@ss throws trash from car - what do you do?

“Over the years I have seen people throw/drop trash from their cars at least a dozen times (excluding cigarettes). Blatant stuff, like what I saw yesterday. Major intersection, a ton of cars stopped, the @ss was on the stop-line so was visible by many others (I was right behind her). She opened her door and placed a half-finished soda on the pavement and closed her door. Humorous for everyone else around her it tipped over and s-l-o-w-l-y rolled into the middle of the intersection as everyone watched.

Few things piss me off badly anymore, but that really lights me up - that there are people out there that care so little about their future and others around them that they'll just chuck their trash out the window/door.

My first desire was to get out, grab the can and chuck it back in her door. But I also didn't feel like ending up in the hospital or jail if things went badly after that point, and it goes against my morals to engage anyone physically.

But this time I did do something. Next traffic light I stopped a little left of center so I was fully visible in her side-view mirror. Honked my horn to get her attention and flipped her a big ol' bird. Ashamed to say my emotions got the best of me there, but that's what I did. I was hoping a little negative reinforcement might help her to re-think future acts like that.

And she then had the audacity to open her window, extend her arm fully and flip the bird back - long and hard - to me and the large mass of people that were stopped behind her.

D@#N selfish self-centered people! Aaaaaaaarrrgggghhh!!”

“u should have swerved at her like i did!!

would have at least made u feel better!!”

“Get a tag number and turn her in. Nothing will probaby come of it, but you never know.

That's a pet peeve of mine. In the South, folks litter like crazy. Burns me up.”

“That is a mjor irritant to me also. I don't want to end up a victim of road rage, so I generally do little more than scornfully look their way. If the police can't be bothered to enforce it, do I have much authority to do so. And if a scene erupts, and the cops are called, I'd be the instigator????

sigh......”

“It's frustrating that so people in this country are such pigs, Tech. It infuriates Mpale intensely, also, as there are times I feel like i almost have to restrain her from crawling down the hood and pouncing on the car that did it! And then they get indignant about it! Unfortunately, it shows that the person has no conscience about it and couldn't give a crap about living in filth. Then, the idea of someone confronting them gets that ridiculous contempt for the other person going, and there you have it: a potential screaming match and/or fisticuffs that will accomplish nothing for the original probelm...”

“Mpale=Mapleleaf”

“Blow your horn!”

“Damn, opening the door and placing it down shows forthought, thats even more egregious than throwing it out the window on the move, which could at least, maybe, be impulsive.”

“Oh, and I didn't mention that she was driving an SUV. Empty. Guess I won't be seing any Sierra Club stickers on her bumper, huh? Hey, maybe that is an anwer... sneak up on cars like that and plaster "I threw trash out my window" on their bumper? That might be satisfying. Make sure it is one of those "non-removable" types of stickers that are perforated all over like price stickers, that you know will take them forever to remove. Give them time to think. I'm starting to like this idea.”

“She might not have had a clue has to why you flipped her the bird.”

“Toot the horn, lean out the window and say "excuse me, you dropped something".

They won't pick it up, but it might induce shame for the next time.”

“dang, i actually agree with Violin on that one.”

“If someone in front of me throw ciggy butt out window.

I blow horn for many minutes. Basically letting the person know I don't care for his behaviour and to let them know that they are a body cavity that you sit on.

ha ha

In some states they have 800 number. Oh somethin like 800 LITTERBUG and report them.”

“I live in Alabama and we probably more trash per mile than any state in the union.One day a friend and I were riding down the road and came to a stop sign,the car in front of us was from another county, and passanger threw out some trash.The friend got out of the car ,went up and picked up the trash,tapped on the window and handed it back to the person and told them to take it back to their county if they were going to throw it out.Of course,they could have had a gun or something ,therefore,I would not recommend this action but it sure felt good to confront the person.”

“walkabout1

I condone this behaviour. Your friend do good deed. Next time tell person to go home and stay there.”

“I was walking to work one day and this guy was getting gas at the station. as I walked past I saw him throw his trash out the window. so i marched up to him and picked it up and gave it right back to him and said, sorry i think you droped this.
as i walked away i saw him throw it back out the window. so back and forth we went.
i said whatever and that i would throw it out for him.
i then went to the gas station attendent and told him he needs to be very careful of the guy in the car, he asked why?
i told him that i knew him and he just got out of jail for MURDER
the look on his face was priceless!”

