Stroll around your local town or city early in the morning and you will encounter an army of johnston compact street sweepers out and about tidying up the mess left from all the drunken activities of last night. It’s an emblematic early daybreak scene, and it often conceals the litter problem we face. We don’t really give litter a second thought as we take for granted it will all be cleaned up for us.

Nonetheless, there is a sometimes imperceptible yet substantial impact litter has in terms of determining the mood of individuals. We are more likely to think an area is less well policed if rubbish is scattered around, and therefore criminals see litter as a potential sign for an opportunity of a mugging or robbery. The very same signal creates some fear in other individuals who worry they may be passing through a more dangerous location and are wary of being robbed.

There’s also the impact on the visual appeal of a neighbourhood. Rubbish scattered around can give the visual aspect of a place looking a bit derelict even though it’s just been trashed by people from the night before. This can harm the reputation of an area if individuals are visiting the location for this specific short period of time and only see it in its untidy state.

Prevention is always better than cure when it comes to litter. There’s no need to throw rubbish if there are unfilled rubbish bins in the location. If there is a lack of rubbish bins, or the rubbish bins that are there are stuffed, this is a matter to take up with the local council. Littering has a negative influence on everyone.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 2:02 am and is filed under Great Psychology Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.