Wander through your nearest town early in the dawn and you’ll encounter various sweepers moving slowly around cleaning up the rubbish left from all the partying of last night. It’s an emblematic early morning setting, especially the beeping noise! We don’t often give rubbish a consideration as we assume it will all be tidied up for us.

Nevertheless, there is a sometimes imperceptible yet important impact litter plays on human psychology. One is more liable to think a location is less well policed if rubbish is lying around, and thus criminals see rubbish as a possible indication for a chance of a mugging or robbery. The same signal creates some concern in other individuals who are concerned they may be wandering through a more unsafe area and are wary of being assaulted.

Not only that, but also the influence on the visual appeal of an area. Litter lying about can give the visual aspect of an area looking run down even though it’s just been “abused” by party revellers from the previous night. This can damage the reputation of a neighbourhood if individuals are only within the area for this particular time and only find it in its littered state.

Prevention is always better than cure when it comes to litter. There’s absolutely no reason to drop litter if there are empty litter bins within the location. If there is a lack of rubbish bins, or the litter bins that are there are brimming, this is a problem to take up with the local council. Trashing an area has a damaging impact on everybody.