Littering in Coppell
By: Alyssa Hoppie and Jami Hostettler
Cause and Effect on Community
Cause:
-If an area is already unkempt or dirty, it doesn't feel like you are doing much damage by throwing a piece of garbage into it.
-There are not many trash cans or recycling bins for people to throw away their trash so many people just leave it on the ground.
-Many people are under the impression that their litter won't make a difference, whether they throw it in a trash can or not.
- Many people think that if you do litter, you won't get in trouble, no one will catch you, or care.
Effect:
-If trash and wastes are not properly disposed of it can create danger to public health and welfare.-If one person litters, others may think it's okay to litter as well.
-Littering can also harm wildlife.
-Littering makes the environment less clean and contributes to water pollution.
Why is it happening in Coppell?
Almost a third of Coppell's population is composed of children under the age of eighteen, and a fifth is of the population is the average parental or child bearing age. All of this information is according to demographics from February of 2014. This information backs up the idea of this town being a family community. This is significant because children tend to act without thinking and fail to realize the consequences of their actions. Littering is one of the main things that children do with or without realizing it. We believe if we present the information the children need to make responsible decisions before they're old enough to realize that littering is wrong, much of the problem will go away.
Policies and Organizations
Policies:
These laws are from the Anti-Litter Regulations Department of Code Compliance
Section 7A-3:
Throwing Or Depositing Litter In Public Places
-"No person shall throw or deposit litter in or upon any street, sidewalk or other public place within the city, except in public receptacles, in authorized private receptacles for collection, or in official city dumps. Persons placing litter in public receptacles or in authorized private receptacles shall do so in such a manner as to prevent it from being carried or deposited by the elements upon any street, sidewalk or other public place upon private property."
Section 7A-17:
Throwing Or Depositing Litter On Private Premises
-"A person commits an offense if he throws or deposits litter on any occupied private premises within the city, or in/on any gutter, parkway, sidewalk or alley adjacent to private premises; whether owned by the person or not."
Section 7A-5:
Sweeping Litter
-"No person shall sweep into or deposit in any gutter, street or other public place within the city the accumulation of litter from any building or lot or from or from any public or private sidewalk or driveway. Persons owning or occupying property shall keep the sidewalk in from of their premises free of litter! including businesses."
Section 7A-6:
Duty of Contractors
-" A person doing construction work within the city shall at all times keep the sidewalk, street, alley, and public or private property abutting the construction site free of construction trash, litter, and debris."
Section 7A-8,9:
Litter in Parks
-"No person shall throw or deposit litter in any park, fountain, pond, lake, stream, bay or any other body of water in a public place. Litter may be left securely in a public receptacle. Where public receptacles are not provided, all litter should be carried away from the park by the person responsible for its presence."
Organizations:
Coppell has an abundance of programs and events whose purposes are to rid the town of litter and keep it looking nice
-Keep Coppell Beautiful
Keep Coppell Beautiful is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful. Keep Coppell Beautiful is an organization dedicated to involving individuals and businesses throughout the community to promote education and activities that encourage waste reduction, litter prevention, beautification and environmental sustainability. This organization works closely with the Coppell Community Garden.
-Coppell Community Garden
This organization provides community gardens, a farmers market, and education about the environment. Volunteers in the community grow and donate organic produce for those in need, providing a farmers market with locally grown food.
-Adopt-A-Plot-
This organization lets individuals of the community adopt a raised garden bed. The gardeners provide labor by nurturing the plants to have a successful garden. Between the two garden, there is a total of 100 plots.
-Don't mess with Texas
Don't mess with Texas is an organization started in 1986 as a state wide advertisement campaign to encourage people to stop littering. This campaign reduced littering up to 72 percent.
Solutions
-Another cheap and easy solution would be to put up signs in parks, the side of the road and in neighborhoods to inspire people to stop littering and ensure a better future for Coppell.
-We can also just go around Coppell picking up litter for a better and cleaner environment.
-We can teach children at a young age that littering is bad and that keeping the environment clean is very important.
Pros and Cons
-All three options are affordable and provides a fairly easy way to encourage people to stop littering.
-If we can show people the importance of keeping their city clean, it will be one of the most important yet easiest changes that comes about.
Cons:
-Although trash cans are fairly cheap, it might take more money for the city garbage men to pick up the trash from all the from each trash can.
-People might ignore the the signs that are put up and unless we are constantly picking up trash, it will not make much of a difference.
Proposal
Evaluation
Bibliography
City of Coppell. "Keep Coppell Beautiful." Keep Coppell Beautiful. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://coppelltx.gov/about-coppell/keep-coppell-beautiful.html>.
City of Coppell. "Community Gardens." Community Gardens. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2014. <http://coppelltx.c2crm.com/about-coppell/community-gardens>.
"Demographics." Demographics. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. <http://coppelltx.gov/new-resident/demographics.html>.