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Litterology Review

February 20, 2016 by · Leave a Comment

litterologyLitterology Review

This is a Litterology Review- a review of the new book Litterology.

It’s sad that the planet needs a book by the name of Litterology- Understanding Littering and the Secrets to Clean Public Places (Karen Spehr and Rob Curnow, paperback, 150 pages, Environment Books 2015, $25.00). Anyone who looks around anywhere where people go will see we do, though. There is trash disposed of improperly everywhere.

Why do some people always litter? Why do some people never litter? Why do most people litter in some situations, but not in others? And most importantly, how do we change people’s behavior so that they litter less, or not at all, or even go around picking up other people’s litter?

Spehr and Curnow are environmental psychologists who have spent a good portion of their professional lives researching the answers to these questions. Littering is actually quite a complex behavior. Some of the factors that must be considered when trying to find out why people litter or why they don’t include the location where the littering or not littering is occurring, the type of object or objects being disposed of, whether bins are present or not, where the bins (if present) are placed, how well-maintained the bins are, whether or not other people are littering, and whether the disposer thinks they are being watched or not.

In general, clean places tend to stay clean and littered places tend to stay littered. Large public gatherings tend to bring out the worst in disposal behavior among everyone who attends. Figuring out why clean places stay clean is an important consideration when trying to change the behavior of people who are littering in a trashy area. Changing the behavior of large numbers of human beings is a tough thing to do.

If you consider yourself to be a responsible individual, particularly one who manages any kind of public space, this book should rocket to the top of your must-read list. You will get insights into this dark side of human behavior and how to change it you would never get any other way. It’s a tremendous tool for those charged with managing litter, one that has been sorely needed. Litterology has my highest recommendation.

-John Kumiski

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Keep America Beautiful

February 4, 2016 by · 1 Comment
Keep america beautiful

Keep america beautiful!

Keep America Beautiful

Last week a press release came in about the Keep America Beautiful conference. It was being held this week in Orlando. Holy cow, I could go see what this is about! I conscripted long-time friend Rodney Smith to help in the endeavor.

Tuesday morning found us at Lake Buena Vista at the conference. I was hoping for lots of high fashion models in keeping with the Keep America Beautiful theme, but that’s not what they meant and everyone was pretty normal looking.

The first session we went to was about calculating the cost of blight. There’s not much blight in Chuluota but in spite of that it was a great presentation. If you live in a place where there is blight (not hard to find) and you are a conscientious citizen, these folks have developed an easy-to-use on-line tool that you can use to come up with a dollars-and-cents cost of that blight. Then you can use those numbers to convince public officials to attack the problem.

Keep america beautiful!

In session. There were concerned people from all over the country.

As it turns out, attacking the problem is far less expensive than ignoring it, both economically and socially. Ignoring blight lowers property values (decreasing tax revenues) and invites crime (raising the costs of providing police and fire services, among others), and has other negative social and economic impacts.
What is blight, you ask? As I understood it from the presentation, blight was anything that lessens the aesthetics of an area- abandoned buildings/vehicles, litter hot spots, graffiti.

Obviously this is a real problem in a lot of places. Keep America Beautiful, far from wringing their hands and whining, is finding practical solutions.

The second presentation I attended was about the state of recycling programs in the US. Recyclers are having tough times right now. Commodity prices are down and making a profit from the recycle stream is difficult for a number of reasons. That glass, paper, metal, and plastic isn’t trash to “dispose of” though- those are valuable resources. All of us need to start thinking of them that way.

The last presentation we went to was on why people litter, why they don’t, and how we can get people to change their disposal behaviors for the better. The presenter has a Ph.D. in psychology and has co-authored a book called Litterology (review to come- so far it’s great).

Did you know there’s a littering continuum? At one end are people who never litter and even pick up other people’s trash. At the other end are people who always litter, like it’s a God-given right. Most of us are in the middle someplace.

Our disposal behavior depends on a wide range of cues, received from other people and also from the environment we find ourselves in. To grossly generalize, most folks tend not to trash clean places but readily trash areas that are already littered, or blighted if you will. I’ll delve into this more in the book review.

Mike Rosen, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications for Keep America Beautiful, said to me, “Keep America Beautiful is not in the cleanup business. We’re in the behavior modification business. We try to get people to stop littering, to recycle, to be better citizens.”

