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In our efforts to reduce waste, we have often heard people say that the “real” problem is the people who throw their garbage on the sidewalk and out their car windows. Of course, we agree that we should change this behavior, but the truth is that littering is not the real problem. We need to change the entire system because the plastic trash that floats in the world's oceans actually decompose and release potentially toxic substances into the water.

First, much of the litter items we see—aluminum cans, straws, plastic bags, etc.—are lightweight and easily blow off of garbage trucks, landfills

As a self-proclaimed “social justice warrior”, I am ashamed of how late I arrived to environmentalism. Growing up in Baltimore, I focused on police brutality, homelessness, and a faulty public education system. I remember walking down Preston street seeing my community members throwing corner store trash in the road. I saw cigarette butts and soda cans in the alleyways, but I still didn’t make the connection. How could I not notice the lead poisoning epidemic? Why did I consider sewage overflows and the Chesapeake Bay pollution to be a less important issue? Why do so many put environmental