Trashy thoughts

Want to dig around the mind of a litterer? Bring your trash bags -- it's a cluttered place. Experts in the field of human behavior say that those who litter do so because they disrespect the environment, are apathetic toward their community and -- perhaps the primary reason -- they see trash left behind that no one's picked up.

"If people see trash on the streets the perception is nobody cares," said Carrie Gallagher Sussman, program director with Keep America Beautiful, the national not-for-profit public education organization devoted to eradicating litter.

"They think it doesn't matter if they add to the debris because nobody cares here anyway," she said. "People do not generally litter where there isn't litter already."

Those at No MOre Trash, a Missouri anti-litter program, say there are other reasons too. Among them: laziness, an assumption that others will pick it up and a lack of awareness.

"People who would otherwise not litter might throw cigarette butts out their window," said Ginny Wallace, coordinator of the program at the Missouri Department of Conservation. "They might think cigarette butts just decompose. They don't."

In fact, she said, littered cigarette filters contain toxic chemicals that leak into the air and water.

But other people just don't care, she said.

"I actually had a gentleman tell me once that people are employed to pick up litter, so it was his right to litter so they would have something to do," Wallace said. "That's one of the most asinine things I've ever heard."

On the local front, specialists in human behavior offered their own opinions.

Dr. Praghakar Kamath, a psychiatrist in Cape Girardeau, hates litter.

"I recently returned from a third world country -- India -- and the litter here is worse than there," Kamath said. "India's full of filth, but there seemed to be more effort there to keep the streets clean than here."

Kamath knows the reason the problem has gotten so bad in America.

"It's basically a degradation of our culture," he said. "I hate to say that, but people who litter really couldn't care less."

Kamath said there may be reasons for the apathy. He suspects that litterers were never taught as children to pick up after themselves or to respect the world they live in.

"Parents who say, 'Thou shalt not do this,' their children don't do it," he said. "More and more, with divorce, children are raising themselves. They don't have anybody telling them what is wrong and what is right."

Judy St. John is the director of Southeast Missouri State University's Center for Health and Counseling. She's also a licensed professional counselor and a nationally certified counselor.

"My personal opinion, which is not based on research, is that it has to do with a lack of respect for the environment," she said. "It's easy to say it's just carelessness or laziness. But it boils down to a lack of understanding of how littering affects other people and the environment."

Those who litter may not even feel guilt, she said.

"If it's just part of their common practice, they're probably desensitized to it," she said. "They may not even be aware of it."

Dr. Jim Morgan, a psychologist in Cape Girardeau, said litterers may see their acts as small and isolated and not as key contributions to the overall problem.

"What harm does it do to toss out one cigarette butt, one can of Coca-Cola?" he said. "Why don't I just stick this piece of paper under this bush? They see it as one little act. They don't see the big picture. It's kind of like a grain of sand to them. But if you have enough grains of sand, then you've got a beach."

But just because healthy attitudes about litter may have gone out with the trash, Morgan said that doesn't mean those attitudes can't be changed.

"You'd be astounded at what raising awareness can do," he said. "You see it in all fields. Look at what MADD did for alcohol abuse. People became aware and more responsible in their drinking."

Human behavior can be modeled, molded and changed, he said.

"But people have to see it as valuable and they have to know what their personal responsibility is," he said. "When each person changes, you begin to see an overall affect."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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