Letter to the Editor: My Experience with Changing Habits around Litter

I enjoyed the article “Changing Habits: Classic Anti-litter Campaigns” by Myles Dannhausen Jr. because it reminded me of a project I worked on in 2014, when I was tasked with writing ecotourism management plans for three national parks in Bangladesh. 

The country is extremely challenging to work in. Air, water and land pollution are prevalent, and the illiteracy rate is high. While conducting fieldwork, I was angered on multiple occasions when visitors to park areas tossed garbage anywhere and everywhere. 

During a meeting with the country’s head of forestry, he asked us international consultants, “How can we create ecotourists?” I pondered his question and asked myself how it had happened in America – and it took me back to my childhood in the ’70s, when I saw repeated PSAs of the tear-provoking Crying Indian and Woodsy Owl. While presenting at an ecotourism training, I showed YouTube videos of both of these examples and explained how they forever changed the way people in America thought about littering. 

Although it’s doubtful my idea was acted upon, I truly felt that the country would benefit from TV, billboard and other advertising that used catchy tunes, mascots and emotional ads to change the way people think and act. In fact, I think this effective strategy should be used in all developing countries across the globe. 

Susan Kennedy

Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin