Against littering, humour works better than scolding

In the fight against littering, stern tones achieve little. So believes Ina Schelling, project manager at the IGSU, the Swiss competence centre dealing with the phenomenon: instead of a finger raised in admonishment, she explains, humour helps. The term refers to rubbish being discarded in public spaces rather than properly disposed of.

The observation comes from an organisation that has been measuring the phenomenon for some time. In 2015, 25% of those surveyed by the IGSU considered littering to be very or fairly high; by 2025 that share had halved, falling to 12.5%.

So why does so much rubbish still end up on the ground? According to the specialist, there is no single main reason, but rather a combination of different factors: convenience, lack of awareness, habit, indifference and, in some cases, the desire to provoke. The situation also plays its part. Group influence, alcohol consumption and darkness encourage the behaviour, as does litter already lying on the ground: it signals that littering is customary in that spot.

Offenders also tend to justify themselves, for instance by shifting responsibility onto others, presenting the act as normal, playing down its significance or making excuses about public services.

The most effective strategies

The IGSU has tested in the field which countermeasures deliver concrete results. Situational behavioural prompts, so-called nudges, such as arrows pointing to the bin, reduced littering by between 31 and 38%. The combination of face-to-face awareness conversations and humorous bins did even better, with a reduction of close to 50%.

The comparison between posters follows a similar ranking. Posters relying on humour reduced the phenomenon by 58%, and those with an environmental message by as much as 64%. Authoritarian messages, stuck at 25%, proved markedly less effective.