I believe the issue of take-out litter extends beyond fast food
restaurants. Yesterday, I stopped at Marino's Deli in NE Minneapolis
(1946 Ne Johnson St.) to purchase, for take out, two sandwiches. These
sandwiches came in a paperboard box, with some liner paper and a plastic
bag. I also purchased to glass bottles of soda. After I was done eating
those sandwiches, I could have thrown the box, the paper, the bag, and
the glass bottles on the ground, instead, I disposed of them in a local
trash receptacle. Many restaurants allow for take-out ordering, not just
fast food restaurants with drive-thru windows. Also, the litter problem
goes beyond restaurants. I frequently find, blowing down my street,
plastic bags with the Target logo on them. I am usually grateful for
this type of litter because they make for a convenient litter bag, but,
nonetheless, Target stores and similar stores are sources of materials
that become litter.
If we are to place restrictions on fast food restaurants, shall we place
similar or related restrictions on any restaurant that has a take out
menu? What then of convenience stores? Or what of retailers such as
Target and Kmart? After all, they are all sources of potential litter.
I do not see the problem necessarily stemming from the behavior of the
restaurants and retailers, except in the case in which a trash
receptacle is left open and trash blows out of it. I see it stemming
from the behavior of consumers. I believe that it is individuals who are
the primary source of litter on my street. I do not care from where
these people get their "litter", but I do care that they create the
litter.
I do not see this as a problem that will ever be "solved". But I believe
that we can take steps to change the behavior of people. One possible
idea is to work with the fast food restaurants in a public awareness
campaign to encourage their customers not to litter. I recall that some
fast food restaurants use food wrappers that carry the message "Do not
litter". If every fast food restaurant used food containers that carried
the "do not litter" message, some of their customers may get the
message. Also, maybe the restaurants could place large and prominent
signs in their restaurants urging their customers to not litter. Similar
efforts could be made with any retailer that allows its customers to
carry out their purchases in bags.
I consider the idea, of eliminating drive-thrus as way to combat litter,
as flawed idea because it does not necessarily follow that a person
using a drive-thru will litter as a result of using the drive-thru.
However, I suspect that using a drive-thru may encourage a mindset that
favors convenience instead of putting forth the effort to properly
dispose of trash. My reasoning goes as such, since a person may consider
it convenient to purchase food from a drive-thru, they may also believe
that it should be convenient to dispose of the trash resulting from that
purchase. Since there generally are not a lot of conveniently located
trash receptacles, a person may decide that it is more convenient to
throw the trash out the window instead of locating a trash receptacle.
However, since I do not litter and I have not ever asked a person who
has littered why they did so, I can not really speak to their reasons
for doing so. I can only hypothesize.
BTW, Marino's Deli is a nice place to purchase to-order take-out
sandwiches and hoagies. I believe they are open to 8 PM most nights, so
if you want sandwiches for a picnic, you might want to consider Marino's
Deli.
Scott McGerik
Hawthorne
Minneapolis
http://www.visi.com/~scottlm/
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