Different kinds of policemen do different kind of work. Some of them chase killers. Some of them regulate traffic. Some of them investigate computer or economic crime. They are not replaceable. So if some policemen are sent to punish littering, of course you don’t pick them from those who chase killers or investigate computer crimes. That would be a waste. But there are others. Or you hire new policemen, very cheap ones, for this task specifically. And you don’t need a lot of them. For example I would use a very small team, patrolling every few days in a different part of the city. They would make an impression, and then go elsewhere.
Also it is not “either—or” situation. You can put many rubbish bins and legislate a high fine. Actually, it would be very good to do both things at the same time; more people would notice. And the rubbish bins which stay there would remind people of the fines even after the policemen are gone.
(In my experience—but I don’t want to generalize too much from one country or maybe only one city—a typical failure mode is to legislate fines for something, and then not send the policemen to actually fine people. When people complain for a few years, increase the fine, but again, not send any policement. So even if the fines are sometimes high, nobody really cares, because nobody ever heard about anyone paying the fine. Again, this may be specific for my city or country.)
One advantage of fines: if the problem gets serious, you automatically get more money to fight it.
there will probably be a few people who enjoy littering out of malice, but I believe that most people litter simply because they are too lazy to carry their trash with them if there are no rubbish bins within proximity.
There is also an important category of people who litter if and only if they see other people doing it, regardless of convenience. How big this category actually is, I don’t know. They would not litter out of malice, but simply because they see other people doing it, therefore it is no big deal. Even if you had a rubbish bin every meter, for some people even walking half meter would be too much if they see that it is not necessary, because other people ignore it.
However, if you have a homogenous city, the best thing to do would be a scientific experiment.
There is also an important category of people who litter if and only if they see other people doing it, regardless of convenience. How big this category actually is, I don’t know. They would not litter out of malice, but simply because they see other people doing it, therefore it is no big deal.
Even without seeing people littering—throwing some trash onto an already littered street would be seen as less of a big deal than throwing the same onto a previously very clean street, I’d guess.
Different kinds of policemen do different kind of work. Some of them chase killers. Some of them regulate traffic. Some of them investigate computer or economic crime. They are not replaceable. So if some policemen are sent to punish littering, of course you don’t pick them from those who chase killers or investigate computer crimes. That would be a waste. But there are others. Or you hire new policemen, very cheap ones, for this task specifically. And you don’t need a lot of them. For example I would use a very small team, patrolling every few days in a different part of the city. They would make an impression, and then go elsewhere.
Also it is not “either—or” situation. You can put many rubbish bins and legislate a high fine. Actually, it would be very good to do both things at the same time; more people would notice. And the rubbish bins which stay there would remind people of the fines even after the policemen are gone.
(In my experience—but I don’t want to generalize too much from one country or maybe only one city—a typical failure mode is to legislate fines for something, and then not send the policemen to actually fine people. When people complain for a few years, increase the fine, but again, not send any policement. So even if the fines are sometimes high, nobody really cares, because nobody ever heard about anyone paying the fine. Again, this may be specific for my city or country.)
One advantage of fines: if the problem gets serious, you automatically get more money to fight it.
There is also an important category of people who litter if and only if they see other people doing it, regardless of convenience. How big this category actually is, I don’t know. They would not litter out of malice, but simply because they see other people doing it, therefore it is no big deal. Even if you had a rubbish bin every meter, for some people even walking half meter would be too much if they see that it is not necessary, because other people ignore it.
However, if you have a homogenous city, the best thing to do would be a scientific experiment.
Even without seeing people littering—throwing some trash onto an already littered street would be seen as less of a big deal than throwing the same onto a previously very clean street, I’d guess.