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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Eyes_Cody
Many americans do just that, yes. :'(
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.
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, East Asia doesn’t even try to minimise packaging. Environmentalism just isn’t the same there or something.
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.
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?
That explains the Japanese population crisis…
Or hotdogs.
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.
In fairness, I remember a time when everyone smoked in Japan and flicked cigarette butts all over the place.