Three separate places I went to at 8 in the morning. Gas station, dunkin’ donuts, and then a convenience store. All of them, trash is full. People wonder why they litter in the USA, there’s nowhere to throw away trash when you’re out. It’s unbelievable People can just go to work and choose not to do their job anymore. That people see this and they don’t have any problem with it, no interest at all to keep things neat and tidy and clean. Nope.
In Japan it’s almost impossible to find a trash can on the streets and yet people don’t litter. The problem is the culture centered around consumerism and waste.
This. Throwing your trash on the ground because you can’t find a trash can amounts to childish entitlement in my eyes.
No trash cans in the forest, is OP saying they just litter all through nature when they go camping?
A lot of people do…
Yeah, I fill up a trash bag every time I go hiking
Keep up the good fight! I’ve got several miles of trail cleaned behind my hood, one more major path to go!
Maybe you do this, if not, take a plastic retail bag, fold it over twice, while pressing the air out, roll it up tight and rubber band it. I always have 2-4 highly compact bags.
I once dropped a water bottle out of my backpack, and couldn’t find it when I retraced my hike, but I did start noticing tons of trash everywhere.
So I started keeping a trash bag in my backpack, and filling a small bag every time I hike.
I may not have found my bottle, but I’ll make sure I clean up more than I left every time I’m out.
they just litter all through nature when they go camping
Many americans do just that, yes. :'(
Most don’t.
It’s somewhat comforting to know that no matter how far out in the wild you go you eventually find signs of humanity.
The fact those signs are pieces of trash that someone either left or blew in on the wind is depressing.
Funnily enough that’s where I find most of the litter in Japan, like, if you go to any non-main road that goes through a bit of forest, you will see signs threatening fines for littering, with a bunch of trash tossed in that exact area.
I have seen cans, bottles, ACs, TVs, baby car seats, bags, and general household trash. Also found a golf club once that I actually brought home because I thought that it was neat. And this is only along a single stretch of road that is only like 1km long.
So Japan isn’t some miracle society that doesn’t litter, it’s just that they do it someplace that is somewhat out of sight.
With respect to Japan, there’s definitely a culture difference, but I don’t think it’s the consumerism/waste culture. There’s so much excess packaging in Japanese food products.
Yeah, but do they wolf down a half pound of meat plus fried potatoes and a half gallon of sugar water four times a day in Japan?
Possibly, where are you going with this?
Smaller portions creates exponentially less waste. It also isn’t frequently greasy western fast food waste that is inconvenient to carry around for any period of time.
Like I wouldn’t mind carrying around a paper wrapper from a nice sandwich place, but fast food waste is greasy and likely to leak.
Dude, larger portions have less packaging, just because of the square-cube law. I’m actually having trouble thinking of a counterexample, even.
Larger portions need less wrapping per lb, but more overall packaging than a smaller item. You know, like how more filling requires a bigger tortilla.
You are also missing the point about the multiple, larger, individually packaged parts. Like how one container from a sit down restaurant is less overall trash than a bag of multiple wrappers, ketchup packets, and a cup from fast food.
Also, the grease.
East Asia loves individually packaged everything. Americans would need to eat ridiculously more food to beat them, just by quantity like you’re suggesting. They do eat a bit more, on average, but not that much - and the gap is closing.
No. They have rice.
Half a gallon of rice water?! :P
They would use liters, but yes. The Japanese aren’t going to just chuck out their rice water.
What about the baby?
Gone. Don’t you know the phrase don’t throw the rice water away with the baby?
I mean, that’s just one guy, but this whole idea that Asians never overeat is borderline racist. They’re not all skinny monks in saffron robes.
You mean at the kfc, in Japan?
Yes, the KFC with fries in Japan. That’s totally what I meant.
Yeah, East Asia doesn’t even try to minimise packaging. Environmentalism just isn’t the same there or something.
I might be wrong, but I assume that the food packaging is a necessity because of the extreme humidity, otherwise it will spoil very fast.
Packaging is fine, but it’s multiple layers sometimes. I feel it’s more for presentation than function.
In fairness, I remember a time when everyone smoked in Japan and flicked cigarette butts all over the place.
Plenty of consumerism and waste in Japan. For trash, it’s socially acceptable to ask a store to use their trash can.
