Littering; we all know it’s bad for the environment, so why do people keep doing it? Maybe it’s just pure laziness; if there’s no trash can near us, we throw it on the ground. Studies show multiple reasons why littering is so bad for the environment: it kills animals, plants, the ocean, and even the atmosphere. If we keep littering like we are today, there might not be a tomorrow.

    Littering does not only hurt the environment, it can also hurt the individual. Littering causes car accidents when food or trash is left on the road. There have been more than 25,000 car accidents caused by litter in the past year.  It can also attract animals to the road which become roadkill and damaged cars.  When there is roadkill in the street, people tend to swerve around it. When one person swerves into the next lane to avoid the animal, they often collide with another car. 

     Additionally, houses in neighborhoods covered in litter are worthless. Litter brings down the value of the house by 10% – 24%. Nobody wants to live where people throw their garbage around. Wouldn’t you like to live in a clean neighborhood and not be disgusted every time you step outside your house? Having a cleaner community brings up the chance for more businesses and even more tourists. 

     And of course —as we all know—littering on the ground or in the ocean kills plants, animals, and the atmosphere, and the very planet we live on. Chemicals and toxins from plastic kill slowly; animals can get caught on the 6 pack soda can rings, and plastic straws are eaten by animals. There is so much pollution on earth, it is starting to tear away our atmosphere, and without the atmosphere, we would have, no protection from the sun and the air would be too thin to breathe. Essentially, there would be no more life on earth. 

     Littering sends a message that people do not care about the earth and its future. Now that you know all the reasons why not litter, will you still do it?

Alyssa Adragna – Author