“Here in Texas we have a hotline we can call and report those kinds of d1ck heads. We have one for smoking cars too.”

“I say always talk sh1t poeple get rael mad when u talk sh1t and throw some to!!!

I used to be one of those #&%!$s before I was enlightened!

ANd now when i swee trsh on the side of the road i will sto pand pick it up to try and make up for my previous errors!!

What REALLY pisses me off though is finding garbage in the forests on and off the trails!

I always end up pcking out extra trash be day hiking or backpacking!”

“I have done that. I once saw a woman throw a McDonalds cup out her window at a stop light. I was right behind her when she did this. The light turned green, I picked up the cup and followed her. At the next light down the road I got along side her and threw it back into her car and yelled at her.

People like this piss me off!”

“It's a bad problem here too and not just littering with bottles and cans, but garbage dumping just about anywhere they can get away with it. Every year it seems to get worse. Some of the blame has to go to the local government. Landfill fees are so high that people won't pay to take junk there. To avoid paying they just drive up a road and push it off a pickup truck and drive off.”

“you GO boy! (WK)”

“Wounded Knee.

I always say it better to be pissed off than pissed on.

ha ha”

“IN NEW MEX we have commercials about it!!

Any other states doing this????”

“I'd like to know how hard it is to through your McDonalds packaging out when you get home. My road is covered with the sh*t. The thing that gets me the most is that the only people that drive down my road are people that live on or near there. They drove 10 miles from McD's just so they can throw the wrapper out the car window 5 minutes from home?”

“stop and pick it up... but I like the tag idea”

“Yup, this chaps my @ss, too. When I lived in NC, there was a number to call and the offender was sent a letter saying that someone saw them throw trash from their window. It detailed the time, date and nature of the incident, but did not give the reporting person's name. I think it said something about the laws and if another report happens within one year, they would be fined. The letters would serve as a tracking mechanism with NC Dept. of Transprotation.

I've seen people with "How am I driving? Call 800-XXX-XXX" on their vehicle who litter and have called to report them littering. I don't know if it does any good, but I report it as creating a road hazard.”

“You have some big 'uns Wounded Knee, more power to you. I would have LOVED to do that. Just couldn't justify the headline "husband, father of 2 killed over Pepsi can". Hate to say it, but that would have made me 1000 times more irresponsible (towards my family) than the other person for chucking the can. You could say the same for her for killing me, but that's beside the point.

Now how much would those bumper stickers cost....”

“I think direct recourse, if you feel comfortable with it, is a good thing. I think most people who blatently litter like this have never had, or have rarely had, anyone come up and tell them it is wrong. One time a girl who lived across the street from my apt. parked her car in front of my apt. and proceeded to empty out all the garbage in her car onto the curb. After she left, I picked up all the trash, put it in a plastic grocery bag and when she returned for the eve, I tied it to her car bumper. She never cleaned her car out in front of my apt. again.

A comment like, "We have to live here, too" or "Were you raised in a barn?" or "They make trash cans, ya know" just to drive the point home might not be a bad idea as well.

There is no reason we as a society should have to tollerate this.”

“I was a little nervous doing it, but my anger got me through it.”

“My best friend saw a little old lady (grey haired, at least!) open her door while parked in a parking lot and proceed to basically unload her WHOLE carload of trash on the ground.

My friend got out of her car and walked up to the lady, pointed her finger in her face and said to her, "You should be ashamed of yourself!! I just saw you throw out all of that trash! I can't believe that at your age, you think it's acceptable behavior!! Now you pick all of that trash up right now!!"

My friend was livid!!! The lady looked VERY embarassed and my friend waited in her car and watched the lady put all the trash back inside... of course, you never know-- she might have driven away to another parking lot and done the same thing....

Point is that at her age (at least 50s or 60s) you would have thought the old lady would have been taught NOT to do such a thing. NOt that I'm making excuses for others, but a lot of kids these days haven't been taught about respect and picking up their own trash.... but you'd think an older person show know not to do something like that!

On top of that, I think my friend said the old lady was in an upscale car, too!”

