Littering in the Northeast of England

This chapter reports on a study the authors conducted at four different sites in the Northeast of England in the summer of 2016 to explore the nexus of personal wellbeing linked to the environment and to anti-social behaviour. In particular, the authors sought to answer: (1) What is the nature and extent of litter at four observation sites (e.g., lone or group littering)? (2) What are the demographics of litterers (e.g., gender, estimated age)? and (3) Does sense of ownership of space (e.g., resident or visitor) affect whether a person litters? The authors begin by distinguishing ‘fly-tipping’ and ‘littering’, and then turn to a consideration of evolving perspectives on fly-tipping and littering, as well as legislative efforts to address these phenomena. From here, the authors present their research questions and methodology, followed by their findings and analysis of their data in relationship to social disorganisation theory. While the authors demonstrate how the act of littering has evolved throughout history from a consequence of consumerism and mobility to a global environmental concern—and make clear that the lack of attachment to place(s) may be contributing to the noticeable litter problem in the Northeast of England and elsewhere—their work implies that additional criminological study of littering (including both an investigation of the role that a lack of effective informal and formal social control plays in littering and the impact of beautifying small swathes of the landscape through the ‘ordinary act’ of picking up trash or not littering in the first place) could make a contribution to improvement of human health and the vitality of the environment. As such, their chapter offers a somewhat more sanguine outlook on the potential of green criminological research to effect positive change.