Every Litter Bits Hurts

[ashfire]

What ever happen to ads that tried to get the public not to trash the streets and highways with everything from food bags, plastic bags, bad CDs, or you name it.
I remember the ad of a Native American paddling a canoe down a steam and then land it walk through the woods and come to a roadway where someone in a car throws a bag of food at his feet as they drive by. The Native American, Chief Iron Eyes Cody, looks at the camera and sheds a tear as if to say "Why Do They Destroy Our Land With Trash?"
I drive down the street and someone slips a cup or tissue out the car window like its not going to hurt anything.
Consider that trash will collect in drainage areas or block them causing flooding of a street or get into a catch basin where it will have to be collected by a vacuum truck and hauled to a landfill. If it gets pass that it flows into steams, creeks, rivers, lakes, and the oceans.
We have groups that will go out and collect trash along the roadways and waterways. Ever seen what they collect out there.
The title was jiggle I remember played on TV or radio to make people aware of what they were doing.

[Furen]

I guess the HUGE litter kick is over and it's more Global warming stuff now.

[Yuki-Anne]

Litter is nasty. End of story.

[ashfire]

The one thing is that the litter that makes it to the ocean can be dangerous to sealife or wild animals. Like the plastic that holds soda cans together before you take the cans off. Gets around a birds neck or stuck in its mouth. Then sea turtles will eat plastic bags thinking its food.

[ShiroiHikari]

If I ever buy six packs of cans (pretty rare for me nowadays), I cut the rings up before I throw them away.

[mechana2015]

Y'know, come to think of it, I havn't bought a 6 pack with those plastic rings in AGES. I usually just get a 2 L and use a cup or buy a 12 or 24 box. I think that the 6 pack has sort of fallen by the wayside in some ways...

[Dante]

I really don't like litter... worst of all, I hate broken beer bottles.

Seriously, they should make Budweiser come out and clean all of the glass out of every river, street and park across this country. Don't tell me they didn't break the bottles, what type of idiot puts an intoxicating liquid that impairs people's judgment inside of a glass container... they've been breaking these things for years, so the statistics alone should prove it. At the very least, switch over to plastic bottles >_>.

[mechana2015]

so you'd prefer mountains of plastic bottles that can't biodegrade and would wash out to sea?

[ShiroiHikari]

My litter pet peeve is cigarette butts. Smoke to your heart's content, but stop throwing your effing cigarette butts all over the ground. How hard is it to put them in the trash? Geez.

Edit: Also, what mech said.

[Dante]

so you'd prefer mountains of plastic bottles that can't biodegrade and would wash out to sea?

Yep, I can toss that in any recycling bin in our neighborhood (we have two garbage pails next to each house, one for recycling one for regular trash) - glass stays there for months because it's shattered all over the place.

[Shao Feng-Li]

I really don't like litter... worst of all, I hate broken beer bottles.

Seriously, they should make Budweiser come out and clean all of the glass out of every river, street and park across this country. Don't tell me they didn't break the bottles, what type of idiot puts an intoxicating liquid that impairs people's judgment inside of a glass container... they've been breaking these things for years, so the statistics alone should prove it. At the very least, switch over to plastic bottles >_>.

I don't think alcohol works very well in plastic. There are some things you just don't do...

[Dante]

I don't think alcohol works very well in plastic. There are some things you just don't do...

It certainly seems to work just fine in a can . Don't like, then pour it in a glass - that way if you break it, you're most likely to do so in your OWN back yard - and you'll have to pay a pretty penny to replace the glass you broke.

Seriously, I shouldn't be suffering a world where I have to walk around a piece of glass every five steps in the park because they stick beer in glass bottles. There is, for instance, no reason they couldn't coat the inside of the plastic bottle with glass, aluminum or ceramic to avoid alcohol dissolving the plastic (or they could use pure polycarbonate and 40% or less alcohol (source) - first post by The Chemist ). Then if they broke the glass, it would be in a nice container so it wouldn't scatter all over the place.