“Its just incomprehensible to me that in this day of always-on media and 24-hour news that this is still a problem. People see all the news about global warming, ice caps melting, massive forest fires caused by careless humans. The cause-and-effect logic should be obvious. We do something, its going to screw up something else.

NOT getting into a debate about other environmental issues, just an example of how we aren't all ignorant out-of-touch people. What pisses me off so badly is that most of this happens out of lack of respect for others. Lack of respect for the environment. They KNOW it is littering. They know that someone else is going to have to pick it up (gee, thanks) or that it will sit there for 100 years for others to see (another thanks). People just can't say "I didn't know", even if no one ever told them. They KNOW it is wrong. They just don't care.

Of course there is a general lack of respect for others in today's society, so maybe this is just a symptom of a bigger/root problem.”

“Tech-- I totally agree with you.

IT's the lack of respect that people seem to feed off of from the media. (i.e. the number of screwed up families with bratty screaming children who don't give one ounce of respect to adults or others around them.)

Although I think that those cases are the exception to the majority of people, behavior like that on TV only makes kids think that that's the way things are supposed to be at home. In other words that disrespect is the the way to treat others....

If you made every litterbug pick up trash for a day on the side of the freeway for a week, maybe they'd get the point... and then, maybe not...”

“And if a scene erupts, and the cops are called, I'd be the instigator???? - monkeyboy

I've seen cops (both genders...don't want to blame it all on males) toss their cigarette butts out their pig mobile.

Can't really say anything....will probably get a ticket for something...and then will have to fight it in court, or pay up.”

“One Saturday morning running errands in my small town there was a blazer with four guys headed to theriver with the jet skis. They had parkedby the local hardware store, listenging to loud radio . .dumped out oa large dunkin donuts coffee cup and dropped it.


It was still there when I came out of the hardware store, so told my son to go get in our car and walked, got the passengers attention, pointed out the cup, and said he must have accidently dropped it.

I was expecting a world of #&%!$ from these four guys . . . .but he looked dumbfounded. Uh . . uh ...uh .. ..yeah, I guess I did, I'll get that.

Even walking back to my car, and driving off I still expected them to do something . . .but nothing happened.

He swung open the door, reached down and got the cup as I was getting in my car.


I felt pretty good about that . .although the adreline was pumping a little.



I see people dump stufff out cars and I want to run them into telephone poles.

A guy threw a cigarette butt out last week, and it almost flew in my open window. I wanted to kill him for just getting close.


My biggest problem is in the city in which I worked. There are a lot of urban folks waiting for buses that just drop #&%!$ everywhere.

I am NOT trying to racial profile. Every race litters; I am just much less comfortable confronting a 20 year old urban kid for tossing his Burger King wrapper than a 20 year old townie.

I have seen other,older, (women), also . . .urban . . .give dissapproving looks and clucks etc . . but the kids don't seem to respect them any . . .


That is one battle I won;t fight.

I will say that the city has a pretty good clean up force that gets a lot of it.

It is the attitude that bugs me.


Live in filth; throw your filth around . .you are filth.”

“I blame the guy who had the brainstorm to place “Put Litter in its Place” labels on public trash cans.

I mean… what was he thinking?!!

If only he’d decided upon “Put Litter in the Trash Can”, the world would be a better place today.”

“This is where you can really use a mountaineering skill.

Go to Rainier or Shasta and you will become familiar with the 'blue bag' and learn great accuracy when taking a dump.

Follow the litterer until they park and leave their vehicle.
Get a newspaper and take a dump on it. Stick it onto their windshield, with luck it will have set like a rock by the time they come back.”

“What dayhiker said. That happened to me last year. I called the cops from my cell immediately, gave a description of the car, the plates, and my name and told them I'd be more than happy to be a witness.”

“huh? what is a "blue bag"? or are you referring to the poop in the paper?”

“LOL!! good point, Violin.”

“I am an ex smoker. I never just tossed cigarettes out the window. They cause fires and create disgusting litter. I get so irritated that the news will talk about fires on the side of the freeway and never mention that a cigarette was the most likely cause. People are so clueless. They think what they do has no impact. These same people don't vote (which I guess is a good thing.)”

“if the cops don't see it happen then isn't it a case of "he said/she said"?”