EarthDay 2021: Smokers, Construct Workers prone to Area Littering

By STEVE SPACEK Wednesday April 21, 2021

Cigarette Smokers and those working in Building Construction are the largest, most inclined groups within Philadelphia County and in some highly urban areas of New Jersey, to litter solid wastes onto public spaces (sidewalks, streets, parks, waterways) . Wastes capable of breeding viruses, damaging landscapes and taking away human lives on a daily basis. This information comes as Thursday’s 51st Earth Day is celebrated during the Covid-19 outbreak, said Steve Spacek, director of the American State Litter Scorecard and a public performance specialist.

Observations by psychologist Francis McAndrew and journalist Alan Bisbort, and findings from over four decades of US state litter studies have gleaned consistent, prominent litterer clusters marked by an engaged activity, by occupational employment or by age generation. These clusters are known in research findings as Profiled Litterers—persons most prone or willing to litter solid waste, anywhere, anytime.

Cigarette Smokers provide the number one solid waste thrown onto public spaces in America: filters (“butts”). Building Construction and Groundskeeper Employees litter much more textiles, wood boards, sheetrock, electrical wiring, scrap metal and windowpanes than others litterers do when discarding waste. "Other" prone-to-littering clusters include the age 16-25 Generation Z demographic and devotees of Fast Food. But research data from the US Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Insider and Construction Drive have found younger persons and fast foodies have a smaller population presence in the PHL region and New Jersey as do smokers and the mentioned blue-collar workers.

Last year, Philadelphia made the Scorecard's “U.S. 15 Biggest Most Littered Cities" list. The City of Brotherly Love was noted for widespread, visible waste litter; for a big death rate from vehicle and pedestrian incidents with unremoved litter; for being a Centers for Disease Control 'hotbed" of uber-high Covid -19 cases and deaths. In 2018, both Pennsylvania and New Jersey made a “Ten Most Litter Polluted States” list, both cited for troubling volumes of unabated waste litter along pubic roads and other transportation routes. The list also recognized the Keystone State's stellar death count from vehicle crashes involving waste litter and debris; total statewide deaths exceeded only by Texas, California and Florida.