Be a tidy kiwi

Littering Education > Causes of littering > Barriers to responsible disposal of litter

Barriers to responsible disposal of litter

It can be difficult to uncover reasons why people litter because people commonly will not admit to the behaviour. Williams et al (1997), in the world’s largest study of littering behaviour, found that different people expressed different attitudes towards littering. In addition, there were inconsistencies between the way people described their behaviour and their actions as observed by researchers. ‘Almost half of the people who had been observed littering within the previous five minutes told interviewers that they had not littered in the last 24 hours or that they could not remember the last time they littered’ (p.9).

Similarly, it is evident from the literature that contradictory results have been obtained from other research studies, and this makes it hard to draw conclusions about the causes of littering behaviour.

Information is presented here from two sources:

Studies that have carried out focus group discussions, interviews or other research asking people for reasons why they might litter; and  research studies that have been designed to explore these  reasons to see whether changes actually make a difference to littering behaviour.

There are several reasons people have given when asked why they litter that have been reported by different studies. The responses fall under five headings:

  1. Cultural and social attitudes
  2. Infrastructure
  3. Rubbish attracts rubbish
  4. Excessive packaging
  5. Enforcement

Seven studies have been reviewed for this section, to explore the broad range of reasons that have been given to explain why people litter. The studies are:

  • Williams et al (1997)
  • ‘Understanding Littering Behaviour in Australia’ research Public opinion survey for Keep America Beautiful (1968)
  • Pritchett and White (2006) focus groups for ‘Waste Education Strategy for Porirua’
  • Keep America Beautiful (Florida Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management 1988)
  • NZ Anti- Litter Council Focus Groups (1975)
  • Sharp Hertwig (2001) research to inform the Washington State Dept for Ecology (2001) campaign plan: ‘Litter and it will hurt’.
  • ENCAMS focus groups, reported in Gibson (2002)