Littering- For **** sake people

Littering really annoys me, how hard is it for people to either find a nearby bin or take it home with you. There really is no excuse. You wouldn't do it in your own home so why do it in the outside world.

After all I bet you are the first to complain when your town is dirty, conveniently forgetting that it is people like you that made it so dirty in the first place.

The wombles of Wimbledon Common had it right, pick up your litter, reuse and recycle.

I have been reading 'Freakonomics' so I was thinking about the economics of littering.

The reason people litter is because there is effectively no penalty for littering, there is ineffective social pressure to litter and somebody will clear it up anyway.

Of course there is an indirect cost in the taxes we pay to clear up the mess, but again the non-litterer ends up paying just as much as the litterer. If you do the right thing you still cant avoid the cost.

Then how can we get rid of litter without imposing draconian punishments for those who litter. I think it is a question of ring fencing, set up a community litter team made up of people that litter. There will always be people to add to the team and they can then clear up their own mess.

Think about it a cash fine does not work because there is no chance of getting caught but 25 hours of boring litter picking will put you off if you get caught, and put you off if a friend gets caught and tell you about it.

Find me the teenager that would like to do 25 hours boring service like that, once a few got caught littering would so decrease.