Get what you pay for. The minimum wage is still 7.25 federally. I can’t believe employers just choose not to pay livable wages.
Lose me with this “nobody wants to work anymore” bullshit. Nobody wants to pay anymore.
It’s another true half statement the middle management refuses to complete. “Nobody wants to work anymore for the wages offered for these types of jobs”. Same old story as middle management accepting “the customer is always right” (and entitling shitty customers) without finishing it with “in terms of market trends”
Don’t worry, you’ll soon get massive tax cuts for companies and their executives, while basic goods get 25%-35% pricier for the worker class due to the tariffs since the orange potato has to fun those tax cuts somehow.
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Or, hear me out… carry it until you find one with room? If finding full trash cans “forces” you to litter, that says more about you being an entitled piece of shit than it does about anything else.
“I couldn’t find a single vacant public toilet, so I did what any sensible person would do and took a shit in the middle of the sidewalk.” —OP, analogously
Literally what happens in a lot of places. Even Europe has a noticeable pee smell sometimes.
You’re asking people to take on extra work. Some might. Others won’t or even can’t if they’re really in a tight spot.
Especially in the US where people drive everywhere more often than not. Keep a small trash bag in your car, empty it when you get home.
The trouble with that approach is that my garbage cans fill up at home, and I’m too lazy to take them out to the dumpster.
OP didn’t say he littered. But of course we always assume the worst around here.
Yeah! Fuck you OP!
Well, they’re blaming “lazy workers” instead of the litterers, so yeah, I’m inclined to believe the worst about them, too.
Personally, if I see a full trash can I will keep my trash with me until I can find a place to dispose of it. I can’t imagine just throwing it on the ground regardless of the can situation.
I’ve had plenty of times where I get home and empty my pockets of the trash I accumulated with no can nearby.
And if I try to put something in a can and it falls out, I’m taking it with me because I didn’t succeed in throwing it away.
Shrugging ans saying “well I tried” as you walk away isn’t even trying.
You’re a rare breed
Same. And sometimes if it’s convenient, I’ll keep my recyclables like paper, cans, and glass until I have access to a sink to clean then (glass, maybe cans) and can toss them in my recycling system at home.
Fyi, make sure your recyclables are dry before dropping them off/having them picked up
I would pull the top of all of these (without breaking it) and make all the trash fit, or, if absolutely required, carry it as you say
I feel like the solution to having some trash while the trash can is full, is to…just carry it with you till you find an empty one?
otoh if you’re lazy and not the best person, and if it’s too much of a hassle to carry around…
…it should be legal for civilised people to nail it to your fucking forehead
This post gives me “people don’t want to work anymore” vibes.
Another way to look at it is, people don’t want to pay people to work anymore. Either the pay is such shit that the employees have no incentive to give a crap, or the employer doesn’t hire enough people to get the work done.
You don’t even know how fast these damn bins fill up. I’m a janitor at McDonald’s, and move between 5 locations (same franchise owner). The two that are in a highway rest stop kind of area that get the most customers have several cans around the parking lot. I empty them before the restaurant even opens, and all or most of them are already full by my first break. There’s only ever 1 janitor on shift at a time and we can’t be everywhere all the time. Something I have had to explain to the owner who constantly gets on my ass about the cans in the parking lot being full. “Do you want me to just spend all day making sure the garbage cans are empty or shall I do the other tasks I have as well?”
The bins themselves look pretty large with the huge stone enclosure they’re in; but the actual can inside is not even as big as a standard home kitchen bin, and the amount of trash generated by a single to-go meal from the restaurant is pretty nuts. And this is just from a fast food place. The bins placed by the city or municipality probably have even less of a chance to be serviced when the employees who do that are also in charge of cleaning the park bathrooms, mowing the grass, trimming trees and shrubs, fixing road signs, etc.
Not all heroes wear capes.
I do kinda wish my uniform had a cape tho. It would add just a little bit of fun to the job.
Only if you wanna piss off Edna.
OSHA would probably be more upset, but for the same reason as her.
There’s a litter bin near my house in a rural area that the council has obviously forgotten about. It’s been full for weeks!
You should see the amount of litter scattered around
Oh wait, it’s absolutely none, because we’re not fucking selfish savages
No fucking excuses for littering, ever. That’s a societal problem, not a bin problem
