Making A Difference

Is there a link between littering and anti-social behaviour or between anti-social behaviour and littering? If an individual litters is he or she more likely to engage in what we call anti-social behaviour? What is anti-social behaviour and is its definition different from person to person?
These questions are prompted by the most recent litter survey from IBAL, the Irish Business Against Litter organisation who carry out surveys each year with the help of An Taisce to find which towns and cities in this country (with a population of over 6,000) are considered ‘Clean to European Norms’, ‘Moderately Littered’, ‘Littered’, ‘Seriously Littered’, or ‘Litter Blackspot’. Galway fitted into the ‘Moderately Littered’ category along with fellow cities Dublin and Cork. Limerick, the fourth city surveyed ended up in the ‘Littered’ category.
In fairness the survey is not just based on litter thrown on the ground by wanton litter louts, approach roads etc also come into play and cleaning of same comes under the remit of city and county councils. But, the keeping clean of visible areas outside a business premises is the responsibility of the business owner. IBAL say that to keep on the right side of the law as well as to show corporate citizenship and community spirit, businesses should look to clean up outside their premises, including their car parks twice daily. This would have an enormous impact on our streetscapes, they say, in one fell swoop and reduce local authority cleaning costs. This might not sit well with businesses who wonder what exactly they get for their Commercial Rates Bill paid to the council…street cleaning?
The majority of businesses do keep their street area tidy, they have pride in what they do and their premises and its environs reflect this. Which leads to the first question involving anti-social behaviour… Anti-social behaviour is any aggressive, intimidating or destructive activity that damages or destroys another person's quality of life, it’s all about the effect that one’s behaviour has on others. What might seem like harmless fun to one person may seem like something entirely different to someone else.
The person who ends up having drunken fisticuffs with his ‘mates’ at three am doesn’t realise or doesn’t care that he’s keeping local residents awake, the person who urinates on someone’s front door doesn’t care that the householder will have to clean it off the next day and he certainly doesn’t care that he’s frightening people. This scenario can equally take place at three o’clock in the afternoon when tourists and children are the recipients. If this sort of thing happens once outside your door, you can get over it. But if it happens on a very regular basis like it does at the Spanish Arch, it is a serious problem for residents and businesses in the area. This has been highlighted time and time again. We haven’t seen any major riots there this summer but anti-social behaviour is like litter, it’s always there. The street cleaners do a particularly good job at the Spanish Arch each morning but like the anti-social behaviour, its there again the next day. Dropping a piece of litter might not seem like anti-social behaviour but it’s all about just not caring.