So Rodney and I were out of our comfort zones because no one was talking about fishing. They were talking about real problems we all face and how to solve them, an exceedingly worthwhile endeavor. What a great group of outstanding individuals! Mr. Smith and I were both very impressed and glad we went, wishing we could have attended the entire event.

Keep America Beautiful (https://www.kab.org) has local affiliates in Florida. Keep Brevard Beautiful http://keepbrevardbeautiful.org and Keep Indian River Beautiful http://www.kirb.org are two found locally. They are always looking for volunteers for their mission- “to empower individuals to take greater responsibility for community environments by involving volunteers in litter prevention, beautification, recycling, and conservation education.”

Since they work for the common good, they deserve your unwavering support. Please consider joining them. The property values you raise may be your own!

John Kumiski
www.spottedtail.com
http://www.spottedtail.com/blog
www.johnkumiski.com
www.rentafishingbuddy.com
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All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2016. All rights are reserved.

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Filed Under: Fishing Reports · Tagged: , , , ,

Water Bottles and You

March 4, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

From the REI website- “A 2007 New York Times article reported that Americans consume more than 30 billion single-serving bottles of water annually. (Wow.) The nonprofit Consumer Recycling Institute estimates at least half, and probably closer to 75%, of these bottles turn into waste. That means they wind up in landfills, get incinerated or turn into litter. (Double wow.)

Those figures do not take into account the materials (petroleum being chief among them), production costs and transportation costs associated with plastic bottles. It all provides more incentive to find a reusable water bottle to carry with you on and off the trail.”

I use reusable water bottles made of polyethylene (which I’ve had since college), copolyester (Nalgene, etc), aluminum, and stainless steel (Pura). Susan and I used to buy disposable bottles filled with mineral water. Then we installed a water filter on our kitchen sink, which is where I fill my water bottles with when I go biking, running, hiking, paddling, et cetera.

While they all work my favorite is the Pura 1.2 liter. It fits my hand well, holds plenty of water, and is completely food grade stainless steel, even the stopper. It’s a fine piece of equipment.

The main thing here, though, is that by using a reusable bottle you stop producing the trash and litter that disposable bottles so freely supply. Please, consider the advantages of the reusable bottle. Purchase a few and use them religiously.

I was going to include a comparison of the various types of reusable bottles in this blog. REI did such a fine job on their website that I just linked to their piece here.

The reusable water bottle- it reduces waste and litter. Try it, you’ll like it!

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights are reserved.

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Why Are We Such Slobs?

March 2, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'”

Genesis 1:26 ESV

We’re not doing a very good job of it.

We live on what is undeniably the finest rock in this part of the universe. The way we as a race of beings act though, you might think we had a whole bunch of planets to which we could move when we make this one uninhabitable.

We could discuss global warming, holes in the ozone, rampant uncontrolled development, suburban sprawl, overpopulation, and a host of other gritty problems with which we are not really coming to grips. But let’s discuss a problem in which every single one of us could immediately make a difference- litter.

You won’t have to look far to find some. Look on the ground at the next red light you have to stop for, and you’ll see where dozens of slob cigarette smokers have thoughtlessly emptied their ashtrays. Go down by the Econlockhatchee River and see where slob beer drinkers have thoughtlessly left their empties. Particularly galling to me as an angler, go to any shoreline and see where slob fishermen have thoughtlessly left wads of discarded line, empty bait containers, hook and lure packages, and quite often cigarette butts and empty beer cans.

Hey! Cut it out! You guys are making the rest of us look bad!

Dorn Whitmore, an administrator at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, told me that the biggest single problem the refuge faces is the litter left by people fishing from the bank there. What is the problem, folks? Why do you carry a bunch of stuff into a beautiful place and then trash it? If you can carry it in, please carry it out!

If everyone that reads this would commit to not littering, that would make a difference. If you would make it a habit to sometimes pick up litter and dispose of it properly, that would make a bigger difference. If you would organize litter pickup days, that would make an even bigger difference. And if you would write a letter to your state representative and get a bottle bill passed in this state, that might make the biggest difference of all.

Please, do it for the sake of our home, planet Earth.

John Kumiski
http://www.spottedtail.com/

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2011. All rights are reserved.

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