Litter

Something profound happened today on my run as I was finishing. Okay, it really wasn't that profound but it definitely made me think. As I was running on the side of the street, a man was walking towards me on the grass on the side of the road. He was drinking something out of a bottle. All of a sudden, in one motion, he removed the bottle from his lips, moved his arm from his mouth to his side, and flung the bottle behind him. Then he just kept on walking like nothing happened. In case you were wondering, the drink looked to be pink. Anyway, I was so surprised upon seeing this. My first thought was that this would not have happened if there was a trash can nearby. Or would it? I then noticed the litter all around. Is that how people litter? Nonchalantly and on purpose? Or do people, by accident, drop a bottle or piece of paper and not notice? Litter might be like the Broken Window Theory, which gathers momentum as soon as the first window is broken. By stopping one act of litter and preventing more from happening, could we improve the neighborhood? I don't know; I'm not a sociologist. But I do think that it would help.