Woman Gets Neighborhood Kids To Stop Littering By Beating Them At Their Own Game

Aug 07, 2023

Dumping piles of trash, old house items, old children's toys, construction waste or used products by the roadside, at non-designated dumping sites, or in the forest is simply called illegal dumping. Illegal dumping, also known as fly-tipping, involves making waste at one location and dumping it elsewhere where trash collection is unauthorized. 

What's more, it is no longer uncommon to find these unsightly dumps in areas where they are not authorized. According to LVT, a statistical report by the Environmental Protection Agency revealed that 1.5 million tons of trash are illegally dumped yearly in the US.

While illegal dumping is common in commercial areas, it is becoming more common in residential neighborhoods. However, in neighborhoods, it is mostly referred to as littering. Although they seem to convey the same idea and have been used interchangeably in certain cases, littering and illegal dumping are different. Littering is the improper disposal of small amounts of trash.

Regardless of which name you give to improper disposal of waste products, the long-lasting effect could be devastating. In the long term, the seemingly harmless act could lead to health hazards, financial repercussions, and environmental concerns. In cases of neighborhood littering, it could have a negative impact, impeding movement and increasing susceptibility to health hazards. What’s more, handling litter in neighborhoods is difficult, especially in cases where the erring occupant is nonchalant. 

In one such case, Reddit user @monstersof-men, shared her experience with neighborhood kids who were in the habit of littering the sidewalk in a July 30, 2023 post titled: “Children were playing 'let’s dump all our cr*p over the fence' for years. I joined and won.” 

Reddit user @monstersof-men, who taught children from her neighborhood a timely lesson about not littering, took to the platform to share her experience. The original poster (OP) explained that she had been living in the neighborhood for six years and took her dog on daily walks whenever the weather was perfect for it. 

Due to the lack of many walking paths, the OP was restricted to taking the sidewalks. However, about two years into her stay in the neighborhood, she discovered there was always a pile of trash on the sidewalk behind a certain house.

“About four years ago I noticed there’d always be a pile of cr*p on the sidewalk behind a specific home. We’re talking a basketball, pair of shoes, half of some plastic toy, an umbrella, etc. Really random groupings of everyday life detritus, always on the sidewalk, always behind this house,” @monstersof-men wrote.

Considering that the trash could affect animals or people with difficulty navigating, the OP always went out of her way to push back the trash from the sidewalk. On joining the neighborhood’s Facebook group, she discovered that other occupants had complained about the kids who were littering the neighborhood, but their parents were not bothered. After reading through the complaints, the OP decided to take matters into her own hands.

“So I decided – why not just throw everything BACK IN?”

The OP started throwing the left behind trash back into the culprits' yard — everything from raincoats, adult sneakers, big toys and more — but the kids were never home at the time, and, inevitably, the trash would make its way back to the other side again. Then one day, she got the perfect payback when she threw a plastic tricycle into the yard while the children were there playing.

“Then I walked up to the fence, and said 'I better not see any of your garbage on this sidewalk ever again,’” she explained.

This ended the incessant littering, as OP happily reported there hadn't been a single piece of garbage behind the house since.

Readers on the platform flocked to the comment section to drop their two cents on the OP's post, with many sharing stories similar to the OP's.

“Good. Someone needed to teach those screeching little hellions a lesson. Glad you were able to educate them a little bit about the real world,” one Redditor commented.

“Had this with my friends' entitled neighbors. Year after year their neighbors threw their grass cuttings over the fence onto my friends' field. Year after year my friends watched it pile up. Then when my friends started to build their forever home, in the field, they asked the ground workers to please put it all back where it came from.... perfect revenge,” another Redditor wrote.

“Awesome. My dad did something similar to us,” a third Redditor commented.”He would tell us to pick up our stuff out of the yard so he could mow that afternoon. We put it off as kids do, then promptly forgot. He’d be pissed. He’d pick everything up. Repeat next week. Next week, we were told. But we were idiots. Dad mowed our stuff into little confetti pieces. Then sat out there and made us pick up each little piece of debris.He never had to ask again. If we even heard the neighbors start a mower, we frantically combed the yard for anything.”

“I had my 2nd floor neighbour throwing his garbage bags in my yard from his balcony because it was quicker than walking them down. If it was an old lady with health issues or something, but no just a lazy f**k in his 30s,” another wrote. "I snapped one day and fling all the bags back up. They were hitting wall and speading open. Havent seen 1 bag in my yard since." 

What do you think of how the OP handled the situation? What would you do if you were faced with the same situation? Let us know and — and be sure to pass this article on to friends, family members and other people you think would have an answer!