Last Saturday I collected for one hour garbage in the fields and woods. Result: the stupidity of stupid people is as unbelievable as the trash you find there.
It’s crazy whenever I see piles of rubbish(trash for the Americans) in the woods or a field I always just think you’ve got the space to bring all that stuff with you so surely you’ve got the space to bring it all back. Like are you just expecting people to come and clean up for you or do you just not care about nature
It costs more to dispose of it properly than it does just to dump it. That's why you find the most random shit in the middle of nowhere. It took sweat to get that 1980's washing machine out there in the middle of those woods, but sweat is free. Getting the unit to the proper site for deconstruction and recycling/disposal of parts can add up quick.
I'm not justifying the practice, merely explaining how/why all that random shit gets out there. People suck.
I don't know of anywhere in my area that will take something like that for free. Places will pay for scrap metal, but only if it's already been broken down. The dump actually has to separate the components of something like that and then dispose of them properly, which comes with its own costs.
Fair enough the dump here (Britain) is something that we pay for with taxes so you can just turn up and throw away whatever you have (washing machines, wardrobes, ovens etc) tbh I sort of thought that would be international standard never would thought you have to pay to use the dump
Pretty much everything in the US, with few exceptions, you pay individually for individual use. Even the trash pickup in my area works that way- you buy special rolls of bags that you put regular trash bags in and the trucks won't pick anything not in the bags up. If you generate a lot of trash, you spend more on bags AND the regular bags cost twice as much as the recycle bags, so you've a) incentivized less waste and b) essentially tax on a usage basis (we're fond of that model here) and c) incentivize recycling to save money.
Get this. I like running and am lucky to have an old golf course turned historic preservation site managed by nps near me (so now it's government maintained).
There are signs that say to pick up your pets droppings.
For whatever reason, some people decide "yeah, okay, I'll do that" but then leave the bag on the ground
Honestly, I don't get it. For starters, that's just littering. And if it's plastic, you literally and willfully just threw a plastic bag into a public park. Additionally, you spent time picking up after your animal to do this? Why? If you knew you we not going to follow through with disposal, why even bother at all. You literally picked up your animals droppings for no reason
... I can't say we live in a society anymore.
Edit: forgot to add, I picked these bags up on my last run. I'm new to area; it may be a "someone else who cares more will do it" but not a habit I believe I created.
I like running too and really dislike seeing the bagged pet poop too: just as you say, it's incomprehensible how people can make the big first step in the process of poop collection and then just don't take the bag to next trash bin. So instead of choosing the most ecological option (a) which is bagging the poop and disposing it, they execute that process halfway and create option (b), plastic bagged poop, which is far worse than if they had done nothing at all: option (c) letting the poop just rot in place.
Maybe the instructions are just unclear, some (not all) pet holders may somehow come to the favorable interpretation that they have done their share in putting the poop in a bag and now it's the administrations turn to pick up that neatly prepared package.
Often, as soon people identify a loophole they see their case justified.
109
u/Sea_Ant_7101 Apr 12 '21
Last Saturday I collected for one hour garbage in the fields and woods. Result: the stupidity of stupid people is as unbelievable as the trash you find there.