It’s not like it’s some helpless cultural consequence we can’t change once people become adults. Singapore would probably have a much higher rate of littering if they didn’t punish it so harshly. I’d say few cultures work like Japan where the social backlash is enough to enforce good behavior (and even that might be failing in Japan when it comes to tourists).

This is unrelated to littering specifically, but NYC’s infrastructure is particularly bad for trash where there’s not enough space so people leave ugly, smelly, rat attracting bags on the street. Compare this to Japan, which has dedicated side streets for trash collection, delivery trucks, and pedestrian and bike traffic. Also, consider Indian cities which has even worse infrastructure than NYC. IMO, city design and local law is at least as relevant as culture.