Earth Day 2021: Who is most prone to Litter America’s States, Cities? Answers might Surprise you!
By STEVE SPACEK @litterscorecard
Washington DC, April 21 — America’s Profiled Litterers are persons prone to littering virus-transmissible wastes onto public spaces. Wastes that continue to damage landscapes and kill humans while many will celebrate the 51st Earth Day Thursday, says Steve Spacek, director of the American State Litter Scorecard and a Washington-based public performance specialist.
Observations by psychologist Francis McAndrew and journalist Alan Bisbort, and findings from decades of US state litter studies gleaned four consistent, prominent litterer clusters marked by an engaged activity, by age generation or by occupational employment.
Cigarette Smokers provide the number one solid waste thrown onto public spaces in America: filters (“butts”). High Schoolers, College Undergrads, and Youngest Adults make up Generation Z, the age 16–25 demographic long known to waste removers and litter researchers. Fast Foodies toss quick-served food packaging and beverage containers onto streets, sidewalks, parks, and waterways with little remorse. Last but not least, Building Construction and Groundskeeper Employees litter as prominently as Foodies, but add much more textiles, wood boards, sheetrock, electrical wiring, scrap metal and windowpanes to a discarded mix.
In 2018 and 2020 Spacek’s Scorecard reported on America’s “Ten Most Litter Polluted States” and “15 Biggest Most Littered Cities,” noted for widespread waste litter. Some of the chosen Cities were declared by the Centers for Disease Control as ‘hotbeds’ for excessive Covid-19 cases and deaths. The selections gave readers a picture of which governments suffered the most from terrible, life-threatening environmental conditions, said Spacek.
