Ajitha Times
The largest category of litter is tobacco products, with a percentage of 38, regardless of size. Fifty-one billion pieces of trash are littered each year. The cost of the clean-up results in about eleven billion US dollars annually! Every year, the United States is wasting precious money to clean up the messes of other people. Littering is also very obstructive to the environment. Plastic blocks sunlight and oxygen from splaying the ground, and chemicals in manufacturing materials can contaminate the soil and its derivatives, which includes us. Keep America Beautiful, or KAB, is an anti-littering organization that researches current litter issues and surveys many individuals for their opinions on America’s streets and highways (involving litter). Over the years, littering has developed into a national crisis that the USA has to seriously evaluate.
Due to the growing amount of litter and trash, Virginia is negatively changing from a beautiful to an unhealthy state. Sometimes people don’t realize that they are littering because in their minds they don’t regard littering as an offense or issue. Oil spills are also a form of littering, except with crude oil that can taint the ocean or the plants that grow from the oil stained soil. Littering tends to occur around fast food restaurants with an outside eating area. After eating, many people just attempt to throw their trash into the trash can, and if they miss, they just leave it there and hope the wind blows it to a safe place. The carelessness of many people can be put to blame for all types of littering. Littering is a major issue in Virginia and should be taken into immediate action.