The Monster: Litter By Liesel Bauer

One day I was walking on the sidewalk, when I saw a candy wrapper next to my shoe. Then I looked around and saw more wrappers, and other pieces of trash too. Plastic bags, gum, cans, cigarette butts… And I thought, Why would anyone drop that stuff on the ground? The trash can is 10 feet away. That just doesnt make sense. And it didnt make sense. The people were really lazy not to carry a candy wrapper for 10 more seconds to the trash can. And it wasnt the last time to see that type of mess. I see it everyday in NYC. No one picks it up. Not even the garbage men. Only the wind and water carry it away. These are two photos of litter in nature (left), and the city (right).

All that litter I saw that day probably will stay there on the ground for a long time. Litter lasts for all different amounts of time. Newspaper lasts 2-4 weeks, a banana peel lasts 3-5 weeks, a cigarette butt lasts 2-5 years, a tin can lasts years, a plastic bag lasts over 500 years, a plastic bottle lasts over 1,000 years, and a glass bottle lasts for as far as scientist know, forever, according to And an aluminum can lasts years, according to So if you threw a glass bottle on the street the other day, think about what you have done. You have given the earth another piece of trash that will stay there forever until something cleans it up. And it will look horrible until then. More litter that looks horrible.

All that litter will build up. People clean up after you when you litter. I know it doesnt sound that bad, but it is. People clean up your mess that you were too lazy to carry to the trash can. The U.S.A. spends $11 billion ($1,000,000,000) annually to clean our litter up. That's a lot of money that the U.S.A. is spending to clean up litter that could have been prevented. A survey that I made showed that 15 of 24 fifth graders say that they see more than 20 pieces of litter per day. That is 15 people too many because that is too much litter to see each day. In this photo there is more than ten pieces of litter. You are probably looking mostly at the can, but theres more all around it.

Litter also poisons the environment. Any animal that is hungry can pick it and eat it as a yummy snack. And they could die from that litter that was thrown out of the car window. Also, as it slowly turns to dust and dirt, it leaks chemicals into the environment. That could kill sea life, plants, animals, and poison the dirt. As you can see, litter is a murderer of many, too many things. At any time a hungry animal can walk past this litter and eat it and possibly die from it. This tin foil does not belong next to the grass. It belongs in the trash.

Of all litter, cigarette butts are the worst. They take up more than ¼ of all litter nationally, according to the article by the New York Times called Cigarette Butts: The Tiny Trash That Piles Up. They also said that when they get into ocean, lakes, and rivers, cigarette butts release toxic chemicals including nicotine, benzene, and cadmium. Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world, with 4.5 trillion discarded annually, according to Also, in my survey,17 out of 24 fifth graders say they see more than 20 cigarette butts each day. There are some boxes around NYC to put your cigarette butts in. I don't know why people don't use them. As you can see, these are all cigarette butts except the cigarette- box (right) where you put cigarette butts in. Cigarette Butts

On the left, there is a photo of the recycling bins in my building. On the right, there is a photo of the recycling machines at the grocery store. Every time you put a can or bottle in the machine, you get 5 cents. Also, not littering and recycling could save you money. The U.S.A. can fine you up to $500 if someone catches you littering. Also, if you go to your grocery store, you will see machines that say cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles. Every time you put a can or bottle into a machine, you can get 5 cents. Sure, it's not much, but it's better than nothing or a ticket. I've gone there a bunch times. And so should you. Recycling

Also, reusing is great for the environment and money saving. You can cut a coke bottle in half, and drill a hole in the cap for a wicking string to go through, and put dirt in the top half and water in the bottom half. Then you make a little hole in the dirt and then put your seeds or little plant in the hole and just like that, you made a no-cost- Coke-bottle-self-watering-planter. It would have cost way more if you had bought one. The bottle you had before could have been litter. This is a photo of the self-watering planter. Reusing

These are two photos of reusable water bottles. Using them will help reduce the amount of litter and plastic used in the world. And, reducing is also great for the same reasons. You can use a metal, reusable bottle instead of a bunch of plastic bottles. Those plastic bottles also could have been trash or litter, but now you wouldn't even have something that you can't reuse and would throw on the street. And you wouldnt have to keep buying water bottles, youll just use the same one over and over. Reducing

This is just one of the many trash cans on the sidewalk in NYC. Throw your trash in there, not on the street. As you can see from all these reasons, littering clearly doesn't make sense. If you can't reuse, reduce, or recycle, at least throw your trash in a trash can. If you are still too lazy to keep the trash in the trash can, litter in your own house. But whatever you do, don't litter.