From weekly to daily cleanups
Until further notice, Block 1 will be moving to the daily cleanup condition. Today was its last weekly cleanup until I can get these numbers to go down.
I have cleaned this block for eight weeks, with today’s litter pick netting 234 pieces of trash.
Figure 1: Weekly litter levels around Block 1 over eight weeks.
Litter levels are lower since the start of this study, but the weekly total has been fairly steady over the last seven weeks.
This amount of litter is surely weakening the anti-littering injunctive norm. That is, the social belief that people should not litter is not very strong when the block is in this condition.
To strengthen it, cleanup frequency needs to be increased.
I expect to replicate Block 6 results:
sharp decline in litter from Day 1 to Day 2
maintain low litter levels throughout the week
Figure 2: Daily litter levels around Block 6 over almost 2 weeks.
Will I see an increased rate in the decrease of litter?
Since I’ve been working to strengthen the anti-littering norm around Block 1 for the last eight weeks, I wonder if litter levels drop below 50 pieces within the first week.
Trash Talk 5280 is an ongoing project in Denver, CO blending environmental stewardship, social psychological research, eco-activism, and art.
With your generous support, I am able to continue studying and sharing the impact of routine cleanups on anti-littering norms and move toward future expansion of this work.