Will it cost them more? Sure, not having a the world as your private dump certainly does. But it's an addiction based business, so their core customers will pay anything anyways, and they'll finally be making a product that takes some responsibility for how it ultimately ends up getting used. You might be able to accomplish the same end by sticking a $5 deposit on each glass bottle, that would encourage recycling and it would help curb stupidity.

Ultimately though, I don't care how they get it done, I don't care about the costs to them, but those of us that have nothing to do with them shouldn't be suffering on account of their profits.

[Nate]

so you'd prefer mountains of plastic bottles that can't biodegrade and would wash out to sea?

Psst, plastic actually biodegrades faster than glass. It's estimated that plastic bottles will take 1,000 years to biodegrade, and glass bottles would take one million years to biodegrade. So technically, plastic bottles are preferable to glass...although both of them are going to be around for a long time.

I remember being paranoid about those rings you have around six packs of soda choking fish and stuff when I was a kid (because of Captain Planet) so I would always cut them up and freak out if my brothers threw one in the trash without cutting them up. Then I realized I live miles from the ocean and none of our trash will ever end up there, and it was pointless. XD

[Shao Feng-Li]

Psst, plastic actually biodegrades faster than glass. It's estimated that plastic bottles will take 1,000 years to biodegrade, and glass bottles would take one million years to biodegrade. So technically, plastic bottles are preferable to glass...although both of them are going to be around for a long time.

I remember being paranoid about those rings you have around six packs of soda choking fish and stuff when I was a kid (because of Captain Planet) so I would always cut them up and freak out if my brothers threw one in the trash without cutting them up. Then I realized I live miles from the ocean and none of our trash will ever end up there, and it was pointless. XD

I wonder what people do when lightening makes glass on a sandy beach xD

It certainly seems to work just fine in a can . Don't like, then pour it in a glass - that way if you break it, you're most likely to do so in your OWN back yard - and you'll have to pay a pretty penny to replace the glass you broke.

Yum, aluminum flavored brew. Pascal, you must live around some cruddy parks.

(or they could use pure polycarbonate and 40% or less alcohol (source)

American beer is almost water as is man,

Companies already put their beers in metal and plastic anyway, so it's entirely up to the consumer about that glass litter XD For what it's worth, my malted beverage glass bottles end up in the garbage bins.

[Ante Bellum]

I thought "Iron Eyes" Cody was Italian.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

It certainly seems to work just fine in a can . Don't like, then pour it in a glass - that way if you break it, you're most likely to do so in your OWN back yard - and you'll have to pay a pretty penny to replace the glass you broke.

There's a world of a taste difference between beer in a can and beer in a glass bottle. I don't like beer from a can.

Though lately young white kids have been drinking more PBR as of late... hipsters *eyeroll*.

[Shao Feng-Li]

There's a world of a taste difference between beer in a can and beer in a glass bottle. I don't like beer from a can.

Though lately young white kids have been drinking more PBR as of late... hipsters *eyeroll*.

I don't get the PBR thing. Since when is cheap beer "cool"?

[Cardiche007]

There's a dumpster in the alley not far from where my front door is. Every week, like clockwork, a group of needy folk go into the dumpster searching for aluminum cans. The recycling center pays them. I don't know how much a can goes for in recycling trade but I'm glad someone cares enough to pay. Those cans are not biodegradable. Society also profits from folk who are a little less desperate in their circumstances. I suppose that's a double-win.

On other occasions, used condoms will just seamlessly appear here and there in the mornings. The more respectable ones set themselves at the head of the dumpster's trash pile. More brazen are those lurking in the parking lot around the corner; utterly shameless are the ones caught loitering near the playground in the recreational park a block or two away. I've lived in the town where I live for sometime. Long enough to see these things...

I can only add the presence of trash reflects a sort of moral or ethical decay in the fabric of society as a whole. The more garbage you see the greater the breakdown. Also some kinds of filth are more suggestive than others apparently are. That's my opinion anyways.

[ShiroiHikari]

I can only add the presence of trash reflects a sort of moral or ethical decay in the fabric of society as a whole. The more garbage you see the greater the breakdown. Also some kinds of filth are more suggestive than others apparently are. That's my opinion anyways.

