You might hear the word "environment" used on a daily basis, but you may not know what it means. Your environment is where you live. Your house, your school, your city, state, country.. All of these are a part of your environment. In fact, the entire world is your environment. When we refer to the environment we mean the entire Earth; each and every city, field, forest, river, and ocean is part of our environment.



Litter is trash that has not been disposed of properly. Trash that has been thrown on the side of the road or in a lake instead of in a trash can is litter.



You might have noticed litter while you were having a picnic in the park, or maybe you've seen it while riding in the car on the way to the store. You probably thought it looked pretty gross. But litter doesn't just make things look ugly; it's harmful to the environment, too.

Litter can attract rats and vermin and cause health problems. It can also harm animals and wildlife, and ruin the quality of water when thrown into rivers or lakes. Polluted water isn�t safe to drink, and polluted soil can�t grow plants and food to eat.



Pollution is contamination that harms the environment or the people or animals living in the environment. If you live in or have ever visited a large city, you might have noticed that the air is filled with smoke. That smoke is air pollution. Air isn't the only thing that can be polluted. Water and soil can be polluted too.