In 2018, the United States produced around 300 million tons of trash. That equated to just under 5 pounds of solid waste per person every day. With that much garbage floating around, a large portion unfortunately ends up scattered around our environment as litter.
While posting to the r/IdiotsInCars forum, one Reddit user documented just how easy it is for some people to improperly dispose of their trash, especially from the comfort of their cars.
The video (click here to watch the video if the embed does not appear) shows two separate instances of littering from the same car. At first, a small piece of garbage was captured tumbling out of the car and landing on the street. This could be written off as accidental.
However, later in the video, the front passenger tosses a piece of trash out of their window while the car is driving in a different location. While it's not clear exactly what the two pieces of trash were, they were each left on the roadway as the car continued on its way.
As seen in the original post, simply tossing trash out of a car window takes just a moment, but it can create a chain reaction of events. Whether big or small, litter can degrade the environment by contaminating soil, water, and air. It can also harm wildlife through accidental ingestion, entanglement, and even poisoning.
One of the worst examples of mobile littering is discarded cigarette butts. According to a report from the World Health Organization, around 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide each year. This makes them the most common form of litter on the planet. Cigarette filters are made of nonbiodegradable plastic and release toxic chemicals into the environment, posing an increased threat to wildlife and our local water systems.
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In the comments section, a majority of users used the post as an opportunity to vent their frustrations regarding their experiences with people littering.
"Saw someone throw a cup out their window at a stop sign. I literally got out of my car and picked it up right in front of them. Dude gave me the finger," one commenter shared.
"There is something about littering that makes me so irrationally angry and desperate for justice," another user noted.
"Respect Mother Earth always. It is not hard to keep a small waste bag in your car and ditch it at your destination when you find a trash can," a third commenter suggested.
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