Littering: What Would You Do?

Likewise, another family of four stopped to consider the situation, the young children upset and anxious to pick up the litterbug's trash.

Geraldine and John Straquadanio were torn between a desire to confront the litterbug and concern for the safety of their son and daughter.

"I think we both thought the right thing to do was to tell him to stop," said John. "But you don't want the worst reaction to occur when we have two kids with us. Maybe if I was by myself I would have been a little more assertive."

A Female Litterbug

With so few people willing to confront the male litterbug, we wondered what the response would be to a female litterbug. But plenty of passersby ignored the female litterbug, too.

Andrea Plotts and her college-age daughter, also named Andrea, were on their way to a nearby restaurant.

Mother Andrea said she still remembers that iconic TV commercial of an American Indian crying at the sight of trash being dumped that brought so much public awareness to the littering problem when it began airing in 1971.

"I still think of the Indian crying … with a tear," she said. "[Litter] does bother me."

Her daughter admitted that littering disturbed her, too, but both women were more concerned about making their reservation on time than intervening.

Then along came someone who would seem to have a good excuse not to get involved: a young mom pushing her toddler in a baby stroller. Yet that didn't stop her from turning around, confronting the female litterbug and picking up her trash.

"I didn't think it was inappropriate for me to pick up her litter," Renee Kiernan said. "I'm visiting here, too, so I don't want to see it on the ground."

But, she said with a laugh, "I'm not going to pick up everyone's litter, no."

With so few people stepping up to take on our litterbugs, we weren't prepared for what came next. An athletic-looking man who looked to be in his 20s had been watching the litterbug for a few minutes. Finally he walked over and sat down next to her.

He asked where she lived and she responded Seabright, a nearby shore community.

'Come On, You're Too Pretty to Litter'

"They throw stuff on the ground like that in Seabright?" he asked.