Texas Department of Transportation Study Shows Little Items Adding Up to a Big Litter Problem
- 04.03.04
New Don?t Mess with Texas campaign and 25-city Road Tour tell Texans there?s ?no excuse?
(AUSTIN) ? ?One billion pieces of litter per year. Zero good excuses.? That?s the message of a new Don?t Mess with Texas campaign unveiled today at the Texas Department of Transportation?s (TxDOT) Austin headquarters.
The campaign, featuring television and radio advertising along with the second annual Don?t Mess with Texas Road Tour, emphasizes the faulty logic behind common littering excuses like ?a little scrap of paper doesn?t count, right?? or ?it just flew out.? This strategy is based on results of TxDOT?s Litter Attitudes and Behaviors Study also released today, which show Texans? habit of littering larger items like cans or bottles has decreased 18 percent since 2001 but one in five residents still admit to littering small things like cigarette butts or gum wrappers.
?Accidental? litter is also a problem ? 69 percent of those surveyed who drive pickup trucks said they carry things in their truck beds.
The study confirmed Texans ages 16?24 remain the state?s worst litterers, a finding unchanged from surveys conducted in 2001 and 1998. Another 2001 litter survey found 1 billion pieces of litter accumulate on state highways each year, costing the state?s taxpayers about $32 million in cleanup costs last year alone.
?While we?re pleased by the drop in what we call ?gross litter,? we?re concerned so many Texans don?t think about things flying out of their trucks and think it?s acceptable to toss ?micro litter,? or smaller items, on our roadsides,? said TxDOT Travel Division Director Doris Howdeshell. ?When we talk to young people about this, they always have an excuse to justify tossing tiny things. Our new campaign holds up a mirror to show them how flimsy these excuses sound and let them know their little actions add up.?
About the New Don?t Mess with Texas Campaign
The Don?t Mess with Texas ?Excuses? campaign debuts on radio and television statewide
April 5. The spots continue the 18-year-old campaign?s departure from its original formula of featuring celebrities like Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan. To appeal to today?s generation of litterers, the ads show a series of young people caught in the spotlight, squirming slightly as they come up with half-baked excuses for their littering behavior.
An announcer then comes in with a new campaign tagline, ?Hey, you dropped something,? and directs the audience to www.dontmesswithtexas.org for a free car litterbag.
?Our research shows young Texans will only learn from a PSA if they can relate to it, and they?ve told us they hear and see themselves in these scenarios,? said Howdeshell.
About the Don?t Mess with Texas Road Tour
Further extending the idea of ?relating? is the Don?t Mess with Texas Road Tour, which will kick off its 25-city, 5,000-mile journey April 1 at the University of Houston?s Frontier Fiesta. The inaugural tour reached more than 250,000 event attendees last summer with its truck full of litter-related games and prizes, and TxDOT is hoping to reach even more this year by starting its travels while Texas colleges are still in session.
This year?s tour crew will be traveling to concerts and festivals in a retro-style Airstream RV wrapped with the phrases ?Hey, you dropped something? and ?1 billion pieces of litter each year. Zero good excuses.? An important new activity will be ?reverse litter stings.? Crew members will reward unassuming event attendees with prizes when they dispose of their trash properly.
Other new activities and prizes include commemorative Road Tour Polaroid pictures and a ?tattoo parlor? where attendees can affix themselves with temporary Don?t Mess with Texas logo tattoos. Participants can compete in litter basketball and trivia games and enter a pledge contest to win prizes from Don?t Mess with Texas. Both winning- and non-winning attendees will leave with car litterbags.
About the Litter Attitudes and Behaviors Study
The statewide research study of 1,253 Texas residents revealed other significant findings:
- The majority of Texans perceives candy wrappers, chip bags, small pieces of paper and cigarette butts as minor litter, while beer/soda cans and bottles and construction debris are perceived as severe litter.
- Forty percent of Texans believe prisoners are most responsible for cleaning litter off state highways. Only 6 percent correctly guessed paid contractors clean up the mess.
- Smoking has increased in its correlation with littering behavior since 2001.
Road Tour Schedule
The Don?t Mess with Texas Road Tour is making scheduled stops in each of the following cities. For event locations and other background information on the tour and the new campaign, visit www.dontmesswithtexas.org. LaQuinta Inns is a returning sponsor of the Road Tour.
April 1 Houston
April 2-3 Snook
April 17-18 Harlingen
April 23 Dallas
April 24 Austin
May 1 Corpus Christi
May 8 Paris
May 15 Lufkin
May 16 Beaumont
May 22 Victoria
May 23 Laredo
June 5-6 Longview
June 24 San Angelo
June 26 Amarillo
July 3 Abilene
July 4 Wichita Falls
July 10 Lampasas
July 16-17 Childress
August 7 Lubbock
August 15 El Paso
August 20-22 Midland
August 28 Waco
TBD Texarkana
TBD Fort Worth
TBD San Antonio
TxDOT?s Don?t Mess with Texas litter prevention campaign has been educating Texans about litter prevention since 1986. For more information, visit www.dontmesswithtexas.org.
