I was watching Mad Men and there was a scene where a family packs up their picnic by shaking out the blanket (and all it's trash) on a field while the man chucks a beer can like a football. Did people actually do this back then? Did they not even bother considering the environmental impact or were there civic services employed to clean up that don't exist anymore?
Funnily enough, there was a question here about that exact scene a couple years ago. There was also a more general question on littering that mentions that scene. From reading through the answers it sounds like anti-littering campaigns and/or laws began in the 50s but continued and picked up steam after that. I'm not sure it would be possible to say definitively how common the level of littering shown in that Mad Men scene would have been, but it seems to be within the realm of possibility.
Those two threads are a little old so there's definitely room for more answers here. I'm curious if anyone could provide a more definitive answer or if there might be new info that's come out since those older questions.