It used to be OK to litter. I'm not sure anyone would have agreed that littering was OK but I'm not sure anyone thought to ask until it became a problem. When I say a problem I mean a significant cost to local governments to clean-up litter. Unlike most government programs which simply treat the symptoms (crime rate raising = hire more police) most littering campaigns attempt to address the problem at the source. When I say the source I mean ignorant simpletons with low self-worth.
One of the first such campaigns in Canada was "Litter Picking Pete". I couldn't find a picture of Pete but I found this CBC radio broadcast introducing him.
In Edmonton we spend over 2 million a year on a public awareness campaign "Capital City Clean-up"
These campaigns are great and help municipalities reduce their maintenance costs but the fact that people need this kind of help makes me crazy. Maybe not crazy but fearful. Fearful of the kind of people I'm sharing public space with. I suppose littering is based on the same ridiculous logic that smokers use to explain their right to a cigarette in public space. Now that I think about it smokers are some of the worst offenders when it comes to littering. For some reason cigarette butts are not considered litter by most smokers.
Edmonton recently updated their littering by-law 14614 to specify address discarding of cigarette butts on the ground as littering (subject to a $250 fine). If you would like to report an offender within the city of Edmonton just call 311.
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