When you see someone drop litter, what do you do?

ask them if that is their personal garbage bucket.and you can pick it up and give it back to them and say thank you.

It depends on the enviorment. If I'm in Brooklyn NY, and someone drops litter 5 feet from 30lbs of trash, there is hardly any point in picking one item up and leaving the remaining 30lbs. However, if I'm in a clean park and see one litter, than I may very well pick it up.

When im out with my partners 4 year old i make a blatent example of the person dropping the litter by tutting loudly and saying lets go pick up the litter after that litterbug and put it in the proper place (the nearest bin) ive done this a few times now and the look of guilt on their face is normally a classic...

i congratulate them.

I say excuse me have you just dropped a £50 note, they panic and take a look and usually say er no looking dead embarrass for been so stupid, so I say well der obviously cause you wouldn't drop £50 on the floor and walk away would you so pick your rubbish up before it costs you the amount to pay a fine for littering the streets.

Sometime i say something. Sometimes i just give a dirty look, sometimes i will kiss my teeth. My pockets feel like those of 6-year old because i don't drop litter. Only exception is i will throw easily degradable stuff like fruit skins and half eaten apples or squashed pears under some bushes and that feeds the local wildlife at night i hope.

In my neighborhood, it's probably best not to confront people! I have occasionally said "Oops! You dropped this." but I've gotten some really scary looks and responses, so now I just pick it up. Actually, as the neighborhood gets worse, the litter gets worse and I don't even pick it up that much any more. There are ten pieces just like it on the curb anyway. I have, however, called the city about commercial dumpsters overflowing onto the sidewalk, but it hasn't done much good. Time to move, I guess. EDIT****************** To PJ, Yes, in most places it is illegal! And for damned good reason. The litter ends up in the storm drains; from there it winds up in the waterways, killing fish and birds. If it clogs the storm drains, it causes local flooding. I saw a duck which had gotten tangled in a plastic 6-pack can holder. As it grew, the plastic deformed it around its middle, then it died. And that's just the one I happened to see. It isn't any more trivial than the canaries in the mines.

If we all put our litter in the bins, what would the street cleaners do for a living after they are all made redundant? Get another job yes but in the mean time, the unemployed figures would go up and there would be more people claiming unemployment benefit/housing benefit etc etc. So instead of contributing to the economy via paying taxes they would be taking from it in the form of hand-outs! Basic economics really. Now don't get me wrong, I hate litter strewn around the place so I'm just trying to play devils advocate. I think street cleaners do a valuable job and I for one don't wish to see them all be made redundant.

Mind my own business!