This article appeared in The Philadephia Inquirer on Thursday, January 25, 2001. There are three types of litterbugs, Ruth H. Becker will tell you. There's the muncher, a sloppy offender who discards wrappers and napkins straight to the curbside. There's the stargazer, who scraps trash to the ground with eyes fixed skyward, a trick to distract onlookers. It's more than an environmental problem, it's a social problem.
Litter begets litter, and then a community suffers.
The final round will take place next week, with an announcement of the winners expected by next Thursday. And we used to see more abandoned cars. But in his five years as a judge, Carl Hursh said, he has not seen much change in litter trends. Change comes with education and community pride, said Hursh, chief of waste reduction and recycling for the state Department of Environmental Protection. And it has been through efforts that emphasize that sense of ownership that the litter campaign has seemed most successful.