Forum: Littering seems to be on rise; let’s become ‘Litter Gitters’
Published 1:30 am Saturday, March 7, 2026
By Edie Everette / Herald Forum
Recently I moved from a place with zero litter to an area where folks blithely drop triangular, single-slice pizza cartons while walking home from the convenience store. I even watched a neighbor emerge from his car, finish drinking a half-gallon of milk, throw the empty carton into the center of his apartment building’s driveway then walk straight into his apartment.
Since the entire thing bamboozles me, of course I turned to the internet. “Why do people litter?” I asked. The answers are convenience, laziness, lack of personal responsibility, the belief that others will pick it up, and a lack of awareness regarding environmental consequences.
Blah, blah, blah.
When I was a kid in the ’70s, environmental concerns were a big deal culturally. Joni Mitchell kicked off that decade with “Big Yellow Taxi,” a song describing paradise being paved over for a parking lot. In grade school I won a poster contest whose theme was conservation, plus I owned a pair of Earth Shoes whose heels were lower than the toes. Back then, car litter bags that hung from dashboard knobs or gearshifts were popular. The bag in our family car was vinyl and only about 9 by 12 inches in size; hardly large enough for today’s Big Gulp or to-go coffee cups, let alone a pizza carton. But at least it was there.
On Earth Day in 1971 a public service a featuring Native American actor Chief Iron Eyes Cody aired for the first time. The actor achieved lasting fame as “The Crying Indian” because in the commercial a bag of trash is thrown from a moving car, exploding at the feet of the actor who is dressed in Native American regalia. As the camera pans up, we see a tear running down Cody’s stoic face. The ad won two Clio awards.
Since beginning my new pick-up activity, I have seen two other people in my town doing the same thing. They are both older, like me, and have advanced to picking up litter using a tool with a handle, pole and trigger activated gripper. Terms for this implement include Litter Picker, Reacher Grabber, Nifty Nabber, Trash Claw and Pickup Stick. I daydream about designing a shoulder bag that holds a plastic trash bag inside and calling it the Litter Gitter with the tag line Litter is My Bag!
For me, litter visually represents a mindset of, “Nothing matters”; a philosophy I cannot emotionally tolerate. My mind has enough trouble as it is. Picking up trash can act like pressing the “undo” arrow button on a computer program: it literally undoes or erases both the proof and the intent of the dropped item.
Even really cool people have gotten into the habit. Writer David Sedaris is obsessed with picking up litter and spends hours collecting trash around his home in West Sussex, England. A local garbage truck was even named after him. He has stated that picking up trash makes the world a better place and keeps him humble. He described it as a “small act of resistance.”
Edie Everette is an artist and writer living in Snohomish County.
