Hawaii is mostly known for a luxury vacation spot with beautiful beaches and scenic views, but what people don’t see is the graffiti, littering, homelessness, and many more that is the reality of Hawaii. Littering is becoming a worldwide problem thats leading to global warming. Littering in Hawaii particularly has shown up along the road, sidewalks, highways, and even our beaches. There are laws against littering, but most people don't car or don't know to stop littering. In the reality of Hawaii, littering is a big problem that affects our environment, people, and scenery.
In Hawaii, we have littering laws that many people don’t know about like littering from vehicles or regular criminal littering. Hawaii state law for littering from vehicles states, “No person shall throw, place, or drop litter from a vehicle on any highway. The driver of the vehicle may be cited for any litter thrown, placed, or dropped from the vehicle.” Most people usually don’t think throwing out a piece of gum or a wrapper out of the car window is a crime and so they do it often. As time goes on, this creates the build up along the highways and roads making it an unattractive site to see. Criminal littering law in Hawaii states, “A person commits the offense of criminal littering if that person knowingly places, throws, or drops litter on any public or private property in any public or private waters except in a place designated by the department of health or the county for the disposal of garbage and refuse, into a litter receptacle, or into a litter bag.” I see people breaking this law often when they get lazy to find a trash can, they just drop it on the sidewalk and walk away. People also let plastic bags blow away and not care where it goes. Hawaii’s litter laws are basic but most people don’t bother to follow, this needs to change so the environment and scenery of Hawaii won’t be altered.
The penalties that come with the littering laws aren’t harsh but reasonable. For littering from a vehicle the penalty is, on a first offense, the defendant shall spend four hours of either picking up litter on public property or performing community service, on any subsequent offense, the defendant shall spend eight hours either picking up litter on public property or performing community service. The court can fine the defendant with the least being $25 but the most is $500. Picking up litter is a suitable punishment for littering. Littering can also come with a big price to pay like $500. Criminal littering laws penalties are on a first offense, the defendant shall spend four hours of either picking up litter on public property or performing community service, on any subsequent offense, the defendant shall spend eight hours either picking up litter on public property or performing community service. The court shall fine the person of committing the offense of criminal littering at least $500 but no more than $1,000. The community service and picking up litter penalty is the same as littering from vehicle penalty, but the fine is a bigger price to pay. Littering is a small misdemeanor that can cost someone up to $1,000. Hawaii’s littering law penalties suit the crime of littering and can cost someone a lot of money.
Hawaii needs to focus on reducing the litter in our streams, beaches, and highways and to do that you can use the three R’s, reduce, reuse, and recycle, and help clean up around Hawaii by volunteering. 40-60% of Hawaii’s litter is cans and bottles that can be recycled. Most people can reuse the bottles they use or recycle them for five cents each. There should also be more trashcans just for recycling in all the areas. To help already clean up our streams, beaches, highways, etc., volunteer to go and pick up trash. This helps Hawaii’s natural beauty show and helps out our environment. In a lot of our streams, litter gets caught in the branches of low trees making it unpleasant to look at. There are many ways to reduce litter in Hawaii from volunteering or simply recycling.
The laws of Hawaii are pretty basic and should be followed daily to help Hawaii look more beautiful. For the people, environment, and scenery littering is to be taken as serious problem in Hawaii. There are many imperfections of Hawaii that no one else in the world sees but people who live there. Littering is one of the main problems and its still a worldwide problem. Stop littering and start helping out our environment.
