Litter consists of waste products that have been discarded incorrectly, without consent, at an unsuitable location. The word litter can also be used as a verb: to litter means to drop and leave objects, often man-made, such as aluminum cans, paper cups, food wrappers, cardboard boxes or plastic bottles on the ground, and leave them there indefinitely or for other people to dispose of as opposed to disposing of them correctly.
Platform of Strathfield station in Sydney, Australia. Rubbish accumulated over months, perhaps years due to unsustained periods of frequent cleaning.
Rubbish on a street corner in Germantown, Maryland, left behind by panhandlers.
A small river's valley in India shows extensive littering of plastic and paper. Human waste, illustrated by the urinating man, increase fecal coliform and other bacteria levels in the water.
Littering in nature
A cigarette filter, also known as a filter tip, is a component of a cigarette, along with cigarette paper, capsules and adhesives. Filters were introduced in the early 1950s.
Filters in a new and used cigarette. Filters were designed to turn brown with use to give the illusion that they were effective at reducing the harmfulness.
Spent cigarette filter
A cigarette butt littered on the ground
