Only in Mississauga I find this disgusting behaviour.
Why are people just openly littering. It never used to be like this. What happened ?
this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2026
124 points (98.4% liked)
Mississauga
209 readers
133 users here now
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I assume littering is partially cultural (not everyone is raised to think littering is wrong) and also partially about opportunity (what reasonable alternatives did people have for waste disposal).
In terms of culture, you have to get them while they're young, with propaganda designed for children, like Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street.
In terms of opportunity: maybe when ordering a new drink, people are running out of free cup holders in their car and need to dispose of their morning coffee cup to make room for the new drink they just ordered, so making a trashcan available might make the most sense to reduce littering.
Sure, we can feel anger towards the individual litterbug (probably some of them know it's "wrong" to litter and could do more to avoid the need to litter - personally I would empty the liquid and then keep the trash cup in a plastic bag I keep for trash in the car), but it's more practical to address this as a social problem.
If you every have the opportunity to visit Japan you’ll notice they don’t have garbage bins anywhere and there’s trash nowhere to be found.
I think it’s a cultural/societal problem. Not a lack of trash bin problem.
Agree. I live in the US where it's hit or miss to find trash cans out in public. If there is no trash bin, paper waste just goes into my pockets. Stuff that won't fit in my pockets goes into my bag until I get home. The places I have lived, just about my whole life, are full of fucking litter, and it pissed me off so much I refuse to litter. I caught one neighbor throw trash on the ground in front of her yard. I said, "This is your home, why are you throwing trash where you live? Don't you want your house to look nice?" Her response was, "I don't care, the state is paying the rent." I would say in this instance it isn't about poverty, or getting government assistance, it's a person feeling no connection to the community around them, so they just don't give a fuck.