Comments on: A rubbish post: the global curse of litter

By: b

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 20:06:07 +0000

Thank you for this post. I did link to this in an article I wrote about Mexico. Maybe, just maybe, if traveling people make a point of helping to keep that country they are visiting clean it will help. We visited Sapa, Vietnam this winter. Trekking in a big industry for the local area. I just hope that all those people are carrying litter out and teaching or learning from their host families. It is a beautiful country.

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 08:32:47 +0000

I have posted pictures in my blog of Singapore and of the Gulf states, and have received quite a few comments on how clean the streets are. If they can do it, why can’t anyone else?

By: David Bennett

David Bennett — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:42:22 +0000

Anyone see the episode of MadMen where the family have a picnic on the grass and then drive off leaving the paper and detritus from their idyll blowing around in the breeze?

I remember reading that in India the chai wallas used to sell tea in pottery cups and when the travellers finished with their drink they threw the cups out of the windows. The cups smashed and over the years the tracks became covered with russet coloured dust.

Maybe I noticed it. Or maybe the dust blended into the background and it never registered with me.

I think throwaway plastic is a crime in itself. What a squandering of resources to get the oil out of the ground at huge cost, and then turn it into plastic and throw it away.

Yes, education. But for what it is worth, I think that fairer societies are the basis of a caring society, and all the education in the world won’t necessarily change the attitude of someone who doesn’t identify with the society in which he or she lives.

By: Barbara Weibel

Barbara Weibel — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 09:12:10 +0000

Well Andy, they say great minds think alike. I’ve been working up a post on this very subject for months and finally thought I had enough of a handle on it to write it today. I just published it and flipped over to Twitter and, lo and behold, I see this post of yours. I think we’re pretty much on the same page about this issue, but you may be interested in something that happened to me that made me look at the problem from a different perspective: http://www.holeinthedonut.com/2011/04/11/trash-mentality-around-world/

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 07:46:26 +0000

Thanks Iain. You’re quite right, the UK is as bad as anywhere and it’s particularly annoying when you see people drop litter when there is a bin in throwing distance. What can you do with these people?
It’s in the remote places where it creates the most disturbing eyesore – you mentioned Corsica and Everest Base Camp, while even in the Lake District you’ll find crisp packets and plastic bags being blown around the fell tops.
Laziness, respect, education or just a lack of pride and sense of ownership… don’t know how we’ll solve the problem but it needs to be tackled.

By: Iain Mallory

Iain Mallory — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:16:51 +0000

It absolutely infuriates me when I see somebody just cast their litter aside, I have seen people do it stood a foot from the bin! The UK is one of the worst places, the problem is people do not have enough respect for the place or are just too plain lazy! Does not seem to matter how hard the councils try to clean up, there is just a load of rubbish and broken glass all over the streets and local parks.

Going to amazing places like Everest basecamp or a lovely Corsican village and finding heaps of rubbish in a huge pile is quite distressing.

I have been to a number of quite pristine places too, but the villages of Val Gardena, Italy in particular sticks in my head. They are obviously extremely proud of their villages, and can be seen out on a Monday morning the whole town just cleaning up their homes, shop fronts and the streets. Just go to show what a little pride can do.

Thanks for sharing.

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 10:10:02 +0000

Thanks for the many comments and good insights (and John, don’t worry you’re not the only one. I hope some day others will join you….). Great to see the initiatives that have taken place where people have gathered together to clean up parks/public spaces. And I agree that the mentality of “our place” rather than “their place” must play a part. Look at how the people of Cairo took to the streets to tidy up after the protests in the square. Suddenly they felt it was their city again.

By: Ted Nelson

Ted Nelson — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 02:48:31 +0000

The amount of waste in Asia is appalling. There would be fields where hundreds of plastic bags would be swirling in the wind. Part of the problem there is an obsession with the plastic bag in first place. I would buy a small battery and they would want to put it into a bag even if I said no bag please. I sometimes had to say no bag two or three times until they got the point.

By: Cara

Cara — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:53:29 +0000

The worst I had ever experienced was in Indonesia. The locals just throw their trash in random areas whereas in other parts of SEA I had visited, the locals made piles of trash which were easier to clean up.

By: John

John — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:44:59 +0000

The psychology behind why some people drop litter is complex. I wish I could understand it. I worked for many years in the construction industry and litter, graffiti and untidiness was a problem. I used to think that nobody was like that at home, but having visited many employees in their homes, I found that some had homes that weren’t clean and tidy, some even had rubbish in their gardens. It was difficult to get the can recycling bins used. If they were too close to the tables in the canteen they would simply dump food waste in them. If they were too far away then they simply didn’t bother using them at all.
Apparently, one of the major US car manufacturers had the same problem. They then let it be known that the energy required to make aluminium from cans is a fraction of that required when using bauxite. That cheaper aluminium meant cheaper engines, which meant more sales and thus more job security for the car plants. Once this message was broadcast the bins were filled with cans, not other polluting rubbish.
The jobs argument has been voiced frequently and is often used to defend the indefensible. For example, the fact that the arms industry provides employment for thousands of people, doesn’t make that industry ethical. We now cringe watching politicians try to excuse their decision to sell arms to Libya. If only the research, engineering and production capability of industries like the arms industry was directed at sustainable energy etc.
You can say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.