering:
Cigarette litter represents more than 20 percent of the litter collected in community clean-ups, yet many smokers do not believe that littering their cigarette butts has an environmental impact or is inappropriate behavior. Littered cigarette filters contain toxic chemicals that can end up in storm drains contaminating our water systems and they can take 1 to 5 years to decompose. Not only does cigarette litter ruin even the most beautiful of settings, littered cigarette butts cause numerous fires every year, some of them fatal.
Before you light up, identify where you will dispose of your cigarette waste when you finish smoking. Use ash and ash/trash receptacles. Carry a pocket ashtray all the time or have a portable ashtray with you as you leave your home, office or car. Encourage fellow smokers to be responsible for their cigarette litter.