Australia seems to have cracked training people not to litter. When they removed bins from train stations in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics (so terrorists couldn’t threaten to put bombs in them), people were outraged, because they’d have nowhere to put rubbish. And multiple Australians I know have observed you can always tell the fresh Australian in the middle of London: they’re the ones carrying a piece of litter for miles, desperately looking for a proper bin to put it in.
(I note also the Australian anti-littering campaign is “Keep Australia Beautiful”, while the UK one is “Keep Britain Tidy.”)
So, yeah: give Korea lots of bins, public service advertisements suggesting it’s just not the proper thing to do, propagandise the children. Worked for us. Oh, compulsory deposit on all cans and bottles (minimum currency unit, 5 cents; now 10 cents) does spookily well in South Australia and Northern Territory and I’m surprised the other states never adopted it.
Generalising to other small vices, a combination of incentives and propaganda.
Same thing in the US back in the 70s. There was a public awareness campaign about littering. Once upon a time, the window of your car was the opening to a big trash bin—roll down the window, and throw shit out. The public campaign really worked and changed that attitude.
You have to change attitudes. There will never be enough bins if people just don’t care. The ground is always closer and easier to find than a bin.
EDIT: Shame on me. It wasn’t a government program at all. It was a non profit started by evil corporations in 1953, among them the Great Satan, Phillip Morris. The iconic ad campaign was started in the 70s:
On Earth Day 1971, a new campaign was launched with the theme “People Start Pollution. People can stop it” featuring the now iconic “Crying Indian” played by Iron Eyes Cody.
Notice the identical slogan to “Keep Australia Beautiful”. The Brits should have stuck with the franchise. “Keep Britain Tidy”. Sounds like grandma scolding the neighborhood kids.
“Don’t Mess With Texas” seems to have been pretty successful as anti-littering slogans go … maybe too successful, seeing as it is often not recognized as being about littering at all.
You have to change attitudes. There will never be enough bins if people just don’t care. The ground is always closer and easier to find than a bin.
Indeed. It was decades ago, but I’ll never forget that man I once saw dropping his plastic cup right on the ground, while he was leaning against a streetlamp that had a bin attached.
Australia seems to have cracked training people not to litter.
Having visited downtown Sydney for New Year’s Eve 2011, I’m sort of shocked to hear someone claim this. Sydney was definitely subpar compared to my home towns (Seattle, WA and Portland, OR, both in the USA), and I was shocked how few rubbish bins there were. It genuinely bothered me a few times to be in such a gorgeous city and see it marred by litter.
The problem did seem localized to downtown—I didn’t see much of any litter out in the suburbs. I was down there for a couple weeks (Christmas through to ~7th January), so it wasn’t just the New Year’s messes I saw (and that mess was still worse than I’d expect from a similar event in Seattle)
Australia seems to have cracked training people not to litter. When they removed bins from train stations in Sydney for the 2000 Olympics (so terrorists couldn’t threaten to put bombs in them), people were outraged, because they’d have nowhere to put rubbish. And multiple Australians I know have observed you can always tell the fresh Australian in the middle of London: they’re the ones carrying a piece of litter for miles, desperately looking for a proper bin to put it in.
(I note also the Australian anti-littering campaign is “Keep Australia Beautiful”, while the UK one is “Keep Britain Tidy.”)
So, yeah: give Korea lots of bins, public service advertisements suggesting it’s just not the proper thing to do, propagandise the children. Worked for us. Oh, compulsory deposit on all cans and bottles (minimum currency unit, 5 cents; now 10 cents) does spookily well in South Australia and Northern Territory and I’m surprised the other states never adopted it.
Generalising to other small vices, a combination of incentives and propaganda.
Same thing in the US back in the 70s. There was a public awareness campaign about littering. Once upon a time, the window of your car was the opening to a big trash bin—roll down the window, and throw shit out. The public campaign really worked and changed that attitude.
You have to change attitudes. There will never be enough bins if people just don’t care. The ground is always closer and easier to find than a bin.
EDIT: Shame on me. It wasn’t a government program at all. It was a non profit started by evil corporations in 1953, among them the Great Satan, Phillip Morris. The iconic ad campaign was started in the 70s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_America_Beautiful
Notice the identical slogan to “Keep Australia Beautiful”. The Brits should have stuck with the franchise. “Keep Britain Tidy”. Sounds like grandma scolding the neighborhood kids.
“Don’t Mess With Texas” seems to have been pretty successful as anti-littering slogans go … maybe too successful, seeing as it is often not recognized as being about littering at all.
Well, within limits. I’ve worked volunteer cleanup for roadside parks...
Indeed. It was decades ago, but I’ll never forget that man I once saw dropping his plastic cup right on the ground, while he was leaning against a streetlamp that had a bin attached.
Having visited downtown Sydney for New Year’s Eve 2011, I’m sort of shocked to hear someone claim this. Sydney was definitely subpar compared to my home towns (Seattle, WA and Portland, OR, both in the USA), and I was shocked how few rubbish bins there were. It genuinely bothered me a few times to be in such a gorgeous city and see it marred by litter.
The problem did seem localized to downtown—I didn’t see much of any litter out in the suburbs. I was down there for a couple weeks (Christmas through to ~7th January), so it wasn’t just the New Year’s messes I saw (and that mess was still worse than I’d expect from a similar event in Seattle)