Flight passenger calls out fellow flyers for bad habit, shares fix for problem

A traveler took to social media to discuss why fellow passengers aboard flights are not properly discarding their trash - and shared a way to fix the problem. 

Posted in the "r/SouthwestAirlines" forum, the note was titled, "Favorite trick for people that put trash in seatback pockets." 

The user said he or she witnessed an "alarming amount of people" not handing their trash to the flight attendants for collection prior to the plane's landing.

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"While we are waiting to disembark, I will mention, 'Hey, I think you left your AirPods in the setback pocket,' which forces them to acknowledge the trash," the person wrote.

The user added, "The 4 times I've done this, 2 times they took the trash, one time the guy said, 'I don't own AirPods,' and the last guy said it wasn't his job."

"Just a suggestion that has a 50% success rate thus far," the post said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Southwest Airlines for thoughts. 

Users took to the comments section of the post to discuss the issue.

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"They need to pass a trash collection around like they do the money collection at church - for the same reason. Guilt people into filling it up as it passes by. Problem solved," suggested one person.

"There will always be idiots/morons/low-lifes that just do not care," said another.

That same person added, "Often [it's] the same folks that will complain when they board and find trash that was missed."

One Redditor commented, "Not me, but someone I worked with ... Coming through to collect trash, guy has a bunch of newspapers in the seatback pocket. 'Hey, is that trash, or are you going to keep it?' Him: 'I'll keep it.'

"Well, we land, guy walks off leaving the newspaper," the person added.

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Continuing the story, the user wrote, "FA [flight attendant], now tidying the plane, sees this, grabs it all, runs up the jetway and through the terminal, screaming, 'YOU FORGOT YOUR NEWSPAPER!! YOU SAID YOU WANTED TO KEEP IT, IT MUST BE IMPORTANT TO YOU!!' until she caught up to the guy and gave him back his paper.'"

"Passive-aggressive communication at its finest," one user said.

Gary Leff, a Texas-based travel industry expert and author of the blog "View From the Wing," told Fox News Digital that often trash is scattered in the seat pockets and left on the floor.

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"Increasingly, carriers spend little time cleaning up between flights. They don't schedule planes with enough time on the ground to do it - and when a flight runs late it's one of the first things that gets cut," said Leff.

It's important, he noted, that passengers at least pass their trash to flight attendants as they come down the aisle to collect it. 

"Cleaning up after yourself is a basic starting point for civil society," said Leff. 

"You need to do it at your seat on a plane, as long as the airline makes it reasonably easy, coming down the aisle with a bag to collect trash and giving you enough time to gather it - and you need to do it in the movie theater, too," said Leff.

"Don't just abandon those popcorn bags on the floor," Leff added. "Carry them to the bins by the exit. It's only a few feet."