Why are people littering so much? In Oakland there is a lot of trash in the streets and in public places due to people littering a lot. Littering is when people decide to throw trash outside and not in a trash can. People litter in Oakland because they are simply lazy, and they think it’s socially acceptable.
People in Oakland litter because they are simply lazy to throw away something. This is true because people are illegally dumping and not throwing their trash in a public trash can. To begin, in an interview with Kristen Esquivel, a Oakland resident and student, she was explaining why people don’t throw away their trash properly. She commented,”People get used to people not cleaning up and so they’re like “alright they’re (the public) not cleaning up so let’s just not do it”…since they get use to it, they’re too lazy to throw away their trash”(Esquivel). She believes that people follow what other people do in not throwing away their trash. People don’t care or don’t think before they do because they are more focused on the hassle of having to carry it around until they find a public trash can since that is what they see other people do. This matters because this is one of the biggest reasons why people litter and why there’s a bunch of trash in the streets. Secondly, in the article “What you can do to take on Illegal Dumping” which comes from a City of Oakland California website, it explained the problem of illegal dumping. The City of Oakland California website informed,“Oakland Public Works crews cleaned up approximately 29,000 piles of illegal dumping in 2016–every single pile that was reported, and many more that crews found on their own! This is a 100-percent increase from what City crews were picking up five years ago”(City of Oakland California). This quote is saying that there’s a lot of people illegally dumping in Oakland. When the city says the words “100-percent increase” they mean that the percentage of people illegally dumping has increased by a lot. This matters because people are being lazy and not making an endeavor to find information on where to properly dispose of trash. Instead people are dumping their trash wherever they want.
People are littering in Oakland because they think it’s socially acceptable to litter. This is true because of the amount of trash there is and they see other people doing it. To start off, in an interview with Aleah Fajardo, an Oakland resident and after school teacher, she was explaining how she thinks people don’t care which is leading others to not care about the littering problem that we have. Fajardo points about, “I think, to me, it’s just a reflection of the city government, cause it’s like if the city government doesn’t care then why would they expect other people to care and I feel like I’ve heard that argument a lot”(Fajardo). She thinks that the government doesn’t care about people littering so other people also don’t care. This matters because the people that have power also don’t want to do anything towards the littering problem we have in Oakland so that would make other people not care and/or think it’s acceptable to litter. In the article “Street Trash washed into Lake Merritt, Oakland CA November, 2018” by Richard James he was explaining his studies on the first big rain Oakland had, which caused trash to be washed into Lake Merritt. James added,”The rain rinses the smog, plastic, cigarette butts, urine, oil, feces and all manner of other items off the streets of our cities into creeks, rivers, storm drains and eventually the ocean” (James). This quote and the picture on the left is showing that there was a lot of trash that had gone into Lake Merritt. This matters because it shows that there’s a lot of trash that people throw. Since there’s a lot of people seeing people who litter they think it’s ok to litter as well. When people see a lot of trash they would throw something on the ground because they think how much damage can a small piece of trash do. As more people think that the more trash there is going to be.
However, some may argue that people in Oakland might want to do something and do care about the littering, but it’s not their biggest priority. Some people might want to prioritize other issues that Oakland is struggling with like poverty, violence, or something else. A solution may be to bring more awareness to the public to show that littering is a big problem that our city is struggling with.
In conclusion, people litter in Oakland because they’re lazy to throw away their trash and people think it’s ok to throw away their trash onto the streets. Oakland isn’t going to get better and cleaner if more and more people start to litter
Work Cited
“City of Oakland California.” Rent & Income Limits | Housing Policy, Planning and Research | City of Oakland | California, www2.oaklandnet.com/government/o/PWA/o/FE/s/IDR/index.htm.
This article is explaining how we can take care of and informing us of Oakland’s illegal dumping issue. This source is credible because it provides data on the illegal dumping in Oakland.
Esquivel, Kristen. “Littering Interview.” 12 Dec. 2018. I interviewed Kristen Esquivel about the littering that happens in Oakland.
