I’ve slowly become a bit of a grumpy old man, especially when it comes to litter. I have for the last two weeks started going litter picking, roping in a willing ‘helper’, on a Saturday around the neighbourhood road where my son and I take a regular walk.
The amount of litter that I increasingly see in London has gotten worse over the last 10 years. The gallery of photos above were taken on a Sunday afternoon walk to our local shopping area (Hounslow town centre). Hounslow is a mixed district (borough) that has many areas of socio-economic disadvantage. But this phenomenon is equally prevalent in the district, I technically* live in, Richmond which is much more socio-economically prosperous.
There is though one important difference that might link to a some difference in the amount of litter between the two districts: Hounslow has a two weekly trash (rubbish) collection scheme and Richmond has stayed with the one weekly collection which used to be the norm in England. After the 2007-08 financial crisis some councils moved from weekly to fortnightly bin collections to save. This may be one reason why people are leaving shoppings bags of litter next to public litter bins. They may be living in small flats or living in one room of a shared flat which means keeping rubbish for two weeks inside or near the house is problematic because of the odour problem.
Another issue I’ve noticed is that the design of bin openings makes the placing of large amounts of rubbish impractical making placing a large pizza box even when folded difficult to put into a bin. It’s as if the bins are designed to reduce the amount of litter people throw in it. Or to save on trucks coming and regular emptying these bins.
Needless to say, both the above moves I think are a mistake. As litter becomes the norm people becoming inured to dropping litter a thinking what’s one more piece of litter on the sidewalk (pavement). It creates a sense of lack of care, respect and love for a place and other people, lack of care by local people, local government and local politicians.
From a sociological, public health and HIA perspective, litter falls under the concept of a neighbourhood incivility. There are two broad types of neighbourhood incivilities: social and physical (Lopez, 2016). They both link to behaviours that are judged to be ‘uncivil’ by at least some people if not the majority of people in a community or society. Incivilities in turn fall under the broader concept of social disorder. Many of the early work in the field of incivilities focused on crime, fear of crime and social disorder (Hunter, 1978; Herbert, 1993).
“Neighbourhood incivilities may take forms such as litter, graffiti and signs of vandalism and can serve as indicators of 'disorder' or a declining quality of life within urban neighbourhoods.” (Herbert, 1993, p.1)
Recent literature is moving towards discussing this issue as neighbourhood disorder rather than neighbourhood incivilities i.e. That incivility and disorder are the same conceptually rather than incivilities being a part of the broader phenomenon, and indicator ,of overall social disorder (Gracia, 2014). My view at this time is that having disorder as a higher level concept within which incivility fits seems more useful conceptually to understand this topic.
Social incivilities/disorders are made up of the following public behaviours:
being drunk or drinking alcohol on the street or in public transit/transport
taking drugs on the streets or on public transit/transport
drug dealing
angry and intense arguing and physical fighting
groups of people loitering or being rowdy
organised gang activity
street prostitution
high levels of police activity
Physical incivilities/disorders are made up of the following environmental manifestations of social incivilities/disorders:
Abandoned and badly maintained buildings
Vandalism of buildings, cars and street installations
Abandoned cars
Graffiti
Litter
Research on the health effects of litter mostly focus on the direct and indirect effects of litter as it affects animals and plants (and then indirectly humans) or the aerosolization and particularization of litter so that humans then ingest and inhale this litter e.g. through weather wear, incineration.
Evidence for the mental health and wellbeing effects of seeing litter is mixed with some weak evidence that it either does not have an effect or does have a small effect on mental health and wellbeing (Nicome, 2019; Jones et al., 2014). My judgment is that it is likely that the overall effect of litter on wellbeing is small at the individual level but across the population of a neighbourhood the public health, HIA, effect on health is likely to be important.
One undergraduate piece of research identified the following health impacts/effects in a US inner city population (Bennet, 2012):
Exacerbation of respiratory conditions
Rodent infestation and associated zoonotic diseases
Physical injury
Depression
Potential risks of infection associated with cleaning up litter and trash because of used needles and glass.
Older adults, children, and those with preexisting health conditions were perceived to most sensitive (vulnerable). Participants identified the following mitigation and enhancement ideas: neighbourhood cleanups, competitions for the cleanest street, and education as ways to improve the litter and trash situation.
*I live on the border of Hounslow and so, Hounslow town centre is closer for shopping and services than Richmond town centre.
References
Bennet, T. (2012) Perceived health effects of litter and trash by inner city residents. Ohio State University. Available at: https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/51932 (Accessed: 14 June 2021).
Gracia, E. (2014) ‘Neighborhood disorder’, in Michalos A.C. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-being Research. Dordrecht: Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_2751
Herbert (1993) ‘Neighbourhood incivilities and the study of crime in place’, Area, 25 (1), pp. 45-54. Preview available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20003211
Hunter (1978) Symbols of incivility: social disorder and fear of crime in urban neighborhoods. Working paper M-46A. Available at: https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/82421.pdf (Accessed: 14 June 2021).
Lopez (2016) Neighborhood incivilities: effects of disorder on fear of crime, perceived risk of victimization, and constrained social behavior, a case study of Flint, Michigan. University of Michigan. Available at: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/120603/lopezkar.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Accessed: 14 June 2021).
Nicome (2019) Can litter affect mental health? Available at: https://www.trashfreemaryland.org/blog/2019/05/23/can-litter-affect-mental-health-what-were-starting-to-learn-about-a-connection-between-clean-communities-and-wellness (Accessed: 14 June 2021).
Google search terms used
defining neighbourhood incivilities
health impacts effects of neighbourhood incivilities
health impacts effects urban litter