Why People Litter in America

In America garbage is constantly disposed improperly all over the world. I see that many people carelessly litter and throw trash on the grounds when they should rightfully be placed in their respectable bins. It is a pet peeve of mine to see the grounds soiled with waste that could easily be thrown away in trash bins. As a good Samaritan, every chance I get I pick up litter on the grounds and take the extra mile to prevent relatives and friends from contributing to the improper garbage disposal. I cannot bare the sight of garbage lingering around and by any means necessary I attempt to take precautions by placing garbage in trash cans. What many fail to realize is that the incorrect disposal of waste has consequences on the environment. Humans often forget that life exists in the outside world as well and disrespect the presence of the wildlife. If we seize the excessive rubbish we would save the animal life that could have possibly harmed its population. The decrease of animal life is a detrimental factor of the environment.
The amount of litter that ends up soiling the environment coincides with the amount of waste we produce. Litter such as glass bottles, plastic packaging, and news papers are landscaped everywhere. Over millions of tons of trash is thrown away every year in the U.S. with paper products alone accounting for 40 percent of the garbage (Protecting Wildlife from Trash). The improper placing of waste isn’t always intentional and is sometimes caused by the winds from overloaded garbage cans adding unnecessary litter to the environment. Litter is said to last a long time depending on the disintegration of the garbage (Protecting Wildlife from Trash). Some litter does not dissolve and it takes forever to break down.
The growth of human population and resource use has a tremendous impact on pollution. The increase in human population calls for the greater development in resources such as water and energy creates a shock wave that interferes with the global environment. (Dobbs 34) The capacity of humans overusing the environment has lead to environmental changes such as greenhouse effect, and global species extinction (Dobbs 35). Over the past years humans have caused extinction of large animals in Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia (Dubbs 35). For instance, Humans in Australia increased the rate of fires resulting in a shift of landscape to a fire adapted desert shrub and consequently affected the large animals (Dubbs 35). These human pressures in the end led to the extinction of 60 large animal species (Dubbs 35). This too has an effect on the ecosystem and its food chain process influencing the plants and other animals that were left unharmed.
According to Discovery News, researchers have discovered a water polluted patch that cleans the waters ocean debris and human trash. The patch is placed in all large bodies of water to rid the waste that could possibly harm the marine life (Discovery News). When the patch is removed from the ocean it’s filled with small plastics and bottle caps that were washed ashore from human litter. The downfall to the discovery is that it does not pick up every piece of trash the body of water contains. The fish in the water mistake the tiny pieces of the remaining debris for food, causing the pieces to become trapped into their stomachs and eventually killing them (Discovery News). This effects the smaller fish in which in the process the larger fish that we humans eat all due to trash that wasn’t properly disposed. This could all be avoided if we as people make careful decisions of where we put our trash.
I have changed the environment by preserving animal wildlife. Even though sometimes people can’t help where their trash ends up, it’s still important whether it’s your litter or not to pick it up to help save animal life. If we continue to allow trash to be left on the ground, more animals will die that would later lead to extinction. It is impossible to stop litter all together because we as humans too need to survive, but we do need to take the animal life into consideration. In the future, I may evangelize the importance of proper garbage disposal. I may also start a group so that many people that feel the same as I can have a better impact on the unaware people about how harmful garbage is to the environment. The more people who impact the proper disposal of waste the better the environment would end up.

Works Cited Page
Barbalace, Roberta C. Protecting Wildlife from Trash. EnvironmentalChemistry.com.1999. 2/21/2011 http://EnvironmentalChemistry.com/yogi/hazmat/articles/trash.html
Dubbs, Walter K. Humanity’s Footprints: Momentum, Footprints, and our Global Environment. New York Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2008. Print.
Discovery News, dir. “Energy 365: Recycling and Trash” Discovery. Discovery, n/a. Web. 20 February 2011.

Cited: Page Barbalace, Roberta C. Protecting Wildlife from Trash. EnvironmentalChemistry.com.1999. 2/21/2011 http://EnvironmentalChemistry.com/yogi/hazmat/articles/trash.html Dubbs, Walter K. Humanity’s Footprints: Momentum, Footprints, and our Global Environment. New York Chichester: Columbia University Press, 2008. Print. Discovery News, dir. “Energy 365: Recycling and Trash” Discovery. Discovery, n/a. Web. 20 February 2011.