I dunno about that.

[mechana2015]

Psst, plastic actually biodegrades faster than glass. It's estimated that plastic bottles will take 1,000 years to biodegrade, and glass bottles would take one million years to biodegrade. So technically, plastic bottles are preferable to glass...although both of them are going to be around for a long time.

I misstated that, I was meaning that it caused less damage to the environment, since it essentially grinds down to sand at the bottom of a river, rather than joining the great pacific trash pile.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I don't get the PBR thing. Since when is cheap beer "cool"?

Of all the cheap beers out there, it's considerably the best. Think of it as "high quality horse pee"

Speaking of which, didn't know you were a beer person. Interesting. =p

[Shao Feng-Li]

Of all the cheap beers out there, it's considerably the best. Think of it as "high quality horse pee"

Speaking of which, didn't know you were a beer person. Interesting. =p

Heh, kinda. I'm more of a vodka and fruit juice type person though Screwdrivers ftw and what not.

[Nate]

I don't get the PBR thing. Since when is cheap beer "cool"?

Hipsters like PBR because "It's pretty obscure, you probably haven't heard of it." In other words, it's not a major brand like Budweiser, Miller, or Coors. Also PBR doesn't put out many ads, so it's not "totally corporate, man."

[mechana2015]

LOL at not corporate... we had billboards by the school I work at pitching it to the frats.

[ShiroiHikari]

LOL at not corporate... we had billboards by the school I work at pitching it to the frats.

Hipsters are so gullible, aren't they?

[Warrior4Christ]

There's a world of a taste difference between beer in a can and beer in a glass bottle. I don't like beer from a can.

I agree - glass bottles are better. But plastic bottles are tolerable.

There's a dumpster in the alley not far from where my front door is. Every week, like clockwork, a group of needy folk go into the dumpster searching for aluminum cans. The recycling center pays them. I don't know how much a can goes for in recycling trade but I'm glad someone cares enough to pay. Those cans are not biodegradable. Society also profits from folk who are a little less desperate in their circumstances. I suppose that's a double-win.

For several decades, my state's given 5c for recycling cans/bottles. It's now 10c.

[Cardiche007]

I dunno about that.

It is not without a caveat. The more the trash and less the concern is not something that applies in all cases at all times. Analogous to this is a psychologist diagnosing a patient using the DSM. Just because a patient it manifests two or three signs or symptoms of a disorder does not mean they actually have the disorder in question. So too when considering the disposition of a litter-some community.

Generally speaking, it would sound logical to expect to see trash as a sign of poverty and moral decay in a community. Doesn't really apply in first world countries though. Even the most crime-ridden, poverty-stricken streets and hub-bubs in America (for example) get regular trash detail. Gradually, however, as you work your way down to poorer second and third world countries the trash becomes something more ominous and more telling.

Of course whether or not anyone believes poverty encourages people to engage in criminal activity is an issue for another thread perhaps. But as to whether trash signifies poverty, we can safely ask about that.

[Ally-Ann]

Litter's disgusting. Especially when I see people throw it out the window of their cars. That really irks me.

[Shao Feng-Li]

Hipsters like PBR because "It's pretty obscure, you probably haven't heard of it." In other words, it's not a major brand like Budweiser, Miller, or Coors. Also PBR doesn't put out many ads, so it's not "totally corporate, man."

Haha, yeah, it's not like Walmart even sells it. Oh wait.

[ashfire]

I don't know if this happens in other places but in Washington DC, stores, food places and any place that places sold items in a plastic or paper bag charge five cents for the bag which in turn goes to cleaning up the streets and waterways of the litter that is thrown on the streets.
Now there is a organization saying that the poor of Wash DC are being affected by this charge for a bag because they can't afford to pay for the food or items they bought because of the fives cents they pay for a bag. Some people are buying reuseable bag or some people are reusing plastic bags they already have when they go shopping or buy food but this can be a problem if bags are not cleaned and germs build up in reuseable or the reused bags.