I chose to interview her because she’s a student and resident here in Oakland. Everyday she walks to school and experiences the littering that happen on the streets.
Fajardo, Aleah. “Littering Interview.” 11 Dec. 2018. I interviewed Aleah Fajardo about the littering that happens in Oakland.
I chose to interview her because she lives here in Oakland and she’s an after school teacher so this means that she has first hand experience about how Oakland looks like.
James, Richard. “Street Trash Washed into Lake Merritt, Oakland CA 21 November, 2018.” The Coastodian, 21 Nov. 2018, coastodian.org/street-trash-washed-into-lake-merritt-oakland-ca-21-november-2018/.
The article is explaining how the first rain of this year brought out a lot of trash into Lake Merritt. This source is credible because they have images showing proof that what they are saying is true.
Littering in Oakland by Jessica is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Hello Jessica!
Thank you for sharing your insight on the littering epidemic in Oakland. While reading your post I noticed your interviewees and the overall tone of your paper seemed to blame the government more than the litter-bug residents. Some questions that came up as I was reading were- Why is the government completely at blame? If I am correct, there are public trash bins and public sanitary workers that clean the streets. These services are provided and paid for by the government; I would consider this an attempt to reduce litter in the city. Also, have you considered the rapidly increasing homeless problem as a contributing factor to the litter issue? Just a few thoughts to consider, thank you!
-Mia B #SJSU
Jessica, thank you for sharing your viewpoint on this urgent matter in our society. I thought you made some very good points about how littering is becoming socially acceptable and why people think it’s okay to do this. I also thought the interviews in your piece of writing were used very well to support your point. Do you think it is the government’s fault that littering is so socially acceptable? If so, what would you have them to do change this? Similarly, do you think that the situation is especially bad in Oakland, or do you believe this to be a problem on a much broader spectrum? The only critique I have is maybe give a little more insight into why people tend to think like those around them. This is known as group think. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/groupthink I have attached a link above. Maybe you could include this in your reasoning. Overall you did a really good job. Let me know what you think of the link!
The interviews and articles you cited made your blog post much more validated. To make a claim like “people are lazy” is one thing. However, you supported your claim well with justifying with civilian testimonies, plus citing statistics from the City of Oakland California website. You made a very convincing case.
While I was reading, you linked the fault of littering between the people and the Oakland government. While both are surely to blame, I’d like to ask:
Whose responsibility is to to clean up the litter? Whose responsibility is it to stop littering from continuing, to spread public information about the dangers of littering?
When I read your article, I thought when the Government was shut down recently. Because government officials weren’t working or being paid, no one was cleaning National Parks; thus, pictures are all over the internet of parks being over-run with garbage littering our beautiful nature sites. The parks weren’t cleaned due to the government shut down; yet, because these sites are for public use and are intended to be preserved for such, shouldn’t people also be responsible for this?
To stop the issue, who should be taking the first step: the government or the people? Government can fund and circulate projects to stop this. On the other hand, people are more personable and can start campaigns to get others more involved and knowledgeable as well.
I’d love to hear (read?) your thoughts on this and what should be done.
Dear Jessica
I am impressed by your post tirar basura en oakland ,’’ porque… la gente es perezosa porque no tira la basura en un bote de basura y descarga la basura ilegalmente en lugares en los que no debería que afecta a oakland poco a poco una frase que usted escribió que es destaca para mi es 29,000 vertidas de basura en un año que es preocupante porque… la gente que hoy en dia es consciente del daño que causa al mundo y de afectara a futuro gracias. Por tu escritura. Espero ver lo que escribes a continuación, porque… tu información sobre la basura me parece un tema el cual se debe de tomar mas enserio de mucha preocupacion
Thank you so much for reading my blog. The part of your comment that stood out to me was, “la gente que hoy en dia es consciente del daño que causa al mundo y de afectara a futuro”. A question I have for you is whatever community you live do you see this problem happening as well? I look forward to hearing back!