Littering Laws: Unenforced and Ignored in Toronto

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In 2014, the number of tickets handed out by City of Toronto officials for littering was zero, despite the fact that the City of Toronto has a bylaw that bans littering across the city. As a Torontonian, I have seen countless signs in public places, such as parks and along major roadways, that state that littering is not allowed, and a hefty fine is associated with it. For what seems like such a trivial task, though, there are always cigarette butts or coffee cups, among many other articles, that lie discarded on the ground as a result of people who did not take it upon themselves to dispose of their trash properly. This is an example showing how, even with laws that prohibit the act of littering, it remains a prominent issue that we must face. …show more content…

According to Statistic Brain, about 75% of people admitting to having littered within the last five years. In fact, the average number of paces that a person will hold a piece of trash before littering is a measly 12 paces, with up to 50% of all litter composing of discarded cigarette butts. These statistics show that this “trivial” issue is far more prevalent than one would think. This “trivial” issue is a cause of many reasons for us, as citizens on this planet, to start paying attention, and to deal with this problem before it balloons to the point where we cannot deal with anymore. Littering causes many adverse effects to the environment and to our daily lives, in being hazardous to wildlife, taking away from the local environment, and causing many ill effects on people and

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