“Please....Don’t be a litter bug!"

No one wants to drive like there in a video game trying to avoid flying papers, fast food and gum wrappers or broken glass bottles on the road. Providing clean sidewalks for pedestrians and bikers, clean road ways for vehicles, as well as clean beaches is all up to the individuals in the community. Too many people are lazy and carefree and don’t always clean up after themselves. Unfortunately, the trash thrown out of car windows or by insensible pedestrians does not just disappear, but becomes a bigger problem. A Public health problem….

Our public health blog group chose the location right off of Fowler Ave. (exit 51),and placed our sticker on the No Littering sign. Our group chose this location because it’s right next to many tourist attractions, such as MOSI, Bush Gardens, and other theme parks… and of course USF. Ensuring a clean environment for tourists from all over the world raises the chance of them returning. Offering the best environment for potential students visiting USF by providing a clean, safe and trash free location, encourages more students to study at USF. We need our communities to look beautiful, with healthy growing palm trees, not cigarettes butts or wrappers wreaking the image. Don’t forget we, Floridians, too benefit from living in a community where littering is discouraged.

Littering poses multiple health dangers to the public, communities, and the environment. Harmful bacteria can accumulate in fast food wrappers or other trash items, cigarette butts have all sorts of chemicals in them, and can even cause fires. Broken glass can hurt a pedestrian, pop a car wheel, or endanger wildlife. Overall litter attracts parasites and bacteria, polluting our air, soil, city water, and oceans at risk.

It can also be hazardous on our roadways. For example, suppose you are driving down the high way you spot a glass bottle drifting towards you. You want to avoid hitting it, but with too many cars the road it’s impossible to redirect your car away from the glass bottle. There are two things which could occur here. The driver could either swerve to avoid it, that being their initial reaction or attempt to drive over it leaving the chance of causing an even bigger accident if it causes damage to their tire. If only the civilian, who decided to just leave their empty glass bottle on the street, would have properly disposed the can, this dangerous situation wouldn’t have occurred.

The no littering Florida Law pertains to public health because it falls into assurance as we learned in chapter one, one of the core functions of public health. Knowing that law enforcement, enforces the importance of keeping our roads trash free, and environmentally clean, shows there support in discouraging potential hazards to our ecosystem. It is important to keep our state and county as litter free as possible for healthy generations to come. The fine of about $100 dollars is quite small compared to the millions being spent on cleanup efforts due to littering. Our actions are reflected in our communities, if we like it or not. So please protect the environment and the general public, were all its’ got. Also a community who reduces litters and prevents littering likely to be a healthy and happy one! We hope this emphasizes the threat and importance of keeping Florida litter free!!!

Nadia Onatsko, Bailey Thompson, and Algery Marrero