That's what I've often thought while sitting on a local bus on the way to a mountain, (most often in non-western countries). Locals would buy a bottle of coke (vendors come sell it on the bus), and when it's empty, it's thrown out of the window, polluting the beautiful areas you're driving through.

As another example, I remember one bus driver who made a stop at a village, bought two plates with snack and coffee in a plastic cup. Once finished, threw it into the jungle next to the road. And he's probably doing that every day.

I've reacted in different pollite ways, but most often I was looked at by the passenger or driver as a crazy gringo, as if I was the bad guy on the bus. Most often it's even too late to react.

I was wondering how you react to such situations? Thanks

I would have the bus stop and go back and pick it up.

Throw the litter bug out the window along with his trash.

Maybe by thinking about the absurd amount of pollution and such caused by flying to a third world country to enjoy a vacation.

Our house in semi rural Virginia is on a six acre lot with frontage along a state road (two lane blacktop). We have a neighbor across the road with a similar property.

A few times a year, the neighbor and I walk along the frontage on both sides filling up a trashbag or two with the stuff that has been thrown from passing cars. You would not believe the things people toss out their windows.

Here's a partial list of some the more interesting items we have picked up over the years:

* Dirty diapers
* Glock Owners manual
* Full bag of concrete mix
* Unopened six pack of Budweiser (can't blame anyone for throwing that away!)
* bouquet of a dozen red roses in a glass vase
* plastic bag containing several picture frames

Just yesterday, I was sitting in my car right next to my son's high school, waiting for him to come out of the locker room after his baseball game. There was a truck parked across the street, a bit "blingy," if you know what I mean. Anyway, they were apparently buds or brother and friends, of another guy on the team, and they were waiting for him.
While they were waiting, they were eating their just purchased fast food. The driver would finish an item, and then proceeded to throw each wrapper, catsup packet, etc. etc. out his window. The other side of his car is residential, mix of craftsman style homes, etc.
I watched in disbelief as the pile grew outside his door. Finally, the player they were waiting for walked out. I decided to act, walked over, and asked him what was going on, and if he thought the street was his private trashcan. He smiled, made some jokes about the "little one throwing it out,"(a toddler in the back), and then got out, saying he was sorry, acting like it was a big joke, and did pick most of it up. Jeez. High schoolers. . . though they're not all like that, though.
I was thinking I'd call the cops and report him for pollution if he drove off, though. Ugly.

I experienced the same thing in Nepal. in spite of seeing a few clean-up efforts, there's a ton of plastic that just gets tossed without a blink or a thought.

I would step out on a ledge (if I could!) and say that these folks have been living for so long without plastics, trash . . . you gotta think that most of what they grow, eat and use, for a long time has all been natural and bio-degradeable . . . it's like they are just used to tossing the food scraps (although I doubt they have many "scraps") in certain places.

Now they are introduced to all this junk wrapped in plastics and so on and it's just like the banana peel . . . no one has got round to educating the people that this stuff, is trash. it's dangerous to you and your water supply, your farms and so on . . . to them it's just another peel to toss out.

adventurer wrote:Here's a partial list of some the more interesting items we have picked up over the years:

* Dirty diapers
* Glock Owners manual
* Full bag of concrete mix
* Unopened six pack of Budweiser (can't blame anyone for throwing that away!)
* bouquet of a dozen red roses in a glass vase
* plastic bag containing several picture frames

Glock manual. Classic. Did you keep it?

Think the concrete mix and the sixpack fell off the bed of the same truck?

Roses in a vase? Someone didn't get any that night...

Where I live the bears collect all of my neighbors trash and deposit it in my woods. It is odd knowing what junk they eat and what prescription drugs they all take...

Well I guess "Lady Bird Johnson"- Did get the American people to look at our beautiful nation and to clean up our act.

To bad other cultures can't see this.

That is why I have zero faith that developing nations will devote any money to stopping or reducing their "carbon footprint."

If they won't clean up the ugly stuff they can see what makes you think they are going to spend money cleaning up something that is invisible?

Dougb wrote:

adventurer wrote:Our house in semi rural Virginia is on a six acre lot with frontage along a state road (two lane blacktop). We have a neighbor across the road with a similar property.

A few times a year, the neighbor and I walk along the frontage on both sides filling up a trashbag or two with the stuff that has been thrown from passing cars. You would not believe the things people toss out their windows.

Here's a partial list of some the more interesting items we have picked up over the years:

* Dirty diapers
* Glock Owners manual
* Full bag of concrete mix
* Unopened six pack of Budweiser (can't blame anyone for throwing that away!)
* bouquet of a dozen red roses in a glass vase
* plastic bag containing several picture frames

Here's a partial list of interesting things I've found at my property over the past few years:
* $1 bill
* $10 bill
* dead desert tortoise
* dead human being
* tons of trash

Didn't your list include a motorcycle as well?

I live off a fairly busy road in an area of homes with large acreage and no sidewalks. People think no one notices! Here's some of what we have found over the years:

---burnt sparklers (illegal in our state though)
---lots of broken beer bottles (which must be picked up before mowing)
---a box of unopened Girl Scout mint cookies
---a jock strap

And best of all, an abandoned car.

It hit the pole in our yard knocking out our electricity on Christmas Eve while we were entertaining 20 family members including 2 babies! The police caught the drunk driver staggering down the road about twenty minutes later. We were still picking windshield glass out of our yard for a year.

i chuck banana peels and apple cores

scottmitch wrote:i chuck banana peels and apple cores

I do too, but only in farmers fields. There's plenty of those around where I live. I wouldn't throw it in someones front lawn or in or near a suburbia.

Do police really enforce this stuff. I haven't heard of any stories of where people get fined for this stuff.

I was heading up a steep canyon in Red Rock outside Las Vegas. Above were areas used by trad climbers.

My friends were joking because I had lunged and hit a rock, knocking myself out, on the same route 1 year before. That time I had fallen, unconscious, about 25' and landed on the top of a waterfall.

Suddenly I slipped on a banana peel that had been thrown down from the rock climbing area above. I can't imagine a weirder place to slip on a banana peel. Probably 10 people go through that canyon a year, at most. Probably the climbers thought, "well, it's biodegradable!"