Gas Station Sushi? Littering is Wrong Too!

Keep California Beautiful is launching a new anti-litter campaign and as their local partner here in San Diego, ILACSD is getting in on the action to help raise awareness about the issues created by litter in our communities.

Litter, can be seen throughout San Diego County and is an eyesore to our beautiful (and green) community. I Love A Clean San Diego attacks this problem with a two-pronged approach: prevention and removal.

We help prevent litter through our innovative and engaging education programs, as well as by providing the county’s only comprehensive, one stop recycling resource, WasteFreeSD.org. We’re also best know for our countywide cleanups, which include San Diego’s two largest cleanups: Creek to Bay on April 28, 2012, and Coastal Cleanup Day on September 15, 2012.

Litter invites more litter. Once litter has accumulated along a road or in a community, people are more likely to keep littering there. 80% of our waterways are littered with trash that was dropped on land, which is one reason our cleanups focus heavily on inland areas, not just the beaches.  If we want to protect ocean health and prevent marine debris we need to start inland. Do the right thing—by doing your part to prevent litter in California.

• Set a good example for your friends, kids and neighbors. Don’t litter! Even a banana peel is considered litter. Don’t think so? Imagine what the streets would look like if every resident dropped a banana peel or apple core on the same day!
• Place a bag in your car to collect personal trash (or recyclables) instead of tossing them.
• Secure the lids on your trash and recycling containers, especially when you set them out on collection day.
• When recycling at the curb, secure or bundle loose papers and other light objects tightly so they won’t get carried away with the wind.
• Remove loose trash from the back of your pickup truck.
• If you smoke, never leave your cigarette butts on the ground. Cigarette butts are the single most littered item found at our cleanups.
• Get involved in a community cleanup. Sign up for our monthly newsletter and be the first to know about upcoming events.

The campaign “Littering is Wrong Too” takes a lighthearted approach to bring awareness to a serious problem. The campaigns messages range from ironic:

To sad:

To things that make you say “That’s just wrong!”

Check out the campaign website, www.LitteringisWrongToo.org, to “write your own wrong” and see even more of the funny sayings others from around the country have posted. Think about other things that are wrong, like wearing Dodgers hat at a Padres Game, or Texting While Driving, to help us show that there are all kinds of things you wouldn’t do, and littering should be one of them!

Fill in the blank: _____ is wrong, and littering is